136 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



In the road map of England there is no such striking 

 feature as the Foss Way, which runs in almost a straight 

 line from Cornwall to the mouth of the Humber. Its 

 importance in the Roman occupation of the country is 

 obvious. It is probable that the historical interest which 

 thus attaches to it is increased in our own part of the 

 Kingdom by the part it played in determining the original 

 settlements o( our English forefathers. 



Upon the Coin Valley and its neighbourhood the Danes 

 have left a more lasting impress than upon any other 

 district of like size in Gloucestershire. Elsewhere in the 

 county, with two or three exceptions, the Danish inva- 

 sions were mere plundering expeditions. In and around 

 the Coin Valley the invasions resulted in permanent 

 settlements. 



The earhest record of a Danish connection with Glou- 

 cestershire is that in 855 Burhred, King of the Mercians, 

 brother-in-law of Alfred the Great, granted to a Danish 

 bishop Alhun and his family, at Worcester, certain 

 property in Ablington and the surrounding parishes of 

 Barnsley, Poulton and Eisey. Twenty-two years later the 

 Danish army first planted their feet in the county, and, 

 despite a desperate resistance from the citizens, success- 

 fully attacked Gloucester, and settled within its walls. 

 At the beginning of the following year the Danish host, 

 as the Chronicle says, " rode through the West Saxons' 

 land, and there sat down, and mickle of the folk over sea 

 they drove, and of the others the most deal they rode 

 over." In the spring of the same year (878) Alfred 

 defeated them in the great battle of Ethandun, near Trow- 

 bridge ; in the following year the Danish army went from 

 Chippenham to Cirencester, where they " sat " for a year, 

 and in 880, under the treaty of Wedmore, the Danish 

 army left Gloucestershire and never afterwards came 

 within its borders. 



