Landmark in Time
The world of the Wittenham Clumps
Sold out – last few copies available
from Wallingford Bookshop
Starting out from the well-loved Oxfordshire landmark known as the Wittenham Clumps, Landmark in Time tells the stories that fall within view of the two small hills described by the artist Paul Nash as ‘the pyramids of my small world’.
‘A book for all
who delight in the stories
our landscape has to offer’
With a novelist’s eye for narrative, and starting always from the Clumps, Peter Adamson takes us on a journey that leads from Colonial Massachusetts to the Indian Punjab, from the Antarctic Ice Barrier to the trenches of the Western Front, from the rise of the Red Kite to the future of the Chiltern’s beeches. Along the way, we come across a quiet village rectory that helped bring about the American Revolution, a peaceful farmhouse that gave us some of the greatest literature of war, a 1960s council estate with a glamorous past, a building that houses temperatures greater than the centre of the sun, and a local Manor House that became the stage for one of the most celebrated literary affairs of the twentieth century.
Reader comments
“What a fascinating, generous treasure-trove of history and stories … all connecting back to the Clumps. Brimming with intriguing revelations linking famous names (and infamous antics) and historically pivotal events and decisions to the very ground here under our feet. Often thought-provoking, occasionally a gentle call to conscience, in lucidly elegant prose and even – in one particularly touching instance – poetry, I devoured it. The view from the Clumps from now on will be so much richer in detail, definition and colour – what a gift to the locality.” David Gentleman, Dorchester
“Not only are the stories fascinating, the manner in which they are told is wonderfully light, witty and conversational.” Oscar O’Connor, Dorchester
Such a lovely idea to use the landmark as a departure point for such diverse stories. Really thought-provoking and enjoyable. Catherine Cook, Cray’s Pond
“The only book that has held my full attention in years.” Chris Charlesworth, Cholsey
“An inspirational journey of keen observation and research and one I don’t want to end.” Sally Worsley, Wallingford
Sold out – last few copies available
from Wallingford Bookshop
Contents
Part 1: A step away from a story …
A landmark in time
At the time of their first planting, the saplings that would become the Wittenham Clumps looked down on a country that was getting ready to lead the world into the modern era.
The right stuff
He inherited the Manor of Little Wittenham at the age of twenty-four, travelled with Scott to the South Pole, and was haunted all his life by the decision he took, alone, on the edge of the Great Ice Barrier.
A frail grip on the earth
Gratitude to our glorious beech trees, memories of their role in a great aesthetic controversy, and fears for their future.
A Roman road to reality
It was the first new village to be built in England for two hundred years but quickly became known as a ‘problem estate’. Recovering, Berinsfield better represents life in our country today than the ancient villages around the Wittenham Clumps.
A layer of woollen air
Memorial benches have been placed at many a well-loved spot around the Wittenham Clumps, but the fine stands of spiny teasels are also a memorial – to an industry, and to a man.
The man who lost America
He was born a vicar’s son in a village below the Wittenham Clumps and became Governor first of New Jersey and then of Massachusetts, where he helped turn a tax protest into the American Revolution.
No glimmer of God’s hand
The story of Paul Nash, artist of the Wittenham Clumps and the battlefields of Flanders.
Part 2: Life may be cheered …
Tubb, or not Tubb
On a summer evening in 1844, a middle-aged man propped a ladder against a tree on the Wittenham Clumps, took out a penknife, and began carving what would become known to future generations as ‘The Poem Tree’.
Love at first click
Shockingly, the couple holding hands as they stroll up Round Hill have not even been properly introduced. From coming out to swiping right – the changing rules of courtship and romance.
Power viewing
Dawn explosions bring down the cooling towers of a power station while wind turbines turn silently on a distant ridge and a fusion reactor generates temperatures greater than the centre of the sun – all within view from Round Hill.
Thinking on your feet
Almost all visitors to the Wittenham Clumps for the exercise. But why have so many philosophers, poets and writers believed that we also think better on our feet?
Beware of the yellow waistcoat
On the dog-walkers of the Wittenham Clumps, an Oxford Professor whose bark was better than his bite, and how the wolf managed to re-brand itself as man’s best friend.
Of hedgerows and hedge funds
The miles of harmless hedgerows to be seen from the Clumps seem to divide only quiet fields. Two hundred years ago, they divided a nation.
Part 3: The point of daffodils…
Petal power
Poets may spurn a scientific approach to beauty, but the wildflowers of the Wittenham Clumps are only the more wonderful for reading Loren Eiseley’s classic 1957 essay ‘How flowers changed the world’.
So great a beauty on these English fields
He came to live on these Downs for their beauty and tranquillity. But here, the man who was to become Poet Laureate wrote one of the great poems of the First World War.
The wind beneath its wings
The red kites again ride the skies over the Wittenham Clumps, proclaiming a conservation success story. Looking down tells a different story.
The gift that kept on giving
Half a dozen parish churches may be seen from the Clumps. Is there a Mr Collins down there, fawning over a wealthy patron? Or a Septimus Harding wondering if he is entitled to his income?
The sermon on the Clumps
A tree metaphor that went wrong – and the discovery that trees can send and receive messages, redistribute resources, and look after each other via a wood wide web.
An affair to forget
The story of how the Manor of Little Wittenham became the stage for one of the most celebrated literary affairs of the twentieth century.
Part 4: On a clear day…
A history of England as seen from Wittenham Clumps
From the Iron Age hill fort to the Harwell Science Campus, from the Romans Saxons, and Vikings to the arrival of the Conqueror, from the tombs of the Black Death to the ravages of the Civil War, from the Glorious Revolution to the coming of the Great Western Railway, from grim determination of ‘Stop Line Red’ to the dawning of D-Day, the view from the Wittenham Clumps encompasses six thousand years of our island’s history.