Arthur's Last Battle

In 1963, John Evan gave an account of what is known from Nennius about the Arthurian campaign against the Saxons, and put forward his reasons for thinking that this campaign might well have taken place in Kent. In the previous campaign (AD 455-473) the Saxons had been fought at the river crossings along the Roman roads but although we have the names of the sites of the ten battles of the Arthurian campaign, it has proved impossible to identify these from Nennius' obscure terminology, though again it seems possible that some were fought along the roads and river crossings, i.e. places where armies could have easy access.

The last battle of the campaign was noted by Nennius as taking place at Mount Badon (which he names as Badonis or Hadonis) and was an overwhelming victory for the Kings of the Britons, led by Arthur, who was described as Dux bellorum.

After such an important victory, it seemed just possible that folk memory might have preserved the site for a while and (without too much hope) it seemed just worth while to look at Domesday Book for this. The names of sites in this are often very different from the modern spelling of the same name and the English translation gives no obvious help, but a final look through the original version found the name staring at me - HADONE (which in the modern English version had been concealed as "Haven"), being two small portions, both leased out by the 'Bishop of Bayeux', together forming land for 1'/2 ploughs, with 6 acres of pasture. 'Hadon fee' has long been a part of the Cobham Hall Estate, lying just to the South of Watling Street with an ancient trackway leading to it from Cobham, which still bears the name of Battle Street. The local name for the Hadon area is 'The Mount.'

I should add that a bit further to the West on the other side of Watling Street lies Claylane Wood, where in 1825 skeletons clad in armour of leather and metal were dug up, but as the skeletons were re-buried there and the Mayor of Gravesend melted down the armour, we have no evidence about the origin of these, and the most popular opinion seems to be that they probably dated from the time of the Civil War.

However, I suggest that the Mount at Cobham requires serious consideration in terms of the site of Mount Badon. The Mount lies in the proposed line for the proposed high-speed rail-link, so that any disturbance of the land surface there ought to be accompanied by a very serious archaeological survey.

J. F. D. Frazer