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A company which wants to quarry near an ancient monument has dismissed suggestions that the site contains items of archaeological importance.
Tarmac wants to extend its sand and gravel operations next to Thornborough Henges near Ripon, North Yorks.

Residents fear further quarrying could destroy clues about why the 5,000-year-old earthworks were built.

But archaeologists working for Tarmac say there is only “thin and scattered” evidence of prehistoric activity.

Tarmac commissioned York-based Mike Griffiths and Associates (MGA) to carry out a visual survey as part of its application to the county council to extend its present quarry at Nosterfield.

The new site at Ladybridge Farm would bring quarrying much nearer the henges which consist of three earthworks built in a line running north-south for about a mile.

Each henge consists of circular earth banks and ditches which may have been covered with gypsum.

Archaeologist Steve Timms from MGA said: “With the exception of just seven shallow pits which contained Neolithic finds, very little else has been found.

“Apart from two fragments of pottery we have no evidence for Roman or medieval activity at all and most of the prehistoric finds were collected from the surface of the fields during the field walking

“The evidence suggests that people were doing something on the site in the Neolithic period but there is not enough evidence to say what it was.”

North Yorkshire County Council is due to consider the application to extend the quarry later in the year.

Mike Sanders from Friends of Thornborough Henges said the MGA survey was “quite inadequate”.

“Less than 2% of the Ladybridge Farm site has been surveyed,” he claimed.

Mr Sanders added that advances in archaeological techniques in future years might turn up more evidence and destroying the landscape now meant that opportunity would be lost.

from bbc.co.uk, 24 May 2005
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/4577241.stm

Old Down Country Park has just been sold for £4.7m. Of which included an Iron Age fort.

More info on estate here: searcha.primelocation.com/cjgr/html/templates/_pancentric/approval/rural-asset-management/details.cfm?id=cjlo999000629

I will post some pictures later. This site now has no Public Access :-(

People in Huddersfield are being asked whether a pub should remain on Castle Hill – there has been one for nearly two centuries, but a recent unapproved addition to the building there led to it being demolished.

Kirklees Council deputy leader Clr John Smithson said: “I promised back in November 2004 that there would be public consultation once the structure was demolished. I am very pleased that this will now include a comprehensive conservation plan as required by the Heritage Lottery Fund.”

English Heritage will be involved as the land is a nationally-important archaeological site and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Issues under review will include: access, car parking, visitor facilities, use of Victoria Tower, the condition and erosion of the earthworks.

Summarised from icHuddersfield

Work on a £1 million revamp for Lynn museum is due to start in July. The project has been funded with £778,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £125,000 from Norfolk County Council and donations from other sources.

When complete, the new-look museum will include a new exhibition area and a collections study gallery allowing more objects to be displayed. Interactive displays will tell the history of Lynn and West Norfolk. There will also be better access for the disabled and new facilities for running educational activities and events. The Grade II listed building will also undergo necessary repairs during the revamp.
Originally a Union Baptist Chapel built in 1859, the distinctive building will benefit from new lighting, heating, environmental monitoring systems and alarms.

Building work is expected to last until December with the new facilities and temporary exhibitions open by Easter 2006 and the final displays in the summer of 2007.

Around half to two-thirds of the original timbers and the central stump of the Seahenge circle will be at the museum from early 2007. All the timbers from Seahenge, which made national headlines in 2001, will be at the museum but there won’t be room to display the entire circle, although the final display sizes have yet to be finalised. The timbers are currently with the Marie Rose Trust in Portsmouth where work is being carried out to permanently preserve them so they can go on display. The treatment involves soaking the timbers in a wax substance before they are vacuum freeze-dried – a time-consuming process.

taken from
lynnnews.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=991&ArticleID=1028952

A fire last year? destroyed a large area of heather and scrub above Fishguard’s ferry port in Pembrokeshire. The land is owned by the National Trust and by Stena Sealink, and is used by grazing stock, fishermen and walkers.

Polly Groom, an archaeologist for Pembrokeshire National Park, working with Cambrian Archaeology, said, “We believed that this could be a Bronze Age burial site, dating from perhaps 3,000 years ago, but now we have the proof.

