Showing 1-20 of 95 news posts. Most recent first | Next 20 
John Aubrey: Wiltshire Antiquary
A lecture by Professor Michael Hunter FBA (author of John Aubrey and the World of Learning) and recently retired Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London will be held at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes from 2:30pm on Saturday, 24 March 2012.
More here - http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=706&prev=1
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Landscape with Stones: Paintings and woodcuts by Nick Schlee
"An exhibition of oil paintings and woodcuts by British landscape artist Nick Schlee, focusing on Avebury and the Ridgeway. This new exhibition features some of Nick Schlee's most bold and vivid work portraying the ancient monument of Avebury and the nearby Ridgeway. 80 year old Nick says of the exhibition -
"More than half of the pictures in the exhibition feature those mysterious ancient stones that mean little to most of us, but must have meant a great deal to our forebears.
"Painting them, without being able to share the feelings they engendered for the people who erected them, is a problem. I can only describe their outside appearance. The spirit within is closed to me. It is as if I were recording the skin of a peach without any idea of its taste, its texture and delicious succulence."
Venue: The Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes from Saturday, 14 January to Sunday, 2 September 2012.
More here - http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=692&prev=1
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Researchers recreate the sound of a ritual heard there 4,000 years ago
"Visitors to Stonehenge in Wiltshire rarely experience the historic site without the rumble of traffic noise from the nearby A303. But UK researchers have managed to recreate the sound of a ritual there, as heard by our ancestors 4,000 years ago. The research - which starts in an echo-free recording chamber and uses latest computer modelling techniques - has also been used to recreate the acoustics of Coventry Cathedral before it was destroyed in World War II."
Hearing the Past can be heard on BBC Radio 4 at 1102 BST on Monday 12 September, and on BBC iPlayer.
More here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14746589
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The Past is Another Country: an Exhibition by the Elementals Art Group.
The Past is Another Country: an Exhibition by the Elementals Art Group. Artwork inspired by the pre-history of Wiltshire at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes from 10:00am on Saturday, 5 November 2011 until Monday, 2 January 2012.
"The Elementals art group brings together the ideas and inspirations of six different artists under a central theme - Jenny Ford, Jan Knight, Julia Leyden, Christine Shorney, Josephine Sumner, plus guest artist Charlotte Sainsbury. The project has been as much about the process of an idea, as the finished works of art. The group studied archival maps and diagrams, artefacts in museums and photographic aerial views of the landscape - and walked and looked, and looked and walked! Rather than recreating the past they have distilled their own personal and emotional responses to the creations of the Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples of Wessex."
More here - http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=676&prev=1
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Battle for Jefferies' land: How a 19th-century naturalist became a cause célèbre in Wiltshire
Writing in The Independent today Jack Watkins reports that -
"Jefferies grew up and, until he married aged 25, lived on a tiny farm at Coate, near Swindon. Here his father kept a small dairy herd, but while Jefferies showed little interest in helping out on the farm, he inherited his father's love of nature, and spent his days exploring the surrounding meadows and hills, studying flora and fauna and seeking out archaeological sites, while honing the distinctive earth philosophy that elevated his work beyond mere observation.
"Today Coate farmhouse, its outbuildings and orchard, all so vividly described in his novel Amaryllis at the Fair, survive as the Richard Jefferies Museum. Beyond the ha-ha, dug by Jefferies Snr to prevent the cattle straying into the orchard, is the ancient hedgerow recognised by Jefferies in Wild Life in a Southern County as "the highway of the birds". Over the ridge beyond is the reservoir of Coate Water, the scene for the mock battles of his children's novel Bevis. On the skyline is Liddington Hill, crowned by an iron-age hillfort, one of the numerous tumuli of the North Wiltshire hills which the writer memorably wrote of as being "alive with the dead". It was while lying on the slopes of Liddington Hill that Jefferies experienced the first of what he termed the "soul experiences" leading to his extraordinary autobiography, The Story of My Heart.
"Developers have been eyeing the area around Coate Water for years, however, encouraged by a general refusal of the council's planning department to recognise Jefferies as "a major writer". A current proposal to build 900 homes and a business park was recently rejected by councillors – stunned by the strength of an opposition campaign which has seen protest letters written in the Times Literary Supplement and a petition signed by over 52,000 people. While that rejection was the first time, says Jean Saunders, secretary of the Richard Jefferies Society, that there had been any recognition of the cultural landscape value of Coate, the developers have appealed and a public inquiry is to be held."
Full article here - http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/battle-for-jefferies-land-how-a-19thcentury-naturalist-became-a-cause-clbre-in-wiltshire-2332054.html
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Call for volunteers at the Rollright Stones
"Hello to all supporters of the Rollright Stones. Just to update you all on the progress at the Rollright Stones and to let you know of up and coming events.
