Tin cakes

He was defeated many times before he managed to drive them out. It is about one of his defeats that the story of the burning cakes is told.

The story describes how King Alfred was wandering when he came to a hut and asked for some food.

The old woman there let him look after the cakes baking on the hearth while she went out but Alfred was thinking so hard about how to defeat the Danes that he let the cakes burn, for which she scolded him severely, not knowing he was the King.

Alfred ruled a kingdom called Wessex, the part of England south of the Thames.

The Danes had already over-run the rest of the country and at first the armies of Wessex were defeated by them too.

Alfred was forced to pay them a large sum of money and in return they agreed to go away.

In spite of this, they came back a few years later but Alfred was ready for them. In 878 his army defeated the Danes and their King agreed to leave Wessex.

In 892 the Danes came back again but this time Alfred was better prepared and men all over England looked to him as their leader against the invaders.

To make sure the army was properly trained to fight, Alfred arranged for half the peasants to work the land while the other half were trained. Every so often, the halves changed over so there was always a fresh army.

Alfred also built a fleet of large boats, hoping to defeat the Danes at sea. This is why he is called the Father of the British Navy.

It was four years before Alfred's armies drove out the Danes at last in 896 - a victory for Europe as well as England.

Could not the architects engaged on the King Alfred site incorporate some of this history into this design?

Perhaps some circular, domed buildings to reflect the cakes with the measurement 896 being used somewhere?

This site needs some connection and imagination. Perhaps when built, it could be opened by Delia Smith or the Earl of Wessex.

-Pauline JM Harte, Hove