Talk:Repton

Untitled

Place of Kings Victuallers 12:54, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

There is no way Reptons Population is 242 - I live there! Anyone know the actual figure? Minardi 22:04, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Repton, Alabama

I have just discovered that there is a place called Repton in Alabama, so I have added it to the top of this article. But with the list growing, there's possibly a case for a Repton disambiguation page. What do other editors think? Cheers Paul20070 22:12, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Martin's Biddle's excavations at Repton

Between the mid 1970s and the mid-late 1980s Professor Martin Biddle and his wife, Birthe, ran several seasons of excavations in the village. Excavations took place at a number of sites in the school, formerly a mediaeval abbey and before that a Saxon abbey, at the east beyond the end of the chancel, next to the Saxon mausoleum, and in the rectory garden. In addition the late Professor Harold Taylor made a study of the fabric of the parish church.

Major discoveries included: -a deep cutting within the school grounds, which Prof. Biddle originally interpreted as a harbour for long ships, but which may well be the outer ditch of a mediaeval motte and bailey castle destroyed in the civil wars of the 12th century. -an extensive sequence of Saxon burials next to the chancel of the parish church. -the mound in the rectory garden had been marked by a number of burials (sacrifices?) and by four pyres. It contained the remains of a large number of humans. These were mainly male and had well developed musculature. Biddle believed them to be the remains of a Great Danish army that spent the winter in Repton in the mid-8th century. The bones of the dead had been placed in the remains of a Saxon stone chapel (one which was on the same alignment as the present parish church) before being buried under the mound. -The present church, the Danish burial mound/Saxon chapel were found to have been contained in a large ‘D’-shaped enclosure located beside the Trent.

The tragedy of this all is that although fragments of these discoveries have been published, in outline form, there has been no overall publication of these discoveries. Moreover with passing years it looks increasingly unlikely that an overall narrative will ever appear. Professor Taylor passed away some time ago, and Birthe Biddle died more recently after a long illness. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.50.184.130 (talk) 09:00, 4 June 2010 (UTC)