"Since re-starting the Wardens at Easter we have been able to cover most weekends with a Warden on site for a greater part of the day which has resulted in an exceptionally positive reaction from the public who appreciate someone to be able to talk to about the monuments. This has also increased our income through the sale of pamphlets etc. Whilst we have a core of people we are still looking to expand our number of Wardens over the summer – if you are still interested in becoming involved please get in touch or come up to the Stones on a dry day and have a chat. It may be that you might prefer to help out as a volunteer, to this end we have scheduled in a 'site clearance' weekend on Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th July. We plan to clear the site of rubbish including the wooded areas, get rid of any barbed wire on the fences, repair some fencing by the lay-bys and any other jobs that need doing. We will supply everything from gloves to food. If you think you may be able to spare a couple of hours or more to come along , either as a Warden or a Volunteer, you will be most welcome – and it is great fun."
Robin Smitten of The Rollright Trust
More here - http://heritageaction.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/a-call-for-volunteers-at-the-rollrights-stones/
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Landscapes of Thomas Hardy's Wessex
"An exhibition of works by Rob Pountney, Dave Gunning and David Inshaw depicting the spectacular landscapes and ancient archaeological sites that feature in the novels and poems of Thomas Hardy.
"These contemporary artistic representations of Hardy's fictionalized 'Wessex' are highly evocative, focusing attention on the physical and atmospheric qualities of the landscape, in much the same way that Hardy used prose to generate melodrama and set the scene in his work."
The exhibition is on show in the Wiltshire Heritage Museum's Art Gallery from Saturday, 28 May until Monday, 29 August 2011. More here - http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=631&prev=1
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Award to Wiltshire Heritage Museum
Writing in the The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald yesterday, Lewis Cowen reports that,
"The Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes has been awarded £58,200 to work on plans to create new Bronze Age galleries. The money has come from the Heritage Lottery Fund and now the museum will progress to the second stage of the HLF application process. The project will cost more than £200,000 and the museum, in Long Street, will have to contribute between £20,000 and £30,000. The new galleries will feature the rich finds from burials in the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. The project will feature the unique gold and amber finds that define the Bronze Age Wessex culture and are currently locked away in the museum's vaults. The most famous of these are the 4,000-year-old finds from Bush Barrow, including a gold lozenge, belt hook, stone mace and richly decorated bronze dagger. The new displays will also include objects excavated from Upton Lovell and Manton as well as recent finds from Marden Henge, near Devizes."
More here - http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/8938471.__58_000_bronze_age_windfall_for_Wiltshire_museum/ and here - http://heritageaction.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/good-or-bad-news-for-wiltshire-heritage-museum/
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Laser scan for Stonehenge
"Stonehenge is being scanned using modern laser technology to search for hidden clues about how and why it was built. All visible faces of the standing and fallen stones, many of which are obscured by lichen, will be surveyed. Some ancient carvings have previously been found on the stones, including a famous Neolithic "dagger". The survey is already in progress and is expected to finish by the end of March. "The surfaces of the stones of Stonehenge hold fascinating clues to the past," said English Heritage archaeologist Dave Batchelor. The team will be looking for ancient "rock art", but also for more modern graffiti, in a comprehensive survey of the site."
More here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12688085 and here - http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/stonehenge-in-high-definition/
And a video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxAnanfB_rg
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Centenary celebration of Nash's Wittenham Clumps
"Throughout his career as an artist, Paul Nash (1889-1946) had a special affinity for the wooded hills in South Oxfordshire called The Wittenham Clumps.
"First encountering them in his late teenage years, he was immediately caught by their atmospheric shapes and mystical associations. The Clumps became a rich source of inspiration for him and he returned to paint them many times during his life."
More here - http://www.nashclumps.org/index.html
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Introduction to Experimental Archaeology
The Wiltshire Heritage Museum will be running an eight-week evening lecture course (and a Saturday workshop) consisting of a, "…series of classes, combining lecturing and practical activities, to teach the aims and techniques of Experimental Archaeology." The course will be led by Katy Whitaker, a graduate of Cambridge and Exeter Universities, and will include -
• Introduction: course aims, definition of Experimental Archaeology, the experimental 'scale', what makes an experiment?
• Critiques of archaeological experiments, issues of risk and ethics.
• Prehistoric dairying.
• Flint and hide.
• Ceramics.
• Saturday workshop – fire-starting, a bonfire firing to complete ceramics and finish curing a hide.
The course begins on the 18 May. More here –
http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=617&prev=1
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Stonehenge rocks definitely came from Wales...
...but how?
