Archaeologist Francis Pryor travels from the far north of Orkney, around the North Sea coast to the Isle of Wight and the Bristol Channel, chronicling some of the most recent knowledge and discoveries of what the land around mainland Britain was like before it was submerged by the melting ice at the end of the last Ice Age.
|
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Quote from Wiltshire Heritage Museum - The plans for the Visitor Centre has now been published by EH - though the details of the building are a little sketchy.
A chance to visit a some exhibitions and express your views.
|
|
 
|
|
Went to visit Harestone Down Stone Circle with Rex today but unfortunately it now has a quad bike track all around it and was being used at the time of my visit.
I went via the White Horse Trail but it also looks like they don't want people going onto the land as the entrance to the field from this track had barbed wire all across it.
I got to visit East Kennet long barrow and a few interesting Tumuli in the area so it wasn't a wasted journey.
|
|
    
|
|
Well my excursion to Stonehenge this morning (1st December) went very well. In spite of the weekends weather, Monday morning was turning out to be a fine if not very cold, day.
My son and I had arranged a early 'Out of Hours' visit to the much maligned monument about a month ago. It was quite easy to do and involved an email or two, a quick phone call to reserve the day we wanted and then faxing an application form over to EH.
We arrived about 15 minutes early and was met by a security guard whom on this occasion was very polite, friendly and helpful. He gave us a quick 'do's and don'ts' brief and we waited for every body to turn up. Until everybody was together we couldn't go in but that gave me an opportunity to take a couple of pic's as the sun was rising through the early morning cloud. The sun was just breaking the horizon and although it wasn't a spectacular event it was pleasant enough.
Eventually we were allowed in and we made our way to the circle. It is easy to see why people are disappointed when they arrive. The stones look small and unimpressive from outside the roped off area. I took a couple of shots of the the sun poking through the uprights which was quite effective and then stepped into the cordoned off area. Its funny really as I felt I shouldn't be do what we were doing.
The feeling of awkwardness and the inadequacies of the stones melted away rapidly as I stepped over the rope and approach the circle. Everything gets so much bigger and more impressive the closer you get. Eventually standing by the side of these stones you realise their enormity and the enormity of the task in hand for the ancient people who built this now very impressive structure. The 'rocks' are BIG and there are so many crammed in such a small area that everything bears down upon you.
I sent my son off with the video camera while I took some shots with the DSLR. Before the visit I had done a little planning on what I was going to do but like every visit I make to such places, the excitement takes over and common sense is abandoned completely. The light was good and the sun was casting a nice warm glow onto the stones. Also t this point the circle was still relatively empty so I snapped away as quick as I could to take advantage of the situation.
Eventually the circle filled up as the other early visitors arrived and it became difficult to get good clean shots. My eagerness to take pictures waned and I began to wander through the stones taking in what I could. The green mosses and lichens on the stones gave them an aged appearance. The black rooks (I assume they were rooks) fighting for position high up on one of the trilithons. Both the smooth and gnarled uprights pitted with deep holes. I think I lost myself for a while here just looking, thinking and sometimes feeling and the nearby traffic noise now drowned out by my own mind.
With about 20 minutes left most people had now left. I guess it was the cold. The stones were almost empty again with maybe on 10 of us left giving me another opportunity to get some more relaxed photos taken.
I must admit I have changed my mind about Stonehenge. Before my visit it was a ghastly tourist trap, that you could only get a few distant snap shots of as you jostled with the masses by the boundary rope. But it does have a soul and also something to say. "Visit me on a cold clear winter morning. Wander among my bones and muscles and wonder how. Drift through time with me to an innocent age and marvel at what you see".
If you haven't already tried an out of hours access visit then I strongly recommend it. To me it was worth every penny and really has changed my view of Stonehenge.
:o)
Scubes
|
Every time I travelled from Chippenham to London on the train (normally work related) I would notice what looked like a small mound in a field somewhere between Didcot and Cholsey and wondered what it could be.
After many trips I eventually got around to working out what field it was in and tried to find it on the OS maps but with no luck. I checked out some of the maps on the 'Old Maps' web site where I noticed that the field it was located in had been used as a rifle range. Could this mound have just been a target or 'bullet stopper' of some sort? Also on the old maps were some unclear words where the mound was but I can not be certain what they say.
One thing that I did wondered about was why it was still here. If it is not an ancient mount the farmer could have easily removed this mound making his work a little easier.
Anyway, on one occasion I was travelling to London by car and on the way back thought I could take a break by this barrow and maybe get some pictures. I worked out its co-ordinates from Google Earth a put them into my Sat Nav. The nearest road is Church Road out of Cholsey where the mound can be seen in the field on the left. There is a little lay-by just opposite and I followed the tractor marks down the field to the barrow which seemed much further than the map suggested.
After growing a couple of inches taller due to the mud on my boots I arrived at the barrow.
This time of the year it was covered in nettles and there were a couple of bushes sprouting from it top.
Despite all the foliage I would guess the mound to be about 2.5-3 metres at its highest point towards the north end and slopes quite rapidly down to about a metre at its southern end.
I am sure this is not a long barrow as it would be quite short at about 10 metres long. Looking from the western side there is evidence that it has been chopped into by the plough and maybe this has given it its elongated shape I had observed on Google Earth.
I am not convinced this is an ancient mound but I thought I may as well highlight it on this site. Maybe one of you more local people can shed some light on its history. I would be interested none the less.
|
| |
Log in |
Register
Previous 50 | Showing 51-100 of 130 posts. Most recent first | Next 50 
Top of page