Pete, an offering from EH: this appears to refer to Bishops Cannings 95, located at SU 0705 6829. The info you provide comes from the scheduled monument record. A while back, the archaeology of the Avebury World Heritage site was reappraised from air photographs by the former RCHME (now English Heritage's) Aerial Survey team in Swindon (details from the NMR). This site (record no. 215549) was reported as: "A probable barrow of Bronze Age or Late Neolithic date. It is visible on 1930s air photographs as a cropmark of an oval mound, measuring 48m by 30m, surrounded by a ditch and a bank. The slight mound in the centre could represent the remains of two mounds ploughed down to a smooth single mound...By 1988 the barrow had been ploughed sufficiently that only the surrounding ditch remained as a cropmark...No entrances or features which might suggest it is a henge were visible on the available air photographs". A case of the schedule entry not quite keeping up to date with things, but they'll get there soon. The henge interpretation is a bit of a puzzle, but seems to have arisen from the site's appearance on the ground and on APs during the 1970s and 1980s. The lesson seems to be, as usual, check all sources and all earlier APs first! Yes, it was drawn by Stukeley (and by the Revd W Skinner), and it was also described by Leslie Grinsell - as an oval ditch with external bank surrounding the remains of two round mounds.
 Reply | with quote | Posted by MJB
3rd November 2004ce
10:48 |
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Head To Head 
Avebury's 'Other' Henge ? (Pete G)