Reporting for BBC News Wales, Neil Prior writes -
"New research has cast fresh doubt on the journey which the Stonehenge Bluestones took from Pembrokeshire to the site of the pagan monument. Since the 1920s, geologists have strongly suspected that the 'spotted dolerite' Bluestones, which form Stonehenge's inner ring, originated from Mynydd Preseli in the north of the county. However, whilst the new findings have also linked a second type of stone - rhyolites - to the area, they call into question how the stones arrived in Wiltshire."
More here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-12544924
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Ravilious's White Horse in latest Tate Britain show
Writing in the Observer today, Laura Cumming reports on the Watercolour exhibition now showing at Tate Britain and running until the 21 August.
The exhibition includes a watercolour of The Vale of the White Horse (circa 1939) by Eric Ravilious. Something, "...conjured entirely out of cross-hatchings, strokes, dabs and striations of faint colour, frail contour against pale line, with the white page breathing airily in between, is almost nothing, a see-through dream. But it is uniquely strange, starting in reality and ending in its own radiant elsewhere."
More here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/feb/20/watercolour-tate-britain-review-cumming
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Stonehenge and Avebury revised research framework
"This project will provide a united historic environment research agenda and strategy for the Avebury and Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The two parts of the World Heritage Site currently have separate research frameworks that were created at different times and in different formats. The project will update and harmonise the existing frameworks to create a single research framework comprising a resource assessment and a single research strategy with a five-year currency."
More here - http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/wiltshire/stonehenge-avebury-rrf
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Avebury Landscape Photography Workshop
The National Trust will be holding an Avebury Landscape Photography Workshop on Saturday, 26 March 2011.
"Professional photographer Mark Philpott will help you look at landscapes in an exciting new way. Learn how to get the best from your camera and be inspired by the Avebury landscape, its stone circle, cosy cottages, fine church and ancient trees."
More here - http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/event-search-2/events/show?id=2108046427&direct=1
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Geology and Landscape walk
This an opportunity to learn more about Fyfield Down (Site of Special Scientific Interest) with Peter Keene, formerly senior lecturer in geomorphology at Oxford Brooks University.
"The ability to 'read' landscapes or to have 'an eye for the country' adds a new dimension to our appreciation of our surroundings. On this walk, from Avebury via Overton Down to Clatford Bottom across the Fyfield SSSI we shall learn through discussion and investigation of the evidence that is observable in the field how the landscape, with its layers of chalk, sarsen rocks, streams and dry valleys, evolved in this part of the Marlborough Downs."
The walk begins in Avebury at 10:30am on Saturday, 16 July 2011. More here – http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=607&prev=1
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Ridgeway under threat from high-speed rail link
Laura Barton, writing in the Guardian yesterday, reports on the route of the high-speed rail link that -
"At stake, too, is the preservation of the Ridgeway, Britain's oldest road — a pathway followed since prehistoric times by herdsmen, travellers and soldiers, running from Wiltshire, along the chalk ridge of the Berkshire Downs and on to the River Thames at the Goring Gap. It passes the stone circle at Avebury and the White Horse at Uffington, as well as Grim's Ditch, Wayland's Smithy and Barbury castle. It runs, too, right down Wendover high street, past the clock tower, built in 1842 and now repurposed as the visitor centre, then out towards Wendover woods. There is an ancient feel to this land, something rich and deep and solemn."
More here – http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/20/heartache-over-high-speed-railway
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Showing 1-20 of 95 news posts. Most recent first | Next 20 |
Studied art and design at Swindon School of Art, Wiltshire, England and afterwards Japanese painting and calligraphy at Kyoto University of Fine Arts, Kyoto, Japan.
In 1966 I was a lay monk at the Zen Buddhist temple of Ryozen-an in Kyoto and practiced under the guidance of its Director, Ruth Fuller-Sasaki and senior monk Dana R Fraser (co-translator of Layman P'ang: A Ninth Century Zen Classic).
Also present at Ryozen-an was the author and poet Gary Snyder. Gary Snyder was one of the first Westerners in Japan to study Zen Buddhism and was the inspiration for Jack Kerouac's book, The Dharma Bums.
I was assistant conservator (paintings) at Kyoto National Museum from 1969-1980 and Chief Conservator (Eastern Pictorial Art) at the British Museum from 1980-1986. Japan Foundation Fellow 1973-1974 and Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works since 1985.
Interests include ancient history, classical music, comparative religion, the fine arts, poetry and writing.
Home: Chelmsford, Essex ENGLAND
weblogs:
Avebury Matters http://aveburymatters.blogspot.com/
Megalithic Poems http://megalithicpoems.blogspot.com/
Silbury
http://silbury-hill.blogspot.com/
The moral right of the author with regard to text, illustrations and photographs has been asserted.
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