Springalls woodland has almost 2000 years of history in the form of a potential roman fort. A Henry III record records a grant of land from the King to William of Huntercombe. It mentions Aldebire which is old English for Ancient Fort. It means that in the Time of Henry III it was old. Possibly part of the burgh system established by King Alfred or more likely a Roman marching camp that went into long term use. There is some evidence that a Roman road once ran from Henley on Thames, along the Fairmile, and onward towards Dorchester passing straight through the fort along a lane now known as Digberry Lane. Digberry is name derived from an old Saxon word meaning fort. What makes it especially interesting is that one of the fields just below it in the valley over which it looks is a field called bods dean ( taken from the tithe maps . This would be an old English version of Bods vale or Bodonicus vale. And if the valley was called Badonicus, the the hill would have been called Mons Badonicus. The siege of Mons Badonicus is mentioned in a book by Gildas a 6th century writer and one of the very few contemporary writers from the dark ages for which we still have a record off. Gildas wrote that the siege of Mons Badonicus was a victory for the British that held back the Saxon advance for 50 years.
The site has never been properly investigated and could well have locked in its soil evidence of an important part in the history of Britain.
It is currently unprotected and the woodland is being sold off in building sized plots so any one of these plot buyers could potentially destroy an important part of our heritage.