“The fire was disastrous as it came at a key time for wildlife but it has had an unexpected bonus, revealing evidence of extensive human use of the area over many centuries. There is some stonework remaining from what we consider to be a burial mound which had been disturbed in the past.

“We have also found what appear to be the remains of prehistoric field boundaries as we know exist on other headlands in north Pembrokeshire, like Strumble and St David’s Head.”

from
icWales

A replica of an Iron Age house used by the first settlers in Ryedale is set to be built by young offenders in the grounds of Ryedale Folk Museum at Hutton-le-Hole.

The venture, which is expected to cost £25,000, will see the 10-metre long house become a major new attraction at the popular museum, says curator Mike Benson.

The ambitious scheme, which has involved extensive research, is to be linked with the museum’s cornfield site at the northern part of the grounds. There will also be a grain store and pottery kiln said Mr Benson. “It will have considerable education value. We are working with Sure Start and we are hopeful of attracting funding from DEFRA, the North York Moors National Park Authority and the Museum Service.”

The Probation Service’s young offenders’ scheme is expected to be involved in building the house, with young people, who have been given community service orders by the courts, receiving expert help and advice.

A historical architect has been engaged to produce the plans, which have now been submitted to the national park authority for a decision on the scheme.

from This Is Ryedale:
thisisryedale.co.uk/ryedale/news/RYEDALE_NEWS_LOCAL7.html

From This is Richmond, 19 may 2005
A QUARRY firm’s own archaeologists said a site chosen for excavation should not be disturbed, according to campaigners.

Pressure group Timewatch said finds from an archaeological study paid for by Tarmac Northern meant no further quarrying should be allowed at Nosterfield Quarry, near Masham, North Yorkshire.

Quarry bosses said the study of Ladybridge Farm found “thin and scattered evidence of activity dating back to the Mesolithic period that had been dispersed by thousands of years of farming”.

But George Chaplin, chairman of Timewatch, said a site of even greater archaeological potential than even they had suspected had been uncovered.

Mr Chaplin said: “The little that is left must be protected from quarrying.”

The study was conducted to accompany a planning application to extend the quarry, which will be looked at by North Yorkshire County Council later this year.

Tarmac estates manager Bob Nisholson said: “The survey and report were produced by professional archaeologists. The report has been submitted to North Yorkshire County Council and the county council will evaluate it as part of the planning application process.”

Work finished today on what was left of a presumed chambered cairn (HY42401383) on Quanter Ness, only a little further coastward than the Crossiecrown settlement. Indications are that it was dismantled early on (Quanterness chambered cairn is across the road and up the lower slopes of Wideford Hill) and may be a crossover between the purely domestic and the religious type of site. Though there is no dating evidence it does share an alignment with the Tomb of The Eagles. After the exploratory dig it has now been covered over.
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/ramberrycairn.htm

Breemie Recumbent Stone Circle, Lyne of Skene, Aberdeenshire

A Festival for the “mind, body and spirit” is being held at a modern stone circle in Aberdeenshire this summer, organised by a shamanic healer.

Jason Schroeder hopes to attract thousands of people to the all-day event at the Breemie stone circle, which he erected at Lyne of Skene near Aberdeen (NJ769110).

The 41-year-old hopes an array of alternative and complementary therapies and performance arts will draw families from around Scotland. Workshops, taster sessions and demonstrations will take place during the day, with musical entertainment taking over in the evening.

Speakers are due to travel from the US and around the UK to attend the event, on land adjacent to the B.A. Country Store.

Opening at 10am on Saturday, June 18, it is expected to run into the early hours of Sunday, with camping facilities provided for those attending....

for more of story

A strategy document providing guidance for the care and protection of carved stones has been unveiled by Tourism Minister Patricia Ferguson.

Carved stones provide a very real link to more than 5000 years of human activity in Scotland and are an important and significantly large proportion of the monuments and artefacts that survive from past times. Carved stones help to define the character of our environment and present-day identities, both local and national.

