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Alton Priors
Re: Circles under churches
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So given the rather strange fact that we have two churches situated very close together..why? near to streams and overlooked by Adam's Grave longbarrow, could it be that the supposed stone circle under the church was there, and the powers that be were so horrified by this pagan manifestation that they had to build two churches to keep it suppressed ;)


Why should the two churches at Alton Priors and Alton Barnes be situated so close together? Well, you could also have had two different communities living side by side; 'Britons' at Alton Priors, close to the spring and stream there, and Anglo-Saxons at Alton Barnes. The Alton Priors church is Norman but may have replaced something earlier. The Alton Barnes church is Anglo-Saxon. There's a wonderful stone path that links the two together by the way. It's not improbable that in the 6th or 7th centuries there'd still be different pagan (British and Anglo-Saxon) and early Christian religions all being practiced within the same area - certainly in an area such as that around Avebury.


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Littlestone
Posted by Littlestone
29th September 2009ce
14:40

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Re: Circles under churches (moss)

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