12 Bradford-upon-Avon. 
Its site was most probably near the north-east end of the present 
Church, a spot of ground there still bearing the name of the Abbey 
yard. It is just possible that a portion of what is now the Charity 
or Free School formed part of it, for you can see, at a glance, that 
what is now the entrance to the School is a modern addition to a 
more ancient building. Further and more careful investigation 
may enable us to speak more confidently than we wish to speak at 
present of the probable date and original purpose of this building. 
The ancient part of it, when severed from the modern additions 
with which it is hemmed in, assumes the shape of aChurch or Chapel, 
with its Nave, Chancel, and North Porch: and it stands east and 
west. In opening the ground immediately adjoining the building 
for drainage or other purposes, stone coffins have been discovered, 
thus identifying the surrounding site as a place of sepulture. 
Within the building, moreover, there are the remains of an arch 
just at the point where, if our hypothesis be true, there would 
be an entrance from the nave to the chancel. All, however, that 
we will venture for the present to say, is, that we certainly here 
have the remains of very early, possibly of pre-Norman, work. 
Several well versed in architectural knowledge have felt no dif- 
ficulty in pronouncing it to be one of the most ancient, and conse- 
quently most interesting, buildings in Wiltshire. 
From a.p. 850—950. 
During the next century, Bradford rose to be a place of some 
importance. Whether we were ever favoured with a visit from 
Alfred, that greatest of English kings, the Chroniclers do not tell 
us. He was often in our neighbourhood, and fought some of his 
most decisive battles against the Danes at no very great distance from 
this spot. This, however, we know for certain, that within about 
50 years of his death, a great council of the ““ Wytan” was held at 
Bradford, at which Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury, one of the best 
endowed of the religious houses, was appointed Bishop of Wor- 
cester. In those early days prelates were nominated to vacant sees 
by the king and his great council, the ‘‘ Witena-gemote.” The latter 
body comprised many of the most eminent of the clergy, and the 