Emphasising the cultural importance of carved stones, Ms Ferguson said:

Scotland’s rich and varied resource of carved stones is an important cultural asset; they are a tangible connection to a very human element of our past. Carved stones have enormous and largely untapped potential, particularly for sustainable tourism and educational initiatives, but they require active conservation.

Effective protection of carved stones will continue to be achieved most effectively through better understanding of the issues involved and collective effort to address them. I hope that, with this policy and guidance, Historic Scotland and everyone else involved will be encouraged, and better placed, to identify priorities and implement strategies and action plans to respond to the needs of individual sites and categories of our important carved stones.

Read more here
from www.scotland.gov.uk

The Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, has cleared the way for the construction of the M3 motorway by issuing directions to Meath County Council on how archaeological work is to be conducted.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Mr Roche said that stringent conditions would apply.

Commenting on a controversial interchange one kilometre north of the Hill of Tara, the minister said the National Roads Authority was putting in an alternative lighting scheme and extensive landscaping.

He added that in order to protect the landscape around Tara he told Meath County Council to ensure that the new development plan protected the rural character and archaeological heritage of the area.

Given concerns that massive developments would take place along the new motorway, the minister said he would consider using his powers to direct the council to amend its plan if it was not up to standard.

The controversial project was approved by An Bord Pleanála two years ago, but many archaeologists and historians have argued that part of Ireland’s most important heritage site will be destroyed.

The Director of the National Museum, Dr Pat Wallace, had submitted a report to the Environment Minister in which it is reported he opposed the routing and, in particular, an interchange north of the hill.

rte.ie/news/2005/0511/m3.html

On Radio Orkney it was announced that a student who had been doing research around the Bay of Firth with no success found a large amount of flints when turning their attention instead to a field by the Loch of Stenness (following up on a tip given to them as a result of Colin Richard’s fieldwalking). Mesolithic tools have turned up before in Orkney (e.g. Yesnaby) but in amounts small enough to be explained as people passing through. This site having produced enough for a doctoral thesis is a strong indicator of an actual settlement, probably underwater at the loch margins.

The significance of this is that if some Neolithic ideas started in the Orkneys it would help for there to be a previously settled group of people to have developed them, otherwise you require the first Neolithic settlers to have come up with them almost as soon as they reached here i.e. did the ideas evolve from within a society or arise from contact with a specific environment (a dichotomy something like that leastways).

A shoe believed to be 2,000 years old has been dug up at a Somerset quarry.

The Iron Age relic was found in a hollowed tree trunk set into the ground at Whiteball Quarry, near Wellington.

Archaeologists say the shoe is the equivalent of a size 10 and is so well-preserved that stitches and lace holes are still visible in the leather.

The shoe has been taken to a specialist conservation centre in Wiltshire, and is expected to go on display at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.

A team from Exeter Archaeology, led by Stephen Reed, unearthed the shoe when they were excavating at Town Farm, Burlescombe.

“What we have now found is a Bronze Age ‘industrial’ site consisting of two mounds of burnt stone – dated to 1460 to 1290 BC – and two water-filled troughs,” he said.

“Close by were two timber-built wells, preserved by waterlogging and probably dating from the early part of the Iron Age.”

One of the wells was constructed over a spring using a hollowed tree trunk set into the ground. The tree trunk was removed from the site so that its contents could be examined under laboratory conditions.

‘Oldest shoe‘

The “truly remarkable” discovery of the shoe was made when this was being undertaken by the Wiltshire Conservation Centre.

“As far as we know, this is the oldest shoe ever found in the UK,” Mr Reed said.

“The shoe measures approximately 30cm, equivalent to a modern size nine or 10, perhaps suggesting its owner was male.

“The reason for its presence in the well or spring is a mystery.”

It is hoped examination of the shoe will shed light on the method of its construction and identify the animal from which the leather was derived.

Quarry owners Hanson are working with archaeologists from Exeter Archaeology, Devon County Council and English Heritage, as well as other specialists, to ensure that all the finds from the site are properly recorded and treated.

