King Alfred
Not quite a local boy (born in Wantage not Wrantage), but he certainly spent an important time of his life here.
Born in 849, Alfred was the fifth son of King Aethelwulf of the West Saxons. After defeating the other kingdoms in what is now England, in 870 AD, the Danes attacked the only remaining independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Wessex, whose forces were commanded by Alfred's older brother, King Aethelred, and Alfred himself.
Although Alfred had beaten the Vikings in an uphill assault at the battle of Ashdown in the following year, the Vikings were not going away. When Aethelred died, the 21-year-old Alfred became King of Wessex and, therefore, the leader of the resistance against the Vikings. King Guthrum's Danes took Chippenham in Wiltshire, in 878, and used it as their base for further attacks in the area.
Alfred was almost without allies, except Aethelnoth earldorman of Somerset, and had only a small group of fighters - his royal bodyguard and a small army of thegns. Some say he hid in the Somerset tidal marshes, but at the time the Isle of Athelney was a strategic site fot monitoring and controlling the traffic in the area, which was almost totally on water. Alfred devised new tactics, partly based on his experience of the Danes' fighting methods. He set up a fortified base at Athelney, which was named Ethelingaeigge. One translation of the name is 'AEthelinga ieg', which may mean 'Island of the Princes', suggesting that the island already had links to the royal family of Wessex before Alfred's time, and,as a child, he may well have hunted here with his father. This depiction was created by an anonymous artist. All we know is that he or she once worked at County Hall, Taunton.
From here he directed a guerilla campaign, with fighters from Wiltshire, Somerset and Hampshire. He may well have also had support, either in warriors or food supplies from three of our earliest known local families. Most of what is now the parish of Stoke St Gregory was probably still broadleaf forest, hunting grounds of the king and his earls. However the sanstone ridge overlooking West Sedgemoor contained three early settlements. These were the homesteads of the Hunta family (Huntham), The Scearp family (Sharpham), and the Pynk family (now Pincombe).
At the battle of Edington in 878, his army defeated the Danes and chased them back to Chippenham. The Vikings sought peace and Alfred sponsored King Guthrum's baptism. Alfred succeeded in freeing London in 886 and made the treaty of Wedmore with Guthrum and the East Anglians.
In St Gregory’s Church we find Alfred, along with St Gregory (who sent Augustine to convert the heathen Saxons, starting with King Ethelbert of Kent). They are the main figures in the majestic stained glass window in the North wall of our church.
The high ground in our village would have been the nearest dry forest to the Athelney fortress, abounding with game. Who knows if Alfred himself might have hunted wild boar along what is now Woodhill?