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Liddington Warren Farm

Foxhill Farm, nr Liddington.

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tjj T
tjj Aug 16, 2013 20:57:51
Replying to m6

m6 wrote:
Hi,

I've seen the photo (embargo till published unfortunately) and Wiltshire also notes the site:-

http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/smr/getsmr.php?id=19979

The article's author, Bryn Walters, is a Roman history academic. These figures were deeply etched into the hill side which explains how they survived the initial ploughing but by 1970 they'd been completely erased.

There's no trace of any local folklore that I can find which would account for them but that's unremarkable considering all the documented sites we know about which would have been topics of conversation for generations at the time, yet all that marks them today is silence.

I am optimistic however that something may eventually come to light - there is so much remaining from the past in this region. These hill figures must surely have constituted some form of visual dialogue between Liddington Camp and Long Barrow?

The ancient story of an owl, and legendary spear throwing, were reworked by Alan Garner into his story of 'The Owl Service'.
http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_garner_owlservice.html

Interesting! If there were to be any parallels I would opt for the Cerne Abbas Giant rather than the legend of Blodeuwedd (the woman created from flowers who was later turned into an owl). Are you saying the photo you have seen is rather different to the image which appears in the news link?

M megalith6
megalith6 Aug 18, 2013 00:17:16
Replying to tjj

tjj wrote:
Interesting! If there were to be any parallels I would opt for the Cerne Abbas Giant rather than the legend of Blodeuwedd (the woman created from flowers who was later turned into an owl). Are you saying the photo you have seen is rather different to the image which appears in the news link?
The photo has been well represented by the line drawing shown at that Swindon article. The trouble is, there's a lot of archaeological activity at Foxhill and the big shape that the spear thrower is facing (I think) may be part of an earthwork, and not necessarily a part of the hill figure art? I guess a step towards unraveling some of this would be a proper survey up there, that would at least show up some of the deeper marks so that they can be isolated from the figures, which have entirely vanished now, a disaster.

Cerne Abbas Giant of disputed antiquity, it may be quite recent. However, there is definite prehistoric archaeology at Cerne higher up that hill, which the Giant has (dreadful pun coming up) rather overshadowed. Cerne is an interesting site, there was a vast religious house there til Henry 8 threw his toys out the pram and demolished all the monasteries, after removing all the plate and stripping the roofs of lead of course. I would hazard a guess there was something big going on at Cerne before the Church arrived on the scene, and they 'absorbed' it by dominating the whole area with their presence?

Ric

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