It is hoped, following conservation, that the timbers and shoe will form the central feature of the proposed expansion of the archaeology galleries at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/4530905.stm

From an article published on the BBC News web site on 4th May 2005:

Archaeologists have discovered iron age remains under the route of a new bypass around the village of Leybourne.

In a dig before the construction work, ditches containing pottery, burnt daub, charcoal and animal bone were found.

Kent County Council archaeologist, John Williams, said the remains suggested there were Iron Age farming settlements in the area more than 2,000 years ago.

Read the full article...

Experts are investigating claims by an amateur archaeologist from Bradford that he has found an important ancient monument on Ilkley Moor.
Two weeks ago Gordon Holmes, 52, who has been scouring local landscapes for signs of ancient sacred sites for three decades, was walking on the moor before sunset when he identified “a vague circular outline” surrounding the triangulation point sited on the highest point of the moor.
“It wasn’t long before I began to find fallen standing stones strewn about the locality,” said Mr Holmes, who is a technician at the University of Bradford. “Besides what appears to be an inner stone circle at this site, there is evidence of an outer circular barrow. I reckon there’s enough evidence to suggest it could be a stone circle about eight feet in diameter surrounded by a larger one maybe 18 feet in diameter.”

English Heritage says the find could be significant, but other historians have dismissed the claim. The site identified by Mr Holmes was last surveyed by English Heritage in June 1995 and scheduled by the Department of Media, Culture and Sport, after advice from English Heritage.

Neil Redfern, English Heritage’s inspector of monuments in Yorkshire, said: “There are in the region of 100 other scheduled monuments on Ilkley Moor, which is renowned for its concentration of prehistoric rock art panels and other associated features such as burial mounds and settlement sites. “We very much welcome input from interested locals and would be keen to discuss this gentleman’s findings.”

Gavin Edwards, curator of the Manor House Museum, in Ilkley, and an expert on the Moor’s archaeology, agreed that it was possible that additional features remained to be discovered but was cautious about Mr Holmes’s claim. “There are a lot of stones and features on the moor which can be misinterpreted,” he added. Mr Edwards said that Ilkley Moor had been a favourite haunt of Victorian antiquarians who had disturbed many of the original Bronze and Stone Age features. “Sometimes shepherds would use stones to build sheep shelters. And there’s a lot of continuing activity which can easily be misinterpreted as being from another age.”

thisisbradford.co.uk/bradford__district/bradford/news/BRAD_NEWS8.html

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/4505191.stm

Opponents say the plans threaten the ‘Stonehenge of the North‘
More than 100 pagans joined a fight against proposals to extend quarrying at a historic site in North Yorkshire.
Tarmac Northern wants to extend its present operations close to the Thornborough Henges ancient earthworks near Ripon.

The druids met at the site to mark the May Day ritual of Beltane, a pagan celebration of the height of spring.

Local archaeologists also joined the protest. The group claims the Henges are under threat from the quarrying.

The area has the greatest concentration of late Neolithic and early Bronze Age sites in the UK.

It also boasts the country’s largest quarrying operation on prehistoric land, Nosterfield Quarry, which produces more than 500,000 tonnes of sand and gravel each year.

The firm says it is not seeking to quarry on the earthworks which form the three 5,000-year-old circles which may have been a ceremonial meeting place.

An article by Ben Kendall of the Eastern Daily Press online, 26th April 2005:

One of the biggest hauls of Bronze Age artefacts ever found in Norfolk has been uncovered in a garden – but it very nearly ended up in a skip.

The 145 items dating from circa 800BC were discovered in Norwich by gardener Simon Francis as he landscaped the grounds of a house on Poplar Avenue, near Newmarket Road.

Norfolk County Council archaeologists have described the haul as one of the largest and most significant they have known, providing a vital insight into the era.

But yesterday Mr Francis admitted he had not initially appreciated the importance of the find. He said: “I have been working as a gardener for years and I’ve often come across bits of pottery.

“At first I just thought these were bits of gate posts from Victorian times or something so I suppose I could have easily thrown them away. Fortunately there were some items like axe and spear heads which stood out.”

