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Somerford Keynes () is a small village in Gloucestershire, close to the River Thames and Thames Path about five miles from its source and in the Cotswold Water Park. It is on the boundary with Wiltshire midway between Cirencester, Swindon and Malmesbury.The population of the village taken at the 2011 census was 479. The first beavers to be born in Britain for 400 years were born at Lower Mill in the summer of 2008.〔Christopher Winn: ''I Never Knew That about the River Thames'' (London: Ebury Press, 2010), p. 5.〕 Somerford Keynes is also the name of a character in the Rutshire Chronicles books by Jilly Cooper. ==History== A series of salvage excavations at Spratsgate Lane from 1986 to 1988, before the creation of the Cotswold Water Park, revealed part of an Iron Age and Roman settlement at Somerford Keynes. The earliest features discovered comprised a series of curvilinear enclosures dating from the early 1st century AD to the early 2nd century AD, which may have been part of a farmstead. A religious focus is also hinted at by an unusually large number of coins and brooches, which may have been votive deposits. Stone sculptural fragments were found of an eagle and a shield. These may have belonged to a representation of the Roman Capitoline triad (The gods Jupiter, Juno and Minerva), and therefore point to an official religious presence. The village is first mentioned in writing in AD 685. A charter in that year confirmed a gift of 40 hides of land by King Ethelred's nephew Bertwald, to St Aldhelm, the first abbot of Malmesbury. The manor was held in 1211 by William de Cahaignes, an ancestor of the Keynes family. The village has a flourishing history group, details of which appear in the external link below. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Somerford Keynes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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