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Alton Priors

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Littlestone L
Littlestone May 9, 2005 17:12:45
Replying to PeterH

> Pete G said "My guess is that the stones were rediscovered when the floor was done and a friendly vicar decided to put the doors in as a way of attracting more people into the church." That is my view too. <

Sorry, that just doesn't add up. The stones under the floor may have been 'rediscovered' when the new floor was re-laid but putting trapdoors in to attract more visitors? More visitors for what? This is hardly Canterbury Cathedral. Alton Priors church is in the middle of no-where.* The only people over the last hundred years or so likely to make a trek to Alton Priors church to see the stones under the floor would have been a few antiquarians and perhaps the occasional neo-pagan. The sarsens under the floor aren't even mentioned in the Alton Priors Church guidebook - hardly indicative of wanting to attract more people.

> Alton Priors church is built in an area thick with sarsen stones. It is impossible not to fall over them. <

Really? Not only did I not fall over any other sarsens around Alton Priors church I didn't even see any others. But I think I know what you mean. A neighbour of mine in south Swindon once found a sarsen stone in his garden - at first he thought it was just an ordinary stone but after a week of digging realized it was a monster which eventually had to be taken out with a crane.

> ... but why were these stones any more sacred to pagans than the hundreds lying around in the same (Alton Priors) field? <

Again, hundreds lying around in the same field? I must be missing something here. The only other stones I saw lying around Alton Priors church were gravestones.

But Peter, may I ask why you seem to be so adverse to the notion that Alton Priors is a pre-Christian place of importance when the stones under the church floor, the 1,700 year-old yew tree in the graveyard, the spring just a little way away, all seem to suggest a place of pre-Christian importance?

We can argue the toss about Alton Priors 'til the cows come home - what we need is a bit more information which I'll try to gather over the summer.

* No-where in terms of a place for Christian worship but a mere stone's throw from The Ridgeway - and the Ridgeway has attracted many Neolithic structures along its route.

P PeterH
PeterH May 9, 2005 22:33:34
Replying to Littlestone

No other sarsens nearby? Look in the farmyard opposite the church, look in the garden of the large house - they have a sarsens folly. Unless we have been to two different places, then the sarsens are everywhere. The neighbouring (and older) church at Alton Barnes has massive sarsen stones forming its quoins - they are enormous and totally megalithic in character. Now that may well be worth a closer look!

I'm not adverse to accepting that the church could have been built on a pagan site. I have already quoted the Papal edict that pagan temples were to be reconsecrated, but the idols of stone and wood destroyed. However, I believe that the churches replaced pagan SAXON sites and not prehistoric ones unless in specific cases it can be shown that the Saxons had their temples or groves on such sites. In some cases they clearly did eg the conversion of earlier round barrows into moot hills and their intrusion burials into both round and long barrows.

Some evidence of pre-Christian useage at Alton Priors will happily convince me. As for the trapdoor, well you know that the old time antiquarians were often vicars. They were romantics too and loved to fantasise about Druidic rites and all that. So following floor repair, what could be more natural than to keep open access to impress other gentlemen scholars ;> )

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