William of Worcester's Chronicle of England

William of Worcester, born around 1415, and died around 1482 was secretary to John Fastolf, the renowned soldier of the Hundred Years War, during which time he collected documents, letters, and wrote a record of events. Following their return to England in 1440 William was witness to major events. Twice in his chronicle he uses the first person: 1. when writing about the murder of Thomas, 7th Baron Scales, in 1460, he writes '… and I saw him lying naked in the cemetery near the porch of the church of St. Mary Overie in Southwark …' and 2. describing King Edward IV's entry into London in 1461 he writes '… proclaimed that all the people themselves were to recognize and acknowledge Edward as king. I was present and heard this, and immediately went down with them into the city'. William’s Chronicle is rich in detail. It is the source of much information about the Wars of the Roses, including the term 'Diabolical Marriage' to describe the marriage of Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s brother John’s marriage to Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, he aged twenty, she sixty-five or more, and the story about a paper crown being placed in mockery on the severed head of Richard, 3rd Duke of York.

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Cushion Stones

Cushion Stones is in Tools.

Cushion Stones are belived to have acted as a portable anvil for copper working.

The Amesbury Archer [Map] is the remains of a man aged around forty at the time of his death from the Alps who was buried in Amesbury around 2300BC and discovered in May 2002 during the development of new housing. He is named 'The Archer' as a consequence of the large number of arrowheads found with him. His grave contained the largest number of artefacts of any grave of a similar period including the earliest known gold objects in England, five beaker funerary pots, three tiny copper knives, sixteen barbed flint arrowheads, a kit of flint-knapping, metalworking tools including cushion stones and some boar tusks. On his forearm was a black stone wrist guard. A similar red wrist guard was by his knees with a shale belt ring and a pair of earrings, the oldest gold objects found in England. An eroded hole in his jaw showed that he had suffered from an abscess, and his missing left kneecap suggests that he had an injury that left him with a painful lingering bone infection. His remains are on display in the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum [Map].

The Amesbury Archer's Companion is the remains of a man raised locally aged between twenty-five and thirty at the time of his death buried around 2300BC near to the Amesbury Archer. He appears to be related to the Amesbury Archer as they shared a rare hereditary anomaly, calcaneonavicular coalition, fusing of the calcaneus and of the navicular tarsal (foot bones). Inside his jaw were found a pair of gold earrings or hair ornaments in the same style as the Amesbury Archer's.

Photos sourced from Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum [Map] and Wessex Archaeology.