Property owner Shane Target said he had delighted such a find had been made. He said: “I know a bit about archaeology and I am fascinated by it.

“When Simon told me what he had found I came down to the garden and we both realised we had found something pretty special.”

Since the initial discovery of 135 items on Friday, archaeologists have revisited the site and found more items including a Viking broach.

The haul included axe heads, spear-heads, sword parts, tools and ingots.

Curator of archaeology Alan West said: “This is one of the biggest finds in Norfolk and as such is very significant.

“The items are in good condition and the more items we find the better knowledge we can develop of the era.

“It seems the items had been buried in a shallow pit. I would have thought the items we buried there as it was a safe area and they planned to return to recover them at a later date but, for whatever reason, that never happened.

“Finding the Viking broach is particularly unusual. It is rare to find items from two completely different eras all on one site.”

Fellow curator Tim Pestell said he hoped the items would eventually be displayed at Norwich Castle. “The coroner will have to decide if this qualifies as treasure which it almost certainly does,” he said. “Then we will look to put it on public display.”

He added: “I got the call about this at the end of the day on Friday when I was about to go home. It was one of those moments when you think ‘should I answer the phone’. Obviously now I’m glad I did.”

Native Woodland, a company from Edinburgh, want to develop a natural burial ground at Cothiemuir Hill – within 15 yards of the scheduled ancient monument. They have not yet received planning permission for the scheme, but it’s provoked an backlash from local people, who are forming an action group. The company wants to offer “rights of burial” for ashes in plots laid out in concentric rings around the ancient site, and full interments in a dedicated grassland area to the east of the stone circle.

The campaign against the burial ground plan is being led by Jo Stover, of nearby Auchnagathle Farm. She said: “We are a close-knit community here and I think that is why people are quite appalled and really quite upset about what is being planned. This is a commercial development which just doesn’t belong here. Local people are extremely alarmed and angry about what is being proposed. It has no sensitivity to the local area and the people here – quite the opposite. It would encourage the use of a remote graveyard by persons who have no connection to this area or to the people here.”

She added: “The company claims the burial site will not physically damage the stone circle, but it will be changed for ever by this development.”

The burial scheme is being backed by the local laird, Malcolm Forbes, the Master of Forbes, whose family has owned the estate incorporating the land surrounding the stone circle for about 600 years. Ian Walls, the director of Native Woodland, was unavailable for comment yesterday. His letter to Aberdeenshire Council, in support of the planning application, curiously states: “The main objective behind our proposals for the site is for the change of use to have as little impact on the landscape as is practically possible. We aim for the changes to be imperceptible.”

summarised from the article at news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=370602005

Atkins Heritage was commissioned by English Heritage and the Thornborough Henges Consultation Group to prepare a conservation plan for the local area. At a meeting with residents on Wednesday they suggested an eight square mile “exclusion zone”. Project manager Andrew Croft said the aim of the plan, due to be completed by next March, was to aid decisions on planning applications, archaeological research and landscape management. The area covered includes Nosterfield Quarry, which has a pending planning application for quarrying only half a mile from the henges.

Local landowners are concerned controls could hit their livelihoods. For example, potato farmer David Robinson, of Howgrave Hall, said a ploughing depth restriction of eight inches would put him out of business.
Mike Sanders, of the Friends of Thornborough, said he hoped North Yorkshire Council would act on the plan’s recommendations. He suggested the area would benefit from tourism, and that farmers could be offered compensation or subsidies to allow access to the sites.

summarised from the Yorkshire Post article at
yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1006494

theherald.co.uk/news/37715.html

Archaeologists are turning their attention to one of Scotland’s most historically overlooked areas by scheduling scores of ancient and modern sites dating from 4000BC to the cold war era. Hill forts, castles, sheilings, standing stones, hut circles, churches, lime kilns and pillboxes were the focus of the first major scheduling drive in the north of Scotland by heritage experts from Historic Scotland. The teams of historians and ancient monument inspectors are keen to shed light on the historical richness of Aberdeenshire, an area previously overlooked during efforts to protect important sites.

