Alfred the Great and an 'Unlucky' Twelfth Night

Chippenham is a Saxon town and in front of you is Chippenham Museum, housed in an 18th century townhouse built on what is believed to be the site of King Alfred the Great’s hunting lodge. The earliest reference to Chippenham is in 853 as a royal residence – villa regia – in which Burgred, the Mercian king, married the daughter of Aethelwulf, king of the West Saxons. Travel back in time and you may have been standing in the middle of a royal Saxon estate, surrounded by forest and farmland, perhaps near to a palace or possibly a small town with marketplace and a minster. The town’s defences would have included the River Avon and possibly some fortifications. But only you would know – present-day historians cannot agree on what the town looked like! While there are plenty of written records about Chippenham, there is surprisingly little archaeological evidence.

We do know that Alfred was here for Christmas in 877 having just signed a peace treaty with the Danes, or so he thought. But on 6th January 878 a Danish army, led by Guthrum the Unlucky, attacked Alfred and this time fortune favoured the Danes. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records: “The force stole in midwinter, after Twelfthnight, to Chippenham. They rode over Wessex and occupied it, and drove many of the people over the sea; the other, greater part they overcame.” Alfred beat a hasty retreat to Somerset but later that year took the fight to Guthrum at Ethandune (Edington) and won a great victory. He pursued the Danes back to Chippenham and following a 14 day siege a treaty was finally agreed – the Danes would leave Wessex and Guthrum would be baptised.

Pop into Chippenham Museum to discover more of the town’s history.