Summer Silbury.
Image credit: A. Brookes (10.6.2023)
Images
Approaching evening in failing winter light.
Image credit: A. Brookes (5.2.2022)
Image credit: David Cook
Watery Silbury today, the weekend of the Spring Equinox. Strange times, it felt almost otherworldly walking up Waden Hill in the late afternoon sunshine – as the country prepares for lockdown.
Image credit: tjj
Silbury from the edge of Avebury village.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.2.2019)
Close-up from the road.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.2.2019)
Winter wonderland Silbury from the knee-deep snow on Waden Hill.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.2.2019)
10th December 2018.
Image credit: David Cook
12 April 2015 CE
Through morning mist from Waden.
Image credit: A. Brookes (22.12.2017)
October 2017
Image credit: Michael Mitchell
October 2017
Image credit: Michael Mitchell
October 2017
Image credit: Michael Mitchell
Silbury Hill surrounded by mist shortly after dawn
Image credit: Ken Williams - Facebook.com/ShadowsandStone
Zooming in from Windmill hill.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Zoomed at from the Sanctuary.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Silbury before a cloudy Midwinter sunset, from Waden Hill.
Image credit: A. Brookes (22.12.2016)
Image credit: Silbury Hill - Tim Knight - Secret Landscape Photography
Silbury, midwinter dusk.
Image credit: A. Brookes (20.12.2015)
Open Source Environment agency LIDAR
Image credit: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015.
Silbury today in winter sunlight – kestrel hovering.
Image credit: tjj
22/03/2015 – Silbury Hill
Image credit: texlahoma
Image credit: Kenny Gloster Feb 2014
May 2013
Image credit: Michael Mitchell
Silbury by Paul Nash 1935
Image credit: Paul Nash
Silbury moon, July 2013
Image credit: texlahoma
Image credit: texlahoma
July 2013
Image credit: texlahoma
Silbury from Avebury, Winter 2012 after record levels of rainfall.
Image credit: A. Brookes (15.12.2012)
Silbury from Avebury, after the wettest Autumn on record.
Image credit: A. Brookes (15.12.2012)
Playing the Silbury game, on the trackway near Snake's Lane Plantation – a few yards on and Windmill Hill blocks the view.
Image credit: A. Brookes (15.12.2012)
Silbury Sunrise panoramic
Image credit: Graeme Field
Upside down reflection of Silbury
Image credit: Graeme Field
7th September 2012.
Image credit: David Cook
24/3/12 Michael Dames reads from "The Silbury Treasure"
Image credit: texlahoma
Image credit: texlahoma
Image credit: texlahoma
7/1/12
Image credit: texlahoma
The mist lifting
Image credit: tjj
View from Windmill Hill
Image credit: Gingertrailertrash
Taken From the Sanctuary
Image credit: Gingertrailertrash
'Silbury Hill' 20x24" acrylic on canvas. Forgive the little inaccuracies and artistic licence, it’s as much an emotional response as supposed to be representational. Managed to get back to see my dear Silbury after many years living up North, and it was a bit emotional!
Image credit: Nicki MacRae
Silbury Hill close to Sunset
Image credit: Photobabe
Looking from just below WKLB just after sunrise.
Image credit: A R Cane
Silbury Hill – Wiltshire
Image credit: Ministry of Works Postcard
Top of Silbury, after the collapse was filled.
Image credit: megadread
With WKLB on the skyline to the left.
Image credit: A. Brookes (28.12.10)
(Not quite) seen from Waden Hill.
Image credit: A. Brookes (28.12.10)
Samhain Silbury – in the pale afternoon sun.
Image credit: tjj
Silbury in the afternoon
Image credit: Photobabe
Sunset for Silbury
Our beloved Silbury Hill from guess where...
Image credit: Photobabe
A monument built by farmers, eh. Where did they get that idea, then?
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Viewed near East Kennett long barrow. West Kennett long barrow is visible to its left.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
After the rain.
Image credit: A. Brookes (8.6.2010)
Under a lowering sky, from Waden Hill.
Image credit: A. Brookes (8.6.2010)
Sunset over Silbury from west Kennet long barrow, solstice 2010.
Image credit: megadread
stones in the moat, no one ever mentions these, thanks Peteg for pointing them out.
Image credit: megadread
In all her glory from the Winterbourne path.
Image credit: megadread
Waden Hill covered with cow parsley and dandelion clocks. Summer Silbury.
Image credit: tjj
Plate from the Merewether excavations of Silbury Hill on display in the Alexander Keiller Museum
Image credit: Alexander Keiller Museum
Interpretation of the various building stages of Silbury Hill
Image credit: MDM Props Ltd. Hearne Hill - London
Silbury Hill as seen from East Kennet Long Barrow
Image credit: Photobabe
Image credit: Photobabe
Image credit: Photobabe
Image credit: Photobabe
Seems like such a long time ago...
Image credit: Photobabe
Silbury Under the Spotlight...
Image credit: Photobabe
England's own Pyramid or crashed spaceship?
Image credit: Photobabe
Reflections of Silbury
Image credit: tjj
Seen from the northern edge of Milk Hill along Wansdyke, to the south.
Image credit: A. Brookes (21.2.2010)
Image credit: http://www.isleofalbion.co.uk/
Mrs Dixon's B&B view again. Like the way the sunlight highlights the folds (or ceremonial pathway) towards the top of the mound.
The view from our bedroom window while staying at Mrs Dixon's B&B, May Bank Holiday 09.
Silbury with WKLB to the left, and EKLB behind the camera, with WKLB facing towards Overton Hill
Viewed from the path on the walk from Avebury to West Kennet.
In support/explanation of Nigel Swift's larger earth image, located on one side of Silbury Hill, and done in a black and white image, I outlined the Queen/King vague image which appears on the opposite side. My strength in my image-theories is based on color manipulation, so in black and white imagery, the Queen/King faint articulations are not as emphasized (even I had major difficulties pinpointing facial features within the stone portraits).
In fact, once Nigel has seen the comparisons, I do not see any need to retain this image, as it is in fact a duplication of my original. It probably should be deleted within days.
Where else can I post temporary image answers to valid questions? Thank you.
Image credit: Ed Ziomek
On my Birthday 2009
Image credit: texlahoma
Silbury in Spring
Image credit: Photobabe
Silbury Hill from Oldbury Castle – You have to look for it as its well camouflaged!
Image credit: Photobabe
Walking up the old path to Silbury Hill
Kodak Black and White Infra Red Film with Red R25 Filter
Image credit: Chance - August 19 1987
Now you see me, now you don't! Silbury Hill or Chameleon Hill?
Image credit: Photobabe
The magnificent and snowy Silbury Hill basking in the sunshine – well, just!
Image credit: Photobabe
Crisp morning from the Avebury car-park
Image credit: A.Brookes (7.12.2008)
Silbury Hill after repair
Image credit: Chance - May 2008
Cloudbursts over the Hill...
Image credit: Photobabe
Four small sarsen stones lying alongside some of the steelwork taken from the Atkinson Tunnel, and now in the English Heritage/Skanska compound at the base of Silbury Hill.
Image credit: Anonymous
One of the many thousands of bags, seemingly made of woven polypropylene, used for the dividing walls within the Atkinson/BBC tunnel.
Image credit: anonymous
Silbury from the Winterbourne
Image credit: Littlestone
Image credit: Littlestone
Silbury during the Lammas Celbration 2007.
German Harp player in Celtic dress.
Infill works in background.
Image credit: Chance of Chippenham
Silbury with Aliens ..... "removed" ...........
21st July 2007 Why did it rain so much that weekend, maybe the" Mothers" way of saying enough is enough. DO NOT MESS WITH FORCES YOU CANNOT CONTROL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Image credit: Snap
Earlier this year
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2007
There's a definite snarling face in this photo of a core sample taken from within Silbury...
Image credit: Alan S> (capture from English Heritage Video)
Over simplified Antiquarians diagram of Silbury Hill. (illustration circa 1869).
Note the 'nipple' of the great goddess graphically illustrated at the top.
Image credit: J Thurnam
B+W Illustration of Silbury, from 'Where Green Roads Meet' by R Hippisley Cox.
Image credit: Unknown
Image credit: Photobabe
Image credit: by heptangle
Image credit: Rebecca van der Putt
Taken from Avebury Henge (south) 8/5/06
Image credit: Donny McIntyre
Image credit: Bawn79
"I have no scruple to affirm it is the most magnificent mausoleum in the world, without excepting the Egyptian pyramids.”
William Stukeley.
Image credit: Mc. Gahey.
Sunset over Silbury
Image credit: Photobabe
From the top of Silbury Hill... looking towards Avebury
Image credit: Photobabe
The Hill... a bee's eye view?
Image credit: Photobabe
Alternative view of Silbury from the road into Avebury
Image credit: treehugger-uk
The 'Corn Moon' shining over the Shadow of Silbury Hill.... (19th Aug '05 at 9.30pm-ish)
Image credit: Photobabe
Sunrise from the other side of the hill....
Image credit: Photobabe
Summer Solstice sunrise from W. Kennet.