Dr Gordon Barclay, principal inspector of ancient monuments with Historic Scotland, said the new scheduling campaign was a productive way of mapping the nation’s past. He said: “This is the first time we have tried out this area-based approach to scheduling. We take a group of parishes and look at everything within it of historical interest. Previously, it has been up to the efforts of individual inspectors and was not very co-ordinated, with areas getting more scheduling than others.” He added: “This is a more consistent approach looking at one area after another. We have around 200 candidate sites in the area and about one half or two-thirds of these will eventually be scheduled.”

Inspectors have been in Strathdon and Alford carrying out the scheduling assessments on a large number of archaeological sites. Historic Scotland said the mammoth exercise was an essential part of protecting and understanding the past. If the sites visited are judged to be of national importance, they will then be scheduled as ancient monuments and will be protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
The teams will schedule a number of important sites including Asloun Castle, near Alford, a sixteenth-century towerhouse, following their visit. They are also likely to schedule a prehistoric site on Deskrey Hill, east of Strathdon, which has hut circles and contains evidence of some of the earliest farming in Scotland. A second world war pillbox near Huntly and a deserted medieval township, near Upperton, will also be scheduled.

Generations of hunters, herdsmen, farmers and foresters helped shape the landscape in the north-east. Traces of their houses, farms, religious sites or burial monuments litter the landscape beside more recent features such as castles, industrial sites, churches or military installations. The first farmers in the area also introduced pottery and polished stone axes. Their descendants made use of the deposits of flint near the coast at Boddam, south of Peterhead.

An Aberdeenshire Council spokesman said there were a great number of historical sites that they were keen to protect. “We welcome this week’s visit by Historic Scotland to view nearly 200 sites as part of the organisation’s scheduling assessments,” he said, “These are done on an ongoing basis, but this week’s programme involves a major concentration of Aberdeenshire sites. We have highlighted a number of locations which we feel are unique to the area. Our archaeology team is guiding the visitors around sites ranging from the neolithic age, right up to the last world war.”

Dr Barclay said the project had already been a resounding success and would be taken to other parts of the country. “We will be up in the area around Inverness next,” he said, “We will look at everything which is legally able to be scheduled. Six teams of two inspectors look at the sites to get an idea of what is left there.”

Scheduled ancient monuments are sites, buildings and other features of artificial construction protected by the Scottish ministers under the terms of the 1979 act. There are more than 7500 in Scotland. They include an extraordinary range of monuments including prehistoric chambered tombs, stone circles, Roman forts and ruined castles.

It’s been sometime since I reported on the progress of the management of Carnac so here’s how it’s looking these days.
The green fences are still in place inspite of plans two years ago to replace them with something more sympathetic. Summer access to the Alignements is still limited to the official tours although, as before, there is limited open access in the winter months.
Some efforts have been made to clean up a few sites. A path has been cut through the gorse to Kerluir for example! Also the Petit Menec Alignements appear to have been tidied up a little.
Wooden signposts have been erected to point to some minor sites and also to mark footpaths that avoid walking along the main road in places.
The visitor centre at Kermario is long gone and the Archaeoscope has been converted to a new visitor centre. The plans to move the museum up to Menec seems to have stalled however.
Further afield minor sites continue to become overgrown and signposting and information remains poor.
All in all some improvements have been made but there is still a long way to go.
I will endevour to find out more about any future plans and post them up here.

A project spanning five continents is aiming to map the history of human migration via DNA.

The Genographic Project will collect DNA samples from over 100,000 people worldwide to help piece together a picture of how the Earth was colonised.

Full story on the beeb

Burying treasures

There are no guarantees against development of land that is ‘protected’ or part of a national park. Paul Evans on how hundreds of sites are at risk

Wednesday April 13, 2005
The Guardian

Thornborough Henges, in the Vale of York near Ripon, is one of the largest complexes of megalithic sites in Britain. But the grassy ring of undulating earthworks – 5 metres high and some 250 metres in diameter, with other great rings beyond – is no Stonehenge. There are no signs guiding tourists to the site, no interpretation boards, ticket kiosks, or gift shops, just a fence and a locked gate.

