The north remembers

IN Saxon times, the north of the UK, from Edinburgh to York, was covered by more than 100,000 acres of primeval forest that was a happy hunting ground of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Part of the forest came close to the Roman city of York, from where it extended to the north, west and east as far as the River Derwent.

Here, close to the river on rising ground in a large clearing in the forest, stands the ancient village of Bossall, named after the late-7th-century bishop Bosa of York, who reputedly built a church dedicated to St Botolph on the site of the present Grade I-listed village church. Here, too, was a double-moated enclosure surrounding one