Image credit: Jimit June 2005
Silbury Hill through the eyes of West Kennet Long Barrow
Image credit: photobabe
An older shot from somewhere or other of Silbury Hill...
Image credit: Photobabe
Bath Time(?)or time to get one's skates on at Silbury Hill in January of 2001
Image credit: Photobabe
On the approach from Avebury via the fields...
Image credit: Photobabe
'Golden winter dawn at Silbury'
watercolour
(c) Jane Tomlinson, 2004
...with thanks to Pete G for providing the initial inspiration.
(Apologies for the horrible scan.)
Image credit: Jane Tomlinson
Image credit: texlahoma
Summer Solstice Sunset 2004
Image credit: Russell Honeyman
Just to prove that I do sometimes leave Cornwall...mid May, Silbury from West Kennet
From the Sanctuary. The newly (re) discovered mound is in the trees at middle distance. A possible alignment?
Image credit: Jimit 2004
So the urge had finally caught up with me! A brief tour of the country had taken in a brief glimpse of Silbury Hill and the shortest stop on record for visit to Avebury. How impressive both these sites are and how full of history the area must be. I felt shame that I did not know much about this area despite my professed interest in Neolithic monuments. I have a copy of TMA at home and I had glanced at the pages concerning this area but had never had the drive to get up and visit it for any sustained amount of time. This was not a good situation and had to come to an end!
Returning home to Yorkshire after my brief UK tour I made plans to return within the next few days. Gourging myself on knowledge from TMA and more helpfully from fieldnotes made by members of this site, I drew up an itinerary and set off to the Marlborough Downs, well, almost…
I had convinced my father to come along, he had a couple of days off work and I was on holiday from mine. We booked a youth hostel in Stow on the Wold, an attractive village in the Cotswolds and not a million miles away from the Rollright Stones. What a good place to start. True they are not part of the Avebury complex but they are well known and they would provide the perfect first stop off point. Upon reaching said monument I was appalled by what I saw…
The stones had been daubed with yellow paint, each and every one, an April fools gag by all accounts. A notice on the board near to the stones said that the cost of removing the paint would run to a minimum of £30,000. Why so high? Well the paint has seriously damaged the lichen growing on the stones. The lichen, which is said to be 800 years old, is one of the oldest recorded colonies in Britain. A £1000 reward has been posted to anyone who has information leading to the capture of the mindless fools who did this and a local coven of white witches have cursed the perpetrators for their actions.
As fortune would have it, the other monuments in the complex had not been touched by the paint smearing vandals. The King stone looked impressive in the afternoon sun but what a shame that it was caged behind iron bars. The stone is said to be that of a king in days gone by, a witch promised him Britain if he could see the nearby town of Long Compton. He couldn't see it because his line of site was impaired by a nearby hill. The poor guy was turned to stone as his reward and his men became the rollrights. A bit harsh I thought, especially now that this area seems to be a favoured picnic spot amongst young couples. Mind you, who could blame them, the view down from the stone to the valley below is wonderful.
The other part of the complex are the Whispering Knights located in the field opposite from the Kings stone and at the same side of the road but further down from the Rollrights. These poor guys seemed to get ignored by the many tourists who came to look at the circle whilst we were there. I'm not sure that a lot of the people visiting actually knew that they were there quietly nestling at the far end of the field. I can't quite understand this apathy as it really isn't a long walk to them.
We arrived in Stow on the Wold only the check in and to go straight back out. I had spotted a couple of alleged monuments on the 'Cotswolds Tourist Map' recently purchased from the local information centre. This whole area is deep in old roman territory and there are plenty of links to that era, from villas to the road on which we travelled south the monuments spotted on our map, the Fosse Way.
Our first destination of the ever darkening evening was to see something called the Hangmans stone! Very macabre we anticipated it being a most impressive monument, alas what we got couldn't have been further from the truth. If the truth is known the monument was so unimpressive I can't even be sure whether we found it or not. Although I am convinced that we did find two sarsens, of sorts, however these were most certinaly not in their original positions. They had been the victims of field clearance and now made up a wall which penned in a number of growing saplings.
We had a job to find these stones. The map directed us to the village of Northleach, we took the road to Oxpens Farm and it was just after the turn off for there that we parked. Having searched around the area for the Hangmans stone, it was concluded that the only sarsens of note that this could be were they stones making up this wall. I would very much like to be proved wrong some day by antiquarians with much better stone finding abilities than me but for now it appears that these make up Hangmans stone.
Following on from this disappointment we headed towards the next alleged monument, the Hoar Stone. This was situated off the A417 towards Cirencester, taking the turnoff towards Duntisbourne Leer. The 'stone' is situated to the left in the middle of a field before the first turnoff to your left once through the village. Of course its not just a stone but a long barrow, and it is noticeable. The capstone is still there along with another dominant stone which now has a tree growing next to it. After the debacle of the Hangmans stone, this was a very pleasing result!!!
We then headed to the village of Bisley, not a million miles away, but, because of the way the roads ran, it may have well been. As the crow flies the distance between the Giants Stone near to Bisley and the Hoar stone was not far at all but the fact that it took 40 minutes to get there testifys to the difficulty of navigating the roads in this part of the world.
The Giants stone is allegedly located on the road out of Bisley towards Battlescombe. This road ends and there the stone should be on the right. It was a case of déjà vu because despite a thorough sweep of the area I could not find it for love nor money. I did find however a number of inquisitive sheep and a road that should have ended but didn't which added to my confusion. Next time I shall arm myself with an OS map and use the visitors map for reference only.
We returned via the viewpoint at Barrow Wake near Gloucester and bedded down for the night, in, as it customary in youth hostels, a dormitory full of men!!!
I awoke of 5 to the sound of rumbling, I attempted to get back to sleep but could not. What was this noise? Could it be my stomach? No I had eaten before I retired! Could it be an earthquake? Don't be silly we don't get earthquakes here, not severe ones anyway! Could it be the guy in the bunk opposite snoring his head off and preventing me from a good nights kip? Of course it was!!!
Actually although I was bitter at the time, the gentleman and his nasal orchestra did me a favour by not allowing me back to sleep. For without this disruption I would not have gotten up, and if I had not have got up, I would not have set off in the early hours to the Uffington White Horse.
The roads were clear and dawn was beginning to break as we left the hostel. We wound our way through the many picture postcard villages of the area and ended up at the White Horse for 7 in the morning. Not another soul was around, it was slighty damp and dreary but this mattered not one jot as the peace was serene. With great forethought we had prepared a flask with the intention of enjoying a cup of tea at the top, there our plan was to drink it and soak up the wonderful views of the valley known as the Manger below.
Legend abounds this area, the favourite of mine being that the horse is actually a representation of the Dragon slain by St. George. The place of said slaying was upon the nearby Dragon Hill. This seemingly unnaturally shaped hill boasts a large chalk patch upon its summit on which nothing will grow. This patch is said to be the place where the Dragons blood fell and hence will remain forever barren.
Further up from the White Horse towards the Ridgeway is Uffington Castle, an iron age hill fort upon which evidence of great wooden structures were found, as well as an iron age coin. People residing in this place chose a good vantage point, it was possible to see for miles even on a damp overcast days such as this.
The next point of call when in this area has to be Waylands Smithy! We joined the Ridgeway having crossed over the castle ramparts and headed west to walk the one and a half miles towards it. The walk dragged a bit. The Ridgeway in this section is not particularly exciting and therefore seems longer than it is. At one point we thought we'd taken a wrong turn and had to ask a jogger for confirmation of where the Smithy was. Sure enough though it was there sitting within a copse in the middle of a field. The Smithy was also looking surprisingly well maintained for its age. I wondered aloud if this was because of its proximity to the White Horse.
Excavations in 1919 revealed the skeletons of 8 adults and 1 child within the two main chambers and further excavations in 1962 revealed 14 more. The place gets its name from the blacksmith who lived there. It was said that if you left your horse tethered along with some coins on the stone overnight, then the horse would be found shod come morning.
Waylands Smithy is of course not really a Smithy but a long barrow and is believed to date from around 3400BCE. From within its chambers we poured another cup of tea and decided upon which spot would be easiest to get to next…
Now Swindon is not the sort of town you would normally associate with the Neolithic, true its proximity to some of the great sites is enviable but Swindon is very much a sprawling 'new town'. It therefore came as a great surprise to see a stone circle marked on the OS map just south of the place between Coate and Coate Country Park at 183.824.
The circle is very easy to miss for there is nothing on the site to say what it is and the stones are unspectacular at best. We drove straight past and headed towards the huge ringroad at the end of the lane which was of course far too far. On our return we spotted the stones laying in an ark in the farmers field opposite the first barn we came to. Five stones were all that I could see but I dare say it would have been fairly sizeable. From the remaining stones you can indeed get a good idea of its size. A brief glance over towards the farm buildings revealed nothing that could have been the second half of the circle but condsidering the building work going on in that area this was not suprising.
Time was now stretching on and we decided to try and get a bite to eat. Our next destination was to be the hill fort at Barbury Castle, an area which is now a country park. Upon arriving our delight was assured by the presence of a café which sold full English breakfasts. We were not the only people there, the area seemed to be popular with dog walkers and families.