You know when you get to this important archaeological site because of the sound of bulldozers. Thornborough Henges has Britain’s largest quarrying operation on prehistoric land. Nosterfield Quarry – run by construction firm Tarmac Northern – produces more than 500,000 tonnes of sand and gravel each year and, until last week, the firm was planning to extend its activities all around and right up to the site.

Following protests, it has now agreed not to quarry sand and gravel from the nearby Thornborough Moor, but is applying to expand its existing quarry by 45 hectares (111 acres), which at its closest point will be half a mile away from the nearest of the three Thornborough Henges. A Tarmac spokesman this week said: “We are committed to the protection of the monument and have provided financial assistance to English Heritage for its conservation plan study.”

Although the rings will not be damaged, much of the historical landscape around them has already been destroyed by generations of quarrying, – something inconceivable at Stonehenge or at many sites of far less historical importance in the south of England.

David Austin, a landscape archaeologist and co-editor of the journal Landscapes is appalled. “Thornborough Henges have had a presence in the landscape for 5,000 years and every fibre of that [wider] landscape can tell us something about deep histories. But if this is stripped out by quarrying, we lose that history. We’re back to year zero. It’s an archaeological Pol Pot.” The problem is that landscape protection in Britain is arbitrary, eccentric and frequently unable to stop the bulldozers. Almost one in three of Britain’s designated 7,100 sites of special scientific interest (SSSI) are not in their target condition, and national parks and many sites of historical, ecological and cultural value are under threat from large scale developments.

The Welsh assembly has recently demanded that sand and gravel beds in the Usk estuary, which has SSSI status, be protected from future mining. Morlais Owen, chair of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales says: “These potential sand beds have not been evaluated for their quality, nor has there been an environmental impact assessment.”

In Britain SSSI have been obliterated to make way for the Newbury bypass, the Twyford Down road, the M6 toll road, Fairmile, Manchester airport, and the Cardiff Bay development. It seems that having legal protection is just asking for trouble.

The problem, says the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is that no government has had the guts to revoke the archaic planning system that 50 years ago handed out mineral extraction permissions. According to Andy Tickle, senior countryside campaigner at the CPRE, these “dormant” quarries in national parks are “ticking time-bombs”.

A recent report by Friends of the Peak District National Park revealed that there are 119 permissions in national parks across England: including 46 in the Peak District, 27 in the Lake District, 16 on Dartmoor and 14 in the Yorkshire Dales. All could re-open at any time until 2042.

More than a third of these old permissions have not been reviewed and 20 quarries are still working without any modern environmental control. Moreover, progress on closing damaging quarries using “prohibition orders” has been poor.

“There are still quarry sites in national parks and elsewhere that have not been reviewed and are working with no environmental impact assessment or control because of a presumption that permission was given years ago. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has said it will bring these quarries back under control, but it hasn’t done so yet,” says Tickle.

At Backdale Quarry in Derbyshire’s Peak District National Park, quarrying restarted in July 2003. The operator, Merrimans of Leicester, had been given permission to remove a small amount of limestone in order to reach a vein of mineral fluorspar. But 175,000 tonnes of limestone later – which was sold as construction aggregate – and the fluorspar is still there.

The national park authority ordered Merrimans to stop in January, but the decision is being appealed against and next week will go to a public inquiry.

Just a few miles from Backdale quarry at Stanton Lees, protesters have for five years been camped out to try to protect the bronze age Nine Ladies stones from quarrying. Operator Stancliffe Stone is taking the Peak District National Park authority to court over its classification of the quarry as dormant. Stancliffe claims the quarry is active and that working it would not impact on the ancient monument.

“If the national park loses it will be awful,” says Dot McGahan, a CPRE director. “Stancliffe could start quarrying or trade the site for another.”

The quarry industry is pragmatic. “To close quarries down would mean a local authority buying out the owners,” says Duncan Pollock, planning director of the Quarry Products Association (QPA). “In the Peak District National Park it would mean the park authority buying 137m tonnes of the permitted reserves at £5 per tonne.”

