Hoxne: Difference between revisions

'''Hoxne''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|ɒ|k|s|ən}} {{respell|HOK|sən}}) is an anciently-establisheda village in the [[Mid Suffolk]] district of [[Suffolk]], England, about five miles (8 km) east-southeast of [[Diss, Norfolk|Diss]], Norfolk and {{convert|1/2|mi|m}} south of the [[River Waveney]]. The parish is irregularly shaped, covering the villages of Hoxne, Cross Street and Heckfield Green, with a 'tongue' extending southwards to take in part of the former [[RAF Horham]] airfield.

In 1797, [[John Frere]] (1740-1807) found flint hand tools twelve feet deep in [[Hoxne Brick Pit]], and he was the first person to recognise ancient tools as being man-made. One of his [[hand axe]]s is in the [[British Museum]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://culturalinstitute.britishmuseum.org/asset-viewer/hoxne-handaxe/QQHLEInZfSGV2g?hl=en|title=Hoxne handaxe|publisher=British Museum|access-date= 3 July 2017}}</ref> His letter to the [[Society of Antiquaries of London|Society of Antiquaries]], read on 22 June 1797 and published in the Society's journal ''Archaeologia'' in 1800, argued for the antiquity of these [[handaxes]] as "even beyond the present world," in a period now recognised as belonging to the Lower [[Paleolithic Age]]. Frere argued that these "weapons" were coincident with nearby extinct elephant fossils, in strata at the site of what is now known to be a [[Middle Pleistocene]] lake formed during the [[Hoxnian Stage|Great Interglacial]] geological warming period in Europe. Accordingly, in Britain that entire period is called "Hoxnian," signifying its identification there, based on evidence from undisturbed layers of pollens from plants and trees found at Frere's site in the 1950s (notably by [[Richard Gilbert West]]), which established the cycle of warming and cooling and defined the stages of the Great Interglacial.<ref>[[Chris Stringer]], ''Homo Britannicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain'' (London: 2006)</ref> Teams headed by the [[University of Chicago]] made extensive excavations at Frere's site for five years between 1971 and 1978.<ref>Ronald Singer et al., ''The Lower Paleolithic Site at Hoxne, England'' (Chicago: [[University of Chicago Press]], 1993).</ref> They confirmed the date of the handaxes as ca 400,000 years BP, coincident with the [[Swanscombe]] finds, which, unlike the Hoxne, include human remains. Subsequent research by the [[Ancient Human Occupation of Britain]] team has confirmed the presence of these ancestors of the Neanderthals as occurring towards the terminal, cooling phase of the Interglacial period, which, according to [[Chris Stringer]], "came to an end,...taking with it the lush river valleys, forests and grasslands on which the herds of horses and deer, and their hunters, relied. Ice sheets returned...to the north-west of Europe...and a new pattern of episodic occupation was set in motion," lasting over three hundred thousand years.<ref>Stringer, ''Homo Britannicus'', pp. 90f.</ref> Hoxne Brick Pit is a geological [[Site of Special Scientific Interest]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1004410.pdf |title=Hoxne Brick Pit citation|series= Sites of Special Scientific Interest|publisher=Natural England|access-date= 3 July 2017|archive-date=5 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505003444/http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1004410.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx?startTopic=Designations&activelayer=sssiIndex&query=HYPERLINK%3D%271004410%27 |title=Map of Hoxne Brick Pit|series= Sites of Special Scientific Interest|publisher=Natural England|access-date= 3 July 2017}}</ref> but it has been filled in and a house been built on part of it.

The Hoxne Hoard, found in 1992, is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth century found anywhere within the Roman Empire. Only fourteen years after the last dig by the University of Chicago team, on the same farm, only a few hundred metersmetres south along the road, the Hoxne Hoard was discovered by a metal detectorist on 16 November 1992. The Hoard consists of 14,865 Roman gold, silver and bronze coins from the late fourth and early fifth centuries and approximately 200 items of silver tableware and gold jewelry.<ref>{{citation | last1=Bland | first1=Roger | last2=Johns | first2=Catherine | year=1993b | title=The Hoxne treasure : an illustrated introduction |publisher= [[British Museum|British Museum Press]] | isbn=978-0-7141-2301-1 |name-list-style=amp | page=169}}</ref> These objects are now in the [[British Museum]] in London, where the most important pieces and a selection of the rest are on permanent display. In 1993, the Treasure Valuation Committee valued the hoard at £1.75 million (today £2.66 million).

The village is also home to a 15th Century-century Grade II* listed lodge, formerly known as Bishops' Lodge, built in 1480 by the [[Henry le Despencer|Bishop of Norwich]]. It is today a popular pub, The Swan.

ItA islocal saidtradition thatconcerns the death of [[Edmund the Martyr|Saint Edmund]], King of [[East Anglia]],. It is said he hid under Goldbrook Bridge to elude the pursuing [[Danes|Dane]]s. A newly married couple saw the king's gold spurs and gave his location away to his enemies. According to the legend, Saint Edmund put a curse on all couples who cross the bridge on their way to get married.<ref>Anthony D. Hippisley Coxe, ''Haunted Britain'', pg. 105, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York 1973</ref>

* After defending his people with great valour, Edmund was at last defeated in a battle fought near Hoxne in Suffolk. Being hotly pursued, he concealed himself under a bridge called Gold-bridge. The glittering of his golden spurs discovered him to a newly- married couple who were returning home by moonlight, and the bride betrayed him to his enemies.

* [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/7864.ctl Hoxne site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909144353/http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/7864.ctl |date=9 September 2006 }} of the [[Lower Paleolithic]]]

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070602074402/http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/visit/stedmund.cfm Hoxne claim to martyrdom site] of [[Edmund the Martyr|Saint Edmund]]]