The area has been settled for many years probably due to its dominant position overlooked everything it surveys. Bronze age disc barrows have been discovered at the site as well as later Iron age burials. Legend has it also that the site was the scene of a great battle between the Saxons and the celts in around 550CE. A battle, which, may have gone a long way to the establishment of the kingdom of Wessex.
From the castle we set off towards Winterbourne Bassett where we had heard there was a stone circle. Again using the fieldnotes taken from this site (very helpful thank you) we found the place without any difficulty. Marking the site is an outlying stone at the junction of the road, opposite, over a style in the field the two nearest stones of the circle can be seen. Upon further inspection I found four more. Although the site has probably suffered damage in years past I was able to gain a sense of how it could have looked. There are three outlying stones which form a triangle around the four inner stones. The four inner stones are positioned in such a way that it would be feasible to assume that at some point there would have been a fifth which would have made up the circle.
Afterward we decided to head toward the white horse figure carved onto the nearby hackpen hill which overlooks this area. As we drove toward it at OS ref 118.757 in the field to our left we saw what appeared to be a standing stone. There was no reference to it anywhere so far as I could see, but it was there, approximately 50 yards from the road. I have posted it on this site to see what everyone else thinks. The horse in the background certinaly gave it a good backdrop although that is anything but Neolithic.
One place that had intrigued me since reading about it in the TMA was that of Marlborough Mount, alleged to be a close relative of Silbury Hill yet laying neglected in the grounds of a private school. The mound from which the town takes its name is indeed seemingly forgotten about by the locals. There is no plaque, the mound is overgrown and untidy and on top is a horrendous construction which I believe is a water tank.
The setting however within Marlborough college promises much. Although you wouldn't expect to walk into a school to see such a monument as soon as you do it becomes apparent that this is no ordinary school. It is the sort of school with rebellious rich kids sporting foppish hairstyles, blazers, oversize suits and shirt tails hanging out over their trousers. The sort of school which best resembles the typical English sterotype of the way all schools in this country are no matter how untrue.
The grounds are lovingly and painstakingly manicured, but the mound that was there before the school was even thought of, has been left to overgrow and the vast majority of the pupils there probably have no idea of its potential importance.
From the mount after wandering through the lovely town of Marlborough we headed towards the Devils Den, a dolmen of which I am convinced only part of remains. The rest of the structure seems to be lying in clearance at the edge of the field.
We parked upon the verge of the road next to the farm and walked the alleged one and a half miles towards the monument, our guidance on distance being taken from a very weathered signpost at the entrance of the track leading to the site.
Just beyond a quaint looking barn in a field beyond and to the left lies the dolmen. It looks impressive just as structures like these should look. Seeing the rest of the stones laying along the side of the field however make you despair. That they must have been once something to do with this monument seems obvious. I wonder how much grander it would have appeared with them in situ.
But the day was now beginning to become long. There are lots of things to see in this area and in the limited time that we had, we sure were packing them in. Soon it would be time to bed down in the sweet B & B we had booked in the tiny hamlet of Winterbourne Abbas.
Tomorrow would be just as full a day but first we had more pressing things to do like visit Avebury, the legendary Silbury Hill and a former timber temple on a place called Overton Hill, the Sanctuary.
The sanctuary was just that, in days gone by, a huge timber structure, the postholes of which have now been filled with horrendous concrete blocks. The Sanctuary looks down upon the valley below and must have played a significant part in the pre-history of this area. Of course it would have been more Sanctuary like had the A4 not been directly next to it and the lorries did not thunder past at such breakneck speeds.
Next door to the circle are the Seorfon Barrows immediately noticeable if approaching from Marlborough. The burial mounds sit proud upon the brow of the hill and appear to form the arched back of some long forgotten serpent. I counted four on the other side of the road from the Sanctuary and a much more overgrown one on the path leading down the Sanctuary side.
Now for the main event, my father despite cycling around the area in his youth had never visited the place. He had heard about it of course but without ever really seeing Avebury I can imagine that it is difficult to understand just how impressive this site is. As soon as you enter and see the town, whether it be along the Avenue of Stones or any other way, the sight is breathtaking and awe-inspiring.
We chose to park in the NT car park and set off not towards the town, but towards Silbury Hill. There is a path that leads there from opposite the entrance to the car park. The path runs along the lovely River Kennett and the hill is only a short hike really. The river can be crossed at a sweet little bridge and the path turns and heads towards West Kennett and the Silbury Hill car park. Access to the hill is now forbidden in order to help preserve the monument. Truly this is an amazing structure and along with the Avebury stones has to go down as one of the wonders of England.
Back over the bridge the path leads up toward Waden Hill, Silburys more natural neighbour. At the time we clambered up the hill was lush with green and the flowers of Spring. Given the lovely blue sky nothing could have been more perfect at that moment. The view of Silbury in the background was exquisite and once on top the view of the surrounding area, divine.
We headed down from the hill into the Avenue of Stones and walked through until we came to the edge of the village. We entered and walked along the path at the top of the earthwork on the rim of the village, breathtaking. Some of the stones are now fenced off in order to protect them but the majority you can reach out and touch. The village itself is delightful some nice and interesting books and spiritual bits and pieces can be found in the local shops.
From the village our last stop of the day was to be West Kennett long barrow. We hopped in the car and drove the short distance there (our legs now far too tired to carry us far) and parked in the layby at the side of the road. As the time was now dusk, the only people we saw were walking back from the barrow. Once there we had the place to ourselves. The chambers are impressive, as is the façade and the barrow itself is lovingly maintained, the view from the top was wonderful too. During excavation of the barrow in 1956, the remains of 46 people were found within its chambers.
Having finished for the day we headed back to Marlborough and dined in the Bear pub apparently renowned for its fish and chips. We enjoyed them and a starter of leek soup before we were joined by the local town crier on an ale tasting mission. By all accounts as part of his responsibilities he has to taste the ale and issue a certificate accordingly. We wondered at the time if after he'd done he'd go to the local kebab house and sample one of those too.
The siting for our stay that evening could not have been better. Winterbourne Abbas allowed us to investigate the areas of interest around the Vale of Pewsey of which there were many.
Having polished off a lovely organic full English breakfast in the morning we headed to our first point of call which was Pewsey Church. We had heard that sarsen stones made up the base of the church at certain points and we were eager to take a look.
Sure enough as you walked up to the entrance of the church and went along the right hand wall there they were. Three stones making up keystones to the base of the church. As the church was on a hill I wondered aloud whether, if there ever was a stone circle in Pewsey, then this may have been the location. Local legend has it that one was destroyed so its not an unfeasible thought I daresay.
Further into the village beyond the co-op car park and nestling next to the bridge crossing the stream stand what could possibly be the remains of the monument. They form a border with the path at this point and to my mind must have been placed there by town planners. Clearance stones probably connected with these possibly with the stones at Pewsey church nestled unloved in the background. The stones themselves were nestled at the foot of the hill upon which the church now stands. Maybe this was the location of an original circle and the keystones were moved up to the church who knows!!
Heading out of the village we set off for a place known as Swanborough Tump. A great battle was fought here in the year 871 and people with the name Swanborough can link there ancestary back to this. I wasn't expecting to be able to see much. The fieldnotes had warned me of this but what I could see opposite was the brows of two conical imposing hills, Picked Hill and Woodborough hill. Picked Hill particularly was imposing its conical shape reminded me of Silbury and Marlborough Mount. Its neighbour Woodborough too had the same shape. I again wondered whether all these hills could have one point been linked.
Heading past the tump we decended upon the village of Woodborough. Here a holed stone lays at the side of the road with a plaque in front dedicating it to the memory of people who fought for peace and freedom in the fifty years since the end of world war 2. The map reference for the stone is 108.568.
History abounds this place and from Woodborough we headed to a place which this time was actually marked on the Ordance Survey. A place known as the hanging stone. We actually took a wrong turn and ended up at the nearby Hursts Farm. There we encountered the farmers wife and her children with their quad bikes. We asked for directions and although the farmers wife didn't know anything about the stone the kids certinaly did. They directed us to it and also told us a legend about how years ago a sheep thief got his cape stuck on the stone when trying to escape the clutches of an angry farmer. It got stuck so fast that the cape actually strangled the thief to death hence the name hanging stone
The stone was approximately a half mile down the track heading straight on past the barn. To the right a number of sarsens the victims of field clearance and at one point probably part of this monument nestled forgotten in a copse. Further up the Hanging stone protruded through the ploughed field. We headed on up thankful that the weather had dried out the land otherwise we would have gotten very muddy.
Returning to the car from the stone we headed to our next Christianised site, that of St. Marys Church, Alton Priors. It is confusing because there are too churches and one is signposted from the road 'St. Marys Saxon Church' go there if you like but this is not the one of Neolithic interest.