Quarrying is believed to provide up to 10% of the UK’s GDP. According to the QPA, each person in the UK generates 4 tonnes of aggregates a year (about 240m tonnes in total) and every new house uses 60 tonnes of quarry products. The Treasury’s recent review of future housing needs by Kate Barker suggests that for supply to meet demand, 140,000 new houses must be built every year. That means some 8.4m extra tonnes of stone will have to be quarried annually.

Despite the demand being talked up in government plans, the QPA does not believe that there will be a significant increase in aggregate extraction. “During the construction boom of the 1980s the UK market was being supplied with 300m tonnes of aggregate,” explains Jerry McLaughlin, a spokesman for QPA. “Today, the market is 200m tonnes of extracted aggregates and 65m tonnes of recycled material.”

Although the association has a four-point plan that aims to control or phase out extraction from protected areas, it believes that if it is forced out of quarrying reserves in the Peak District and North Yorkshire, the industry would have to exploit other areas such as the East Midlands and Wales.

Not surprisingly, the QPA is not in favour of the aggregates levy, a tax on quarry companies to provide funds for communities suffering from thundering lorries, noise and dust from quarrying on their doorsteps. “The levy is a way of collecting money for the Treasury,” says Pollock, “and is no incentive to improving local operations.”

Back at Thornborough, it is not the henges that sit as ruins on the landscape; they have weathered the past 5,000 years. Instead, it is the landscape that is ruined.

The printed article includes a large image of the central henge credited to www.timewatch.org

society.guardian.co.uk/environment/story/0,14124,1457896,00.html

Heritage Action fundraising CD: ‘Earthworks‘

A twelve track CD, released to raise funds for Heritage Action. Heritage Action was formed in 2003 by ‘ordinary people caring for extraordinary places’, in response to the neglect of the ancient prehistoric sites of Britain and Ireland.

Covering an eclectic mix of musical styles, the CD features both established and unsigned artists who care about our ancient heritage. From gentle acoustic to banging techno, ska to spacey jam, ambient to indie guitar and folk/dub to funk.

01. Tex la Homa – The Circle (Dub Mix) 03.34
02. Tarantism – Bless My Friends 04.41
03. Silverspace – Salsify 08.29
04. Rebelation – Politrics 03.44
05. Zone Fluffy – Chumblefunk 09.00
06. A Show of Hands – Crooked Man (Live Version) 03.55
07. Twin Hazey – Awaiting The Arrival 03.18
08. Subgiant – Solstice Morning 05.11
09. Zion Train – Zion High (Banco de Gaia remix) 06.30
10. Celtica – UFS 23 07.12
11. X03 – Procession to the Omphalos (World Tree Mix) 05.55
12. Judge Tev – Yer all Gonna Die 03.14

Total: 65.12

The CD can be ordered from the Heritage Action online shop at heritageaction.org for £8.99 + P&P.

We would like to say a heartfelt thanks to all the artists who contributed to this CD for free. All profits from the sale of this CD will go towards helping to run Heritage Action (a not-for-profit voluntary group), and fighting to stem the tide of destruction facing our ancient heritage.

Heritage Action is a rallying point for anyone who feels that society is deaf to the threats to heritage places, especially the most threatened of all, our most ancient sites.

We want to help individual voices to be heard loud and clear by the public, the media and the authorities.

We believe that this generation holds its heritage in trust for future generations and we should never break this trust. From this comes our single purpose — to build a powerful voice for action on all threatened heritage places.

We aim to promote an appreciation of the value of these places, highlight threats to them, and encourage the public to become involved in responsible but vigorous action to preserve them.

Each individual threat needs publicity and, if necessary, pressure on site owners, commercial interests, local authorities, and heritage bodies.

For more info about Heritage Action and our campaigns, please visit our website at heritageaction.org

Source: Heritage Action

A 2.34 million year old site in Kenya has shown that early human species were skilled stone knappers. They chose their rocks carefully and discarded those which, after a couple of trial strikes, were unsuitable.

Full story here... newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624944.200