Liddington Hill is an English national monument located in Swindon. It is considered a national heritage site alongside the Liddington Castle, and was first listed a such in 1925. It was designated with this importance because of its archaeological potential to increase “understanding the transition between the Bronze Age and Iron Age.” Specifically, Liddington Hill and Liddington Castle have the potential to provide “archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, the economy of its inhabitants and the landscape in which they lived” (Historic England). Physically, the hill is, “sub-trapezoidal in plan and consists of a bank, ditch and counterscarp bank following the natural contours of the hill and enclosing an internal area of approximately 3 hectares” (Heritage Gateway). While a creditable citation could not be found to back this up, multiple sources claim Liddington Hill is the highest point in Swindon, England.

In The Eyre Affair, Liddington Hill is the location of the Earthcrossers gathering. Thursday Next notes herself that, “the low hill is also home to an Iron Age fort” however, the group claims it is not the “antiquity of the site” that attracts them (Fforde 243). This aside from Next is typical of the overall diction of the novel. In a sort of tongue-in-cheek manner, Next pokes fun at the Earthcrossers for their pseudo-mystical reasons for meeting. As Liddington Hill is possibly the highest point in Swindon, it is more than reasonable to assume that this would be a great location for the Earthcrossers to meet. Despite this, they claim that they meet there instead, “following the peculiar predictions of their calling in an apparently random fashion” (Fforde 243). The conflict in information allows the reader to infer that the group are silly and fanciful, as most things are in the novel. Given the absurdness of the group and their connection to planetary conspiracy theory, this could also be Fforde’s way of poking fun at Flat Earthers himself.  

Works Cited:

Fforde, Jasper. The Eyre Affair. Penguin Books, 2001.

Heritage Gateway. “Historic England Research Records: Liddington Castle” Heritage Gateway. 2012. https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=225113&resourceID=19191. Accessed 17 April 2022.

Historic England. “Liddington Castle” Historic England. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1016312?section=official-list-entry. Accessed 17 April 2022.

Webb, Jonathan C.K. “Liddington Castle Bronze Age Hillfort Aerial Photograph” 2016. https://www.webbaviation.co.uk/aerial/picture.php?/2787. Accessed 17 April 2022.

m