A further bonus other than the church and the pleasant setting about Alton Priors is the sarsen stone sitting directly in the middle of the village. We discovered from an elderly local that the stone had been originally placed in a nearby field and removed unfortunately he did not remember in which field it was discovered. Upon the stone is a carving of the horse which stands proud on the hill overlooking the village. The horse was carved by an American expert in crop circles who comes to the village every year to discuss the crop circle frenzy around these parts. The centre of his organisation actually meet in a pub nearby called the Barge Inn alas we didn't have time to go in.
Down from the sarsen is the church, situated in a lovely field absolutely choca-block full of barrows. The church grounds are fenced off from the field and you need to clamber over a style to get into them. It's a pretty church of that there is no doubt, in the grounds there is a lovely Yew tree which, it is claimed, is 1700 years old.
Inside the church, which is no longer in constant use, the first trap door in the floor can be seen. Lifting it up reveals the sarsen itself. Whoever laid this floor had good foresight in thinking that people may come here just to see that. There is another trapdoor nearer the front of the church but it cannot be lifted up as there is a makeshift step which has been built over it.
Next step was another highlight of the trip. Again having read about the place in TMA I was intrigued and wanted to go. The location? Hatfield Barrow near the village of Marden. A structure not unlike Silbury in its day and scandalously destroyed. Whats worse, the remains of said barrow where bulldozed to one side by the farmer in later years.
I expected to have trouble finding it as all the sources said that there was nothing left to see. However we did have an approximate location on a makeshift map and when we arrived at the point on the map, directly opposite in a field was an information plaque. The plaque told the unhappy tale of this once great monument and we had found it much easier than expected.
There were mounds and ridges to be seen alright but I found it difficult to determine the exact location of the barrow especially following the bulldozing. But, at least I had been, in the flat landscape it would have stood out like a beacon. I can well imagine this too being part of the great Avebury complex.
We set off back up the road towards Knap Hill and prepared ourselves for a bit of walking. The weather was pleasant and in this particular area there were many hills of importance that we needed to climb. Knap Hill was the closest so we parked the car at the foot of the hill and clambered up. At the top of all the hills in this area are earthworks we clambered past the ditches and headed for the top from which we had the most tremendous of views. Golden Ball Hill, Adams Grave, Picked Hill and I should think at one point we would have been able to see Hatfield Barrow.
Along from the summit we headed for Golden Ball Hill. Slightly higher this is special because evidence of really ancient civilisations have been found here in the form of flint floors. Nothing much remains of the excavations now and it was quite impossible to guess where the excavations where other than assume the various indentions in the ground where them. I'd have liked there to have been a plaque or information board on some sort. If this place is indeed where the first settlers came to then I'd consider that a more than important piece of history.
From the top the views where again magnificent although, perhaps on account of the odd bush and tree the wind was not as severe as when on Knap Hill. From the summit both Knap and Adams Grave from the angle looking like a humped back bridge.
Wandering down the side of Golden Ball Hill earthworks dominate there are lots of them. The early settlers perhaps choosing here because of the view and the fact that it was actually quite sheltered from the wind.
We headed onto Adams Grave, the site of the huge barrow which was discovered on top. Again the walk was relatively easy and the earthworks are substantial, this whole area must have been a place of major importance. At the summit of the barrow again the view was breathtaking. We rested for some time at the top, not through tiredness but through awe. We really were looking through the eyes of the ancients for they had been here and all around this place.
It was with a heavy heart that we descended Adams Grave, hopping into the car with the intention of finding somewhere to stop for a cuppa. Our plan was to find a stream fill our kettle with water and boil it using the primus stove we had brought for such an occasion.
The only stream that we could think of was that near to Silbury and that wasn't a stream at all but a river. We made the decision to head back but on the way noticed an extreme amount of sarsen stones in a field near the village of Lockeridge. This came as a surprise I had not counted on seeing something like this, I wondered what monument this could be.
A plaque at the entrance to the sarsen field revealed that the area was under the protection of the national trust and that the sarsens were the remnants of sandstone deposits formed on the chalk over 30 million years ago. This is the same sort of sarsen that had been used for building material for the past 5000 years. I wondered whether any of the many sarsens around the area could have been taken from this place. It clearly was an important area and in very good proximity to Avebury itself.
We drove on and came to rest in the NT car park in Avebury, water was collected from the river and we drove to Longstone Cove where the plan was to boil it and make tea.
Whilst we sipped I read that Longstone Cove used to be made up of three giant stones not just the two that are now present. The other being used for building material by a Victorian vandal. The two remaining ones don't look that big even from the path but once you approach they are tremendous.
Down the way from the stones is Beckhampton barrow. It seems that now it is much easier to get to than a few years ago. The footpath runs along the side of the farm and there is a gap in the fence to the field on the left which you can wander through. The barrow can be clearly seen in the distance dominating the field with its thick copse of trees growing on top. There is a path that leads alongside so we took it but left it later on to get a better look.
It was difficult to tell where the entrance had been but I later read that it had been destroyed some time before. The whole shape remains though, there are many barrows which don't look like anything but this still does.
Our final destination before heading for the next hostel such outside of Wantage was another long barrow, this time at East Kennett. We headed for the village and parked outside the church. There is a footpath which runs through the farm but which does not officially run past the barrow. We cut through the farm and took a left turn following the tracker trail up towards the barrow. Sitting imposingly on the hilltop. From the barrow we could see all around Silbury and its neighbour at West Kennett. I was disappointed that there were not even any fallen sarsens that I could see which may have made up a façade of some description.
I was content though, the barrow was an impressive one. Huge but overgrown, full of history and possibilities. I'd packed a lot into this tour from Marlborough to Marden we had walked in the footsteps of the ancients.
"By the light of the Silbury Moon", watercolour on paper
Image credit: (c) Jane Tomlinson, 2004
January 10th 2004:
Guardianship Mockery – One of 4 much- used access paths, each without a warning notice within even distant sight.
Image credit: Nigel
Silbury in the mist from the top of Waden Hill
Image credit: Alan S>
Mid Oct 03
Image credit: juswin
Silbury from West Kennet Long Barrow, I found some nice worked flint in this field today amongst the stubble. Oct 03
Image credit: juswin
From Waden Hill
Image credit: Tim Clark
Silbury fromWindmill Hill
Image credit: Tim Clark
From West Kennett Long Barrow
Image credit: Tim Clark
Outstanding in its field
Image credit: Jane Tomlinson
It really does seem even bigger from up here than it does on the ground!
Image credit: Jane Tomlinson
The Silbury game – from the Ridgeway near Delling Copse
Image credit: Tim Clark
Silbury and the Kennet
Silbury and West Kennett long barrow from the hillside above East Kennett long barrow. For me, this view is reason enough to visit East Kennett! (You will need binoculars or a long camera lens for this effect!)
Image credit: Tim Clark
There's not enough poetry on this site, IMHO. After all, it's about feelings, expressed in pictures and fieldnotes, so why shouldn't poetry be used for the same thing.
OK, I'm no Shakespeare, but lack of talent isn't a good reason not to express your feelings, and these are my feelings.
Image credit: Nigel
Circa 1997 – not quite sure!
Image credit: Martin Bull
A photographic record of the 'No War' slogan, appearing atop Silbury regarding the imminence of a Western strike on Iraq. Taken at Imbolc, Feb 2nd 2003 CE.
Silbury Hill in its Winter plumage, taken from Waden Hill.
Feb '99
Image credit: Cursuswalker
Taken in the late '90s (I think): This is Silbury Hill as seen on the approach from the north.
The photo was taken by my good friend Alice, with moral support from Richard (also a friend of great quality). They gave it to me as a birthday present last year. Thanks guys!
Image credit: Alice Goodenough
First view of Silbury Hill from the Ridgeway, just North of the Wansdyke, descending into the Kennett Valley from the South. The very first sign that you have entered the Avebury landscape!
Silbury follows the opposite ridge, Harestone Down, from the Ridgeway in exactly the same way as Julian Cope described happening further to the North, where it skims the top of Waden Hill on the first stretch of the official Ridgeway.
Image credit: Cursuswalker
Silbury Hill from the East. April 2000.
Image credit: Cursuswalker
From West Kennet, taken about 7.30am on the morning of the winter solstice 2002
10/02 Sunrise at Silbury 1st Sept
Taken July 2001 from West Kennet
From the top of the West Kennett Longbarrow. This pic was my PC wallpaper for months...taken May 2000.
Silbury seen from West Kennett Longbarrow.
Still with us ... 01/12/01CE.
Silbury Hill, summer solstice 2001 CE.
Silbury Hill, Wiltshire – July 2000
Silbury Hill, Wiltshire – July 2000
Articles
https://www.bbc.co.uk/articles/c9w3e7yrgkgo
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In August's edition of Current Archaeology, Jim Leary talks about his theory first aired in 'The Story of Silbury Hill'. Did our ancestors build Silbury to mark the source of the Thames. I've always liked this theory.
Interesting article in December's edition of Antiquity "The Giants of Wessex: the chronology of the three largest mounds in Wiltshire, UK" – by Jim Leary and Peter Marshall
Avebury farmer not happy that the field next to Silbury is the focus of the this year's crop circle season – again.
gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/9021983.Last_straw_for_Avebury_farmer/
Another chance to hear Jim Leary talk about the Silbury book ...
JIM LEARY – on The Story of Silbury Hill
Central Library, Regent Circus, Swindon
Tel 01793 463238
7.30pm • 6 May • £5 (£4)
"What do you know about the tallest prehistoric human-made mound in Europe? What do you know about the construction of Neolithic monuments? What do you know about the significance of Silbury Hill to communities that have lived around it and others who come to visit?
Jim Leary, prehistory archaeologist with English Heritage and co-author with David Field of The Story of Silbury Hill, with an introduction by David Attenborough, answers these and many other questions, with some fascinating twenty-first century insights into the significance of this mysterious local mound."
Scroll down:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11621802
Silbury Hill acquired its distinctive shape in more modern times, according to new archaeological evidence.
Silbury Hill is as ancient and enigmatic as Stonehenge. David Attenborough tells Jonathan Jones why he set out to crack it
guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/oct/25/david-attenborough-silbury-hill-bbc
This afternoon I attended an English Heritage tour of the digs taking place at Silbury in the Swallowhead Spring Meadow and the next hillside meadow. Many people attended; the dig is looking specifically at the Roman settlement that appeared on a geophysics survey published in an English Heritage report about five years ago. The findings are being reported here latersilbury.wordpress.com/
and there are information posters at the site of each individual dig (I didn't count them but about six in all).
The last dig we looked at seemed the most intriguing as may be the site of a well. There were small sarsens buried here, the reason why has not yet been determined but it could have been something simply like field clearance. Bits of Roman pottery lying around – everything found will be subjected to optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) tests.
Field trip to the English Heritage archaeological excavation near Silbury Hill, Wiltshire and the Alexander Keiller Museum, Avebury.
Wednesday 1 September 2010.
10.30am – 4pm.
"The Icon Archaeological Group field trip will be visiting a research excavation being undertaken by the Archaeological Projects team at English Heritage. The excavation is evaluation the recently revealed Romano-British settlement located in the fields surrounding Silbury Hill. The day will include a guided tour of the excavation by the project manager as well as the opportunity to hear about the recent Silbury Hill conservation project.
"In the afternoon the field trip will move on to the site of Avebury and a guided tour of the Alexander Keiller Museum.
"A buffet lunch will be provided at the Red Lion Pub, Avebury."
More here – icon.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1284&Itemid=16
"New information has emerged from letters written in 1776 about excavations at Silbury Hill and published for the first time in the new volume of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine."
More here – wiltshireheritagemuseum.blogspot.com/2010/02/silbury-hill-new-find-in-archive.html
Repair works on an ancient monument in Wiltshire have been temporarily halted because of the recent heavy rain. ... more here;-
Engineers are to re-open a tunnel that goes deep inside the ancient monument of Silbury Hill in Wiltshire.
Archaeologists have found traces of a Roman settlement at a 5,000-year-old landmark man-made hill in Wiltshire.
English Heritage believes there was a Roman community at Silbury Hill about 2,000 years ago.
The 130ft Neolithic mound near Avebury – one of Europe's largest prehistoric monuments – is thought to have been created some 3,000 years earlier.
Experts carrying out a project to stabilise the hill say the site may have been a sacred place of pilgrimage.
Human activity
English Heritage geophysicist Dr Neil Linford said: "We are really excited by this discovery because we had no idea that a Roman village of such a size lay this close to Silbury Hill."
The evidence suggests the Roman community was based on an area the size of 24 football pitches at the base of the hill.
The find was made using caesium magnetometers which can detect changes in the ground's magnetic field caused by human activity.
The settlement was on the road from London to Bath, which is the modern-day A4, where it crossed the Winterbourne river.
Stopover?
English Heritage regional director Dr Bob Bewley says it will be "exciting" to try to find out more about the Roman presence.
"Without further investigation it is difficult to say, but it could be that what we have here is something like a roadside village, where Roman travellers would have changed horses and stayed overnight on the way to Bath, but also a place of pilgrimage focused on the hill," he said.
Mystery surrounds why the hill, where stabilisation work will take place from May to September, was built in the first place.
Heavy rains in May 2000 caused substantial damage to the hill, with the collapse of an 18th century shaft.
As you may have seen in the Press English Heritage recently announced the appointment of engineering contractor Skanska to take forward the next stage of repair work to Silbury Hill. Skanska will now begin working with English Heritage to draw up detailed repair plans for the Hill.
The repairs will tackle the damage caused to the Hill after a collapse of the infilling to a shaft at the top of the Hill in 2000. The brief for engineers was prepared by English Heritage and a team of expert advisors, and its aim is to find the best method for returning the Hill to its original state and preserving its long term stability. As well as permanently infilling the collapse to the head of the shaft, the works will involve the thorough backfilling of tunnels at the base of the hill, and repair the slumping on the sides of the Hill. The chosen method for backfilling is to re-enter the Hill through the 1968 Atkinson tunnel to its centre.
Skanska won the work after presenting a detailed submission covering practical design and construction techniques, risk management plans and an approach integrating the archaeological and construction elements of the project. The firm proposes using the Atkinson's original supports and additional temporary props to keep disturbance of the Hill's archaeology to an absolute minimum. Archaeologists will be working alongside the contactors to make a record of the internal structure of the Hill and take samples to recover palaeoenvironmental evidence and material for radiocarbon dating.
Skanska has worked with English Heritage on Silbury Hill in the past, contributing to the specialist stability survey work carried out on the Hill since 2000. The firm was selected for this phase of the work because the project board felt their submission best demonstrated how the brief could be safely met with the least risk of disruption to the Hill's archaeology and within a realistic timeframe and budget.
The development of detailed repair plans is now expected to take six months. Depending on the outcome of this development work, English Heritage hopes to commission the full repairs by Skanska and announce the start of repair work in Spring 2007. The repair project will be accompanied by a programme of archaeological investigation, recording and sampling.
We are working on the outreach and publicity programme. The relevant pages on the EH website will soon be up-dated which you will be able to access for future information.
Yours sincerely
Dr Robert H Bewley
Planning & Development Regional Director SW
English Heritage
Plans to stabilise the ancient Silbury Hill mound in Wiltshire have been unveiled by English Heritage.
The man-made monument, believed to date to the Neolithic period, developed a hole at the top five years ago after the collapse of infilling in a shaft.
There are proposals to remove an inadequate backfill from this and other cavaties and replace it with chalk.
English Heritage said it would preserve the long-term stability of the hill while minimising further damage.
Surveys have confirmed that the overall structure is stable, although there are pockets of instability resulting from tunnels dug in 1776, 1849 and 1968.
English Heritage is drawing up a brief for contractors to come forward with their proposals for how the work should be done.
The organisation is also looking at how to fund the project.
From the beeb: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4477192.stm
EXPERTS have come up with a plan to save ancient landmark Silbury Hill from collapsing in on itself but they need up to £600,000 to carry it out.
English Heritage has reached a decision on which option to take to stabilise the ancient monument, the largest prehistoric man-made construction in Europe, and guarantee its continued existence for centuries to come.
It has chosen to re-enter Silbury Hill through the tunnel dug to its centre in 1968, the subject of a BBC film made by Magnus Magnusson at the time.
The existing material that has been used to backfill the various excavations that have taken place over the last 200 years or so will be removed and replaced with chalk to the same density as the surrounding mound material. The temporary capping at the top of the shaft dug into the hill in the 18th century, which is composed of expanded polystyrene, will be removed and it, too, replaced with chalk.
Bob Bewley, south west regional director for English Heritage, said: "The tunnels have never presented the major problem. Most of the subsidence is as a result of the shaft that was dug by the Duke of Northumberland's men in 1776 straight down through the centre of the monument in the search for gold.
"They found no gold at the base but it has left us with major headaches as it has never been satisfactorily filled in and is the cause of all the major subsidence that has threatened Silbury Hill."
Mr Bewley and his colleagues are confident that recent work to stabilise the monument will keep it safe in the short term while arrangements are made to undertake the massive effort to complete the repairs.
It has already been five years since a massive hole opened up at the top of Silbury Hill, which was exclusively reported by the Gazette at the time.
But Mr Bewley explained that rescuing a 4,700-year-old construction from dereliction is no short-term matter.
He said: "We have not taken the quick and easy fix but have tried to understand what is happening inside the hill, which is why is has taken so long to come up with our decision.
"When we are finished the hill will hopefully not require any further attentions for hundreds of years, although we will be monitoring it regularly."
A project board meeting is due to be held in October when a decision will be taken to put the work out to tender.
Mr Bewley said: "We hope to find the right contractor in this financial year and the work will be started in either the next financial year or the following one.
"The biggest thing will be finding the money for the work. We reckon it is going to cost in the region of £500,000 or £600,000 and we are going to have to find that money from somewhere.
"Some of that may come from commercial sponsorship. Large companies and other organisations may be pleased to be involved with this kind of project.
"It is a World Heritage Site and will attract publicity from all over the world."
From thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/marlborough/news/MARLB_NEWS_LOCAL7.html
This from today's Western Daily Press website.
Urgent remedial work must be carried out to save Silbury Hill from collapse, English Heritage said yesterday. The threat to the 130ft mound, which is one of the West's most mysterious prehistoric monuments, was blamed on excavations made for a BBC TV documentary in the 1960s.http://www.westpress.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=146049&command=displayContent&sourceNode=145779&contentPK=11772411
An English Heritage survey has revealed that the late Professor Richard Atkinson's tunnel, which was dug in 1968/69 was not, as previously thought, properly filled in.
The unexpected discovery is already causing minor internal collapses and 'voids' within Europe's largest man-made hill that will, in time, reach the surface. If unattended, it will damage highly significant deposits in the centre of the structure that contain its early history and perfectly preserved plant and animal remains.
English Heritage says it is considering three options:
- Pumping chalk slurry into the voids.
- Re-opening the tunnel and backfilling by hand.
- As above, but supporting the tunnel to allow repeated access.
Respected West archaeologist Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology magazine which revealed the threat, urged English Heritage to act swiftly.
I can't see any of this on the EH website – it still says "we are relieved to be able to conclude that Silbury Hill is a very robust structure with no major defects that might threaten its stability, due largely to the way it was originally constructed 4,500 years ago."
From the Wiltshire GAzette and Herald, 31 May 04
Campaigners gathered at Silbury Hill, at Avebury, on Saturday, four years after the summit collapsed, to air their concerns over its future.
Heritage Action, a group dedicated to the care of threatened and neglected prehistoric sites, believe urgent action is needed to prevent further damage.
The group wants English Heritage, which manages the site, to take heed of its rallying cry fix the hill.
Avebury resident and campaigner Pete Glastonbury said: "Local people are now aware of the situation and many archaeologists are very concerned.
"The word is rapidly getting out to the wider public that nothing has been done and they're disgusted with English Heritage's inaction."
Silbury Hill is the world's largest man-made prehistoric mound.
It was built by our Neolithic ancestors 4,500 years ago and represents a work-effort that far outstrips Stonehenge or Avebury.
It is Britain's equivalent of the Egyptian pyramids and pre-dates many of them.
On May 29, 2000 it suffered the first of a series of collapses of old excavation tunnels and a huge hole appeared at the top.
In 1974 it was fenced off in order to protect it from the erosion caused by thousands climbing it.
Earlier this month the site's owner, Lord Avebury, told a public inquiry into the wording of the Countryside And Rights of Way Act draft legislation he was stunned the Countryside Agency wanted to label the hill as unimproved chalk grassland.
The move could lead to ramblers having free access to the hill, which opponents fear may cause damage.
From: thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/marlborough/news/MARLB_NEWS_LOCAL2.html
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh/ART21824.html
24hourmuseum reports on Heritage Action's upcoming protest and the response from English Heritage...
by Maev Kennedy of The Guardian, Monday 17 May 2004
An attempt will be made today to have a hill reclassified as a building to protect one of the most enigmatic prehistoric structures in Europe.
Ramblers may gain a theoretical entitlement to walk up the sides of Silbury Hill in Wiltshire if the largest manmade mound in Europe is classified as "open countryside" under the countryside and rights of way bill.
The highest profile objectors to the draft maps so far are celebrities including Madonna, anxious to protect their privacy.
The guardians of the 4,700-year-old hill have been trying to persuade people to keep off Silbury since 1974, when it was closed to the public, without destroying its appearance with intrusive fencing. The monument came close to destruction three years ago when torrential winter rain seeped into shafts left by earlier excavation, which collapsed. Although English Heritage has carried out repairs, the whole structure is vulnerable. Continues here...
And the same story here from 'This is Bristol' 17 May 2004
A bizarre row erupted last night over attempts to open up access to Europe's biggest ancient monument under controversial right-to-roam laws. Locals say the Countryside Agency is "totally mad" for marking Silbury Hill as "unimproved chalk grassland" – because it was built entirely by prehistoric man. Continues here...
> And the same story here from BBCi, 17 May 2004
A peer has compared an ancient monument to the pyramids in a row over the government's right to roam laws. Lord Avebury says he is "stunned" the Countryside Agency's wants to label Silbury Hill in Wiltshire as "unimproved chalk grassland".
I'm sure Mr G will share with us The Truth..
Civil engineers have returned to Silbury Hill to begin further exploration of the prehistoric mound. It's almost three years since an ancient shaft at the core of the hill re-opened leaving a gaping hole. English Heritage was forced to act after the old shaft began to collapse leaving a massive crater in the centre of the 4,800-year-old monument.
Now international civil engineering consultants Cementation Skanska have been asked by English Heritage to carry out further tests on the hill. In 2001 the company used pioneering new methods to create a three dimensional picture of the inside of the hill. It bored four holes from the top of the hill to its base to allow sensitive recording equipment to be lowered inside the mound to provide a 3D image of the hill. The material removed during the drilling also allowed archaeologists to see how the hill had originally been constructed between 2800 and 200BC. As a temporary repair measure English Heritage had the crater in the centre of the hill packed out with polystyrene capped with a layer of chalk. But local archaeologists have called for permanent repairs to be carried out to the hill.
Plant and mobile offices from Cementation Skanska arrived at the foot of the hill this week. The engineers prepared a mesh surface on the southeast slope to enable equipment to be winched to the top of the hill. English Heritage explained that further tests were needed at the centre of the hill to ensure that the old shaft was adequately filled in.
In a statement English heritage said: ìIn 2001 we carried out works to arrest a collapse to the head of a shaft which in 1776 had been sunk by the Duke of Northumberland to the centre of the hill. Following this work a geophysical survey of the whole hill was carried out on our behalf by Cementation Skanska.
Reassuringly they reported that the hill was a robust structure which was basically stable but identified certain areas which required further investigations."
The work that started this week is on the 18th century shaft.
"As part of this assessment we intend to test the consistency of the backfilling in the lower part of the shaft by drilling a borehole through it from the top. Another borehole will be drilled nearby as a control. The information gathered will help us design the long-term remedial work."
"English Heritage is now planning to investigate the area of the previously collapsed shaft. As part of this assessment we intend to test the consistency of the backfilling in the lower part of the shaft by drilling a borehole through it from the top. Another borehole will be drilled nearby as a control. The information gathered will help us design long-term remedial work.
The work is due to start during the first week of March 2003 and to be completed on site on 26 March 2003."
http://www.cruithni.org/issues/silbury/savesilbury.html
September 8th, 2001:
Venue Avebury main car-park with walk to Silbury Hill.
A mass walk to bring attention to the sorry state of the hill and to demand that govt money is provided to repair the damage. By this date the current surveys should be completed and an idea of just how much work and money is needed should be ready.
Help to keep the pressure up and to get media attention by joining the walk, meet up in the main car- park around 1-1.30pm ready to set off to Silbury Hill car park at 2pm.
Bring a picnic, bring children, bring your friends, bring banners. This is to be a peaceful demonstration so the more peaceful types the better!
The last march went off very well with a friendly police presence and some of the kids getting lifts in the back of the lead police car. If by any chance an announcement is made that the funds will be made available then the day will transform into a celebration instead.
If any of you who live in cities and don't have cars would like to offer to arrange coaches get in touch. Likewise anyone with car space.
Birmingham/Midlands pagans are already trying to arrange coach hire and places. Make a day out of it, book a coach for your moot, enjoy a day out in Ancient Avebury and do something to show support for Silbury Hill.
Anyone wanting to offer to be a steward for the day please get in touch by mailing [email protected], stewards are needed to try to talk people out of climbing the hill and to ensure safety on the walk (fluorescent jackets provided).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1493000/1493535.stm
Scanners probe Stone Age mystery
Archaeologists are using computer imaging to try to solve one of the biggest mysteries of Stone Age Britain.
Silbury Hill in Wiltshire is the biggest man-made neolithic mound in Europe – but nobody knows why it was built.
The 130ft foot grassy mound, which was built more than 4,000 years ago, has been seriously threatened by a hole which appeared in its summit in May last year.
As repairs get under way English Heritage wants to carry out a seismic study of the hill to create 3D computer images of what lies inside.
A hole appeared in the hill's summit last year
First they have to shore up an 18th century shaft from a previous excavation that collapsed several months ago.
It has already been reinforced with polystyrene, and on Thursday helicopters will transport 36 tonnes of chalk to cap the opening.
Once the hill has been made safe, four small vertical holes will be bored into its side so that scientists can increase the detail of the interior scan.
The results should be known in October. Archaeologists have tried to uncover the secret of Silbury Hill for more than 200 years.
Archaeologists will use an 18th Century shaft
The giant mound would have taken 700 men 10 years to complete, using antler picks and shovels made from the shoulder bones of animals.
There have been several theories about the site, which forms part of the ancient landscape surrounding Avebury stone circle and nearby Stonehenge.
No evidence has been found of any human burials but many believe it was a sacred monument.
Others think it was nothing more than a Stone Age waste tip.
Yes, it's true that a huge hole has appeared at the top of Silbury. I've just come back from checking it out, and the entire area is roped off and the NT is not letting anyone near. The hole has appeared precisely where it was excavated in the late 1700s, and an NT spokesperson believes that it was re-opened as a result of all the recent rain. The NT is treating this as a very serious matter, as they no doubt realise that they cannot patrol the Hill 24 hours a day and that folks will continue to ascend.
Very worrying indeed.
What can possibly be added to what has already been said? Only to reiterate that this is a MUST SEE site to anyone who is able to make the trip to Avebury – an incredible place. Perhaps best viewed from West Kennet Long Barrow? Enjoy!
A few years ago I stood on top of Silbury Hill, and was absolutely gobsmacked by the sheer effort required to raise this behemoth. Why? Deep thought fails to bring an answer. With all the comforts and ease of a modern day life I bet we couldn't be arsed to do anything remotely as big with the tools they had to hand. Their life would be hard work without the hassle of this monumental construction.
To get into the mind of these people is impossible, and beyond the realms of archaeologists, who can, like us, just theorise.
Looking from The Sanctuary, on 07/07/09, I could see the downs rolling across the landscape, and there, in the middle of it all, was a flat-topped mini-down, dear old Silbury Hill. It didn't look at all drawfed by the surrounding landscape, truly a tribute to her architects, for she always seems a she to me. Bless 'er.
Access none at present due to well documented subsidence and English Heritage's inability to get its finger out. May be able to walk around it at ground level. Can view from road. (And various other points around the area!)
Monday 15 September 2003
This is one of those 'what the hell can I say that hasn't been said?' places isn't it? One thing I have to mention however is that my ass is numb from kicking myself for not walking up the damn thing back in 95 or whenever it was....
What the bl**dy hell DO English Heritage think they're playing at?
Most impressively viewed (in my opinion) from the hill above and to the west of East Kennett Long Barrow, the field below West Kennett Long Barrow, the bank of the Kennett on the way from Avebury, from Windmill Hill and, best of all, coming round the top of Waden Hill from Avebury.
Ah Silbury.
so sorry
So sorry
to think of them filling you with polystyrene
my tears a lake around you
so sorry they forgot you
but I'll see you next solstice!
I shouted to stop the car when I saw Silbury just after leaving Avebury. I wasn't expecting to see it. When I did I felt priveliged. I just gawped for 10 mins from half a mile from the hill. 2 years ago, 500 miles and I want to come back here. The impression I remember was that the hill has a magic, living presence.
Big beautiful steam pudding shaped Silbury wearing a frosting of snow. On a cold November day we stood in awe of this mighty mound. The slushy sounds of the traffic povided a soundtrack to our wondering. Why the fuck........
at the green gathering last year i met a bloke who said that he'd lowered himself into the gaping 17thc excavation shaft. i asked him what it was like down there. he said that it was pretty warm.
Having made the long trip down from london via stonehenge, primarily to climb and meditate on the top of the hill I was very depressed to find it fenced off.
It is impossible even to walk completely round the base of the hill at present (if it ever was), since barbed wire stops progress seemingly at every juncture.
Still, this being my first visit, I was awestruck at the sheer size and shape of silbury. It is easily within walking distance of West Kennet longbarrow, and a suitable consolation? is close by in the form of Devil's Den.
Sorry, but I just had to climb it and when I got to the top I just started dancing – I have no idea why and have told everybody since and they now think that I am weird!
Silbury Hill. ---"Silbury Hill is to this day thronged every Palm Sunday afternoon by hundreds from Avebury, Kennet, Overton, and the adjoining villages.*"Quoted in Wiltshire Folklore
*Wilts Archaeological Magazine, December, 1861, p181.
T B Partridge
Folklore, Vol. 26, No. 2. (Jun. 30, 1915), pp. 211-212.
Hecateus of Abdera, a Greek writer writing in the 4th century BCE, wrote of a large island to the north of Gaul populated by a race called the Hyperboreans. Their chief god was Apollo, and they had a city dedicated to him, with a "remarkable round temple".
The large island is thought to be Britain, and the round temple has previously been identified as Stonehenge. However, the Greek word translated as "round" is "sphairoeides" which actually means "spherical" and not round. Geoffrey Ashe in his "Mythology of the British Isles" suggests that the word in question has been misspelled at some point in the past, and originally may have been "speiroeides", meaning "spiral".
Ashe discusses the possibility of a "spiral temple" being a labirynth of some kind, or even rock art, but surely there's a chance that Hecateus' "remarkable round temple" – when "spiral" is substituted for "round" – could actually be Silbury Hill, with it's spiral path?
You expect to stir up a thunderstorm if you mess with any barrow – but what if you start digging into Silbury Hill? You're surely asking for it. Perhaps that's why EH won't touch it – they're scared of the consequences.
The following is a description of what happened during the 1849 dig (I don't know who wrote it.. could it be Lukis mentioned below? it is quoted in 'The Secret Country' by J&C Bord).
"As a finale to the excavations, the night following work in unfavourable weather, a dramatic high Gothick thunderstorm set the seal on [Dean] Merewether's Wiltshire sojourn. This event was much to the satisfaction.. of the rustics, whose notions respecting the examination of Silbury and the opening of the barrows were not divested of superstitious dread. It must have been a spectacular affair. The Dean described it as 'one of the most grand and tremendous thunder-storms I ever recollect to have witnessed.' It made the hills reecho to the crashing peals, and Silbury itself, as the men asserted who were working in its centre, to tremble to its base."
Stukeley wrote that the country people "make merry with cakes, figs, sugar, and water fetched from the 'Swallow head'." (see 'Swallowhead Springs.)
It has been suggested that this ceremony had some connexion with the gospel story of the barren fig tree, but it is much more probable that the tradition has a very early origin. As a matter of fact the cakes were mostly made with raisins which are called figs by natives of Wessex.from Wanderings in Wessex by Edric Holmes (date?)
online at project gutenberg:
Aubrey noted that "No history gives any account of this hill; the tradition only is, that King Sil or Zel, as the countrey folke pronounce, was buried here on horseback, and that the hill was raysed while a posset of milke was seething.."
Or you could believe the story that it was dumped there by the devil – it's a story found all over Britain about various mysterious mounds and hills. The people of Marlborough hated the people of Devizes, and somehow they'd got the devil to agree to smother them with a big spadeful of earth, to get them out of their hair for good. A cobbler (or St John?) was walking towards Marlborough with a cartload of worn out shoes, which he was going to mend. He asked the devil what he was doing. On hearing the reply he explained that he'd set out from Devizes a very long time ago, and pointed to all the shoes in his cart – explaining that he'd worn them out along the way. The devil's very lazy, so he decided he couldn't be bothered to walk such a distance. He dropped the spadeful of earth by the side of the road in disgust, and it became Silbury Hill.
Jordan (in her 'folklore of Ancient Wiltshire' records another variation which she heard from a old local man. He claimed that the devil was travelling from Salisbury plain and Stonehenge to smother the people at Avebury, complaining that there was too much religion in the area. Grinsell's source (Folklore v24) completes the story:
"but the priests saw him coming and set to work with their charms and incussations, and they fixed him while he was yet a nice way off, till at last he flings down his shovelful just where he was stood. And THAT'S Silbury."
A turn up for the books – the Devil actually trying to get rid of a pagan site?
On a moonlit night you might see King Sil in golden armour ride by the hill. Perhaps that's because he's buried on horseback – or maybe in a golden coffin. A headless man is also sometimes seen. Kathleen Wiltshire (in her 'Ghosts and Legends of the Wiltshire Countryside') recounted how she'd been told these legends when she was a small girl, by an old stone-breaker, Worthy Gaisford.
Squinancywort (asperula Cynanchica)
"Every time a botanist journeyed from London to Bath, he was tempted to get down from his horse and climb Silbury, as Thomas Johnson had done in 1634, for in 1570 the Flemish botanist De l'Obel had written having been up the mound..this 'acclivem cretaceam et arridam montem arte militari aggestum'(this steep chalky hill dry hill raised by military art) as he called it.... On Silbury he found a plant blossoming in July and August which seems to have been Asperula Cynanchica, which he called Anglica Saxifraga, the first record for Gt.Britain.
Squinancy is the quinsy,sore throat and this waxy--flowered little perennial of the downs made an astringent gargle"
Taken from The Englishman's Flora by Geoffrey Grigson.
Note; Squinancywort is similer to sweet woodruff which you can find in woods, but I doubt Silbury still has Squinancy on its slope.
from an article entitled Folk Games at Silbury Hill with details provided by Mr John Goulstone
An account in The Gloucester Journal on 9 November 1736 describes how a dinner was served on the summit while between 4000 and 5000 people sat at the foot of Silbury and on a facing eminence, all of which was made a very agreeable appearance. A bull was baited at the top and bottom of the hill and:
There was also backsword, wrestling, bowling and dancing. The same diversions were repeated on the 2nd day, and also running round the hill for a petticoat. The 3rd day the bull was divided by Mr Smith amongst his poor neighbours on top of the hill, where they diverted themselves with bonfires, ale and roast beef for several hours...
Folk Games at Silbury Hill and Stonehenge
Notes and News
Antiquity
Vol. LIX No. 225 March 1985
From "The Secret Places Of The Heart" by H. G. Wells (1922).
"Clumsy treasure hunting," Sir Richmond said. "They bore into Silbury Hill and expect to find a mummified chief or something sensational of that sort, and they don't, and they report nothing. They haven't sifted finely enough; they haven't thought subtly enough. These walls of earth ought to tell what these people ate, what clothes they wore, what woods they used. Was this a sheep land then as it is now, or a cattle land? Were these hills covered by forests? I don't know. These archaeologists don't know. Or if they do they haven't told me, which is just as bad. I don't believe they know.-online at Arthur's Classic Novels.
..."To-day, among these ancient memories, has taken me out of myself wonderfully. I can't tell you how good Avebury has been for me. This afternoon half my consciousness has seemed to be a tattooed creature wearing a knife of stone. . . . "
Thoughts on Silbury's innards:
An account from 'An Illustration of Stonehenge and Abury' by Henry Browne, 1823 (in Wilts Arch & Nat Hist Mag v95, 2002). It's an eyewitness account of the 1776 dig.
"... This elderly gentleman [a Mr Hickley from Avebury] when a youth, was at Silbury Hill on the occasion of some miners sinking a large hole or well down the centre of it to the ground on which it began to be raised. In doing this they found a piece of timber continued down the whole way, evidently for a centre from whence to take the measurement of the hill in working it upwards."
It was nearly 50 years after the event, so although you might expect some elaboration / misremembering – surely this isn't an obvious yarn to tell? Wouldn't you be more likely to come up with the old 'skeleton / treasure' option rather than a central timber?
Another contemporaryish account is interesting: James Douglas, in his 1793 'Nenia Britannica' recorded that the Duke of Northumberland's foreman of the work (a Colonal Drax) "had a fancy that this hill had been raised over a Druid oak, and he thought the remains of it were discovered in the excavation."
And indeed, Richard Atkinson, leader of the 1960s BBCized dig thought that the 1776 shaft would probably have destroyed any central deposit at the base of the mound, and no doubt anything vertical in the core...
I was reading an article from WANHM (v95, 2002 – a missing drawing and an overlooked text: silbury hill archive finds) – sounds like the hole was never filled in properly. Does this mean the structure has been precarious – for centuries? Is this why EH don't feel they have to do anything immediately?
This is what I gleaned from the article:
The vertical shaft was mined in 1776, the brainchild of the Duke of Northumberland. A horizontal tunnel was later mined at the base of the hill in 1849. The Rev. WC Lukis was on hand to draw this one, but he also included a dotted line dipping like a cone into the top of the hill, indicating the entrance to the 1776 shaft was open – open to a similar depth to that which opened up in 2000?
A Dr Merewether visited with Lukis, and he recorded that there were mounds of soil on top of the hill that the miners from 1776 hadn't bothered to throw back in. You can see heaps of soil on one of Hoare's illustrations from 1821 and in a late 19thC print (these are in the article). A Major Allen took some aerial photos in the 1930s and these show the heaps too – and a dip in the ground next to them. So it seems the hole has been present to varying depths since the 1770s, and was only filled in to near the surface level in 1936. However, the filling material gradually disappeared.
In 1963 Silbury was capped with chicken wire, to prevent what was perceived to be rabbit damage. Later this wire (covered in soil and grass) actually hampered some surveys that were being done to check the state of the hole. 'The capping has now disappeared from view'.
A fascinating history of Silbury over the years.
Silbury Hill by Jake Turner.
"Jake Turner was born and bred in Swindon, Wiltshire, England and has been a keen photographer for around 2 years..."
"Aerial views of Silbury Hill. This hill dates back to around 2400BC and is the largest man made mound in Europe. No-one can say what purpose it had, but as usual with pre-historic sites, there are lot's of theory's!
"Filmed with own design hexacopter and Sony CX730."
An article by Jim Leary and David Field about their investigations at Silbury, in the online Jan/Feb 2011 edition.
A Guernseyman among the English megaliths by Mark Patton.
"When, in 1865, Sir John Lubbock and James Fergusson argued, in the pages of the Athenaum magazine, as to whether the Roman road passed around Silbury Hill (as Lubbock thought, making the hill itself prehistoric) or beneath it (as Fergusson insisted, making the hill post-Roman), far more was at stake than simply the dating of one of England's iconic monuments. The argument, fundamentally, was about whether archaeology should be seen as an adjunct to history, its discoveries sterile unless they could somehow be related to the written record; or as an essentially scientific pursuit, allowing prehistoric cultures to be understood on the basis of the material evidence alone."
Three films on Silbury, including the BBC 2 Chronicle Series, Silbury Dig: The Heart of the Mound. First Broadcast on 27 July 1968.
Report from the Telegraph (information from English Heritage)
A recent article on Silbury from the current issue of Current Archaeology Magazine
Part of William Long's 'Abury' article on Silbury Hill
"Diary of a Dean. Being an account of the examination of Silbury Hill, and of Various Barrows and other earthworks on the downs of North Wilts, opened and investigated in the months of July and August 1849. With Illustrations."
How excellent that John Merewether's book should now be available to read online, and especially at this time when the new excavations are going ahead.
The latter part of the book contains loads of information, if you can pin down the locations he's talking about. But it might upset people of a delicate constitution as it is basically 'speed-barrowing', as seemed to be the fashion of the time.
An almost surreal illustration of Silbury, from Stukeley's 'Abury – A Temple of the British Druids'. Online at Lithop's excellent website.
A green hill long ago
Article on Silbury and The Options to stop it falling in, in the latest online copy of British Archaeology magazine.
A magic lantern slide from the H.M.J. Underhill Archive showing Silbury Hill as seen in the late 19th Century (with a shepherd thrown in for free). The slide has the date Sept. 16/95 on it.
The Great Sites series features Silbury Hill in the May 2003 edition.
Sites within 20km of Silbury Hill
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Swallowhead Springs
photo 34 forum 5 description 9 link 2 -
Waden Hill
photo 5 forum 1 description 2 -
Silbaby
photo 18 forum 17 description 7 link 1 -
Wagon and Horses Barrow Cemetery
description 1 -
Beckhampton Road Enclosures
description 2 -
West Kennett
photo 180 forum 14 description 36 link 9 -
Beckhampton Penning Enclosure
description 1 -
West Kennett Avenue
photo 132 forum 5 description 13 link 3 -
West Kennet Avenue Settlement Site
photo 25 description 4 -
Beckhampton Avenue
photo 9 forum 4 description 3 link 1 -
South Street
photo 6 description 4 link 1 -
Avenue stone with axe grinding marks
photo 11 description 2 -
West Kennett Palisaded Enclosures
photo 2 description 2 link 1 -
Long Stones
photo 10 forum 1 description 6 -
Falkner’s Circle
photo 26 forum 2 description 13 link 2 -
The Longstone Cove
photo 63 forum 2 description 13 link 2 -
Falkners Circle mounds and barrows
photo 1 description 2 -
Falkners Circle Long Barrow
description 1 -
West Kennet Hollow Way
description 1 -
Avebury
photo 389 forum 222 description 90 link 14 -
Beckhampton Plantation Stone Circle
photo 1 description 2 -
The Cove
photo 58 forum 1 description 5 link 2 -
Penning Barn
photo 1 description 2 -
Beckhampton Penning Barrow Cemetery
description 1 -
The Sanctuary
photo 59 forum 2 description 16 link 5 -
Overton Hill
photo 106 forum 3 description 6 link 1 -
Harepit Way
description 1 -
Horslip
photo 3 forum 1 description 3 -
Fox Covert Barrow Group
photo 2 description 2 -
East Kennett
photo 56 forum 5 description 8 link 1 -
Avebury Down
photo 26 description 1 -
Harestone Down Stone Circle
photo 21 forum 2 description 4 -
Knoll Down Barrows
photo 1 description 1 -
Harestone Down barrow
photo 5 -
West Down Roman Road Barrows
photo 7 description 2 -
West Down Long Barrow
description 1 -
The Shelving Stones
description 1 -
Penning
photo 12 forum 2 description 2 -
Windmill Hill
photo 80 forum 4 description 15 link 3 -
Allington Down
photo 12 description 3 -
Yatesbury Field Cursus
description 1 -
Down Barn standing stones
photo 4 description 1 -
Winterbourne Monkton (Churchyard)
photo 3 description 3 link 2 -
Old Bath Road Barrow
photo 9 description 2 -
North Down
photo 31 description 7 link 1 -
West Down Gallops Barrows
photo 6 description 2 -
Little Avebury
photo 18 description 2 -
Pickledean Stone Circle
photo 10 description 2 -
Winterbourne Monkton oval mound
description 1 -
Experimental Earthwork
photo 6 description 2 link 2 -
Millbarrow
photo 1 description 1 -
Horton Down
photo 1 description 1 -
Little London Pair
photo 4 description 4 -
Overton Down
photo 18 description 2 -
Tan Hill (east)
photo 10 -
Yatesbury Field Barrow
description 1 -
The Mother’s Jam
photo 15 forum 1 description 7 -
Little London Barrow
description 1 -
Monster Stone
photo 6 description 1 -
Piggle Dene
photo 