One of the pleasures of history and archaeology is that you can never know the whole picture. For all the howls of frustrations from certain groups who complain about ‘rewriting our history’: that’s what historians and archaeologists do. All the time. It’s our role. New evidence comes to light, new theories develop. And there’s no such thing as the final, definitive story.

A reminder of this came the other day when we joined a Chiltern Society walk along Bledlow Ridge. The walk leader was Dr Wendy Morrison of Chilterns National Landscape (as she put it, ‘the artist formerly known as Chilterns AONB’). Dr Morrison heads the Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership (CHAP).

The immediate area’s most famous landmark is the Whiteleaf Cross near Princes Risborough. However, a new heritage trail opening this autumn will introduce visitors to the Bledlow Cross. We shan’t steal Dr Morrison’s thunder (as a certain fictional archaeologist would say: ‘Spoilers…’) Suffice it for now to say that the name Bledlow may mean ‘Bledda’s burial mound’…