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Fieldnotes
| I wasn't really expecting the barrows to be so low in the landscape. They're kind of in a dip with very little view - so I guess the view is all focused on them (although trees have been planted one side of the road, so I don't know what the view that way would be). They seem to follow the lie of the valley. I read Wysefool's suggestion that maybe a now-lost spring here was the reason for their location. (although what about the significance of his beloved nearby long barrow?) But in support I can tell you that I didn't dare drive my car up the track to the small car park, because there was a huge patch of deep mud I was scared to get it stuck in - surely the only mud in the whole county on this baking Sunday, so maybe there's still something springish here. There's a kissing gate into the field, which is a nature reserve, and currently full of rough vegetation that you have to kind of wade through. I spent a lot of time looking at all the weird plants (dropwort, quaking grass, knotted clover, I won't go on) but my best moment was when I suddenly realised I was looking at a disc barrow, its shape suddenly leapt out at me. It was extremely serene here and I lounged under a beech tree on one of the barrows. The only noise was the occasional passing car and the sound of hundreds of crickets like tiny machine guns constantly firing away. |
Posted by Rhiannon28th June 2010ce Edited 29th June 2010ce
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Really enjoyed reading your fieldnote Rhiannon (also the longbarrow one). The patch of mud does sound like a spring - perhaps a mud spring. I was reminded of the Albourne barrows which I have yet to see; looking them up I found another Dr Who anecdote which was interesting. http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/3234/aldbourne_four_barrows.html |
Posted by tjj29th June 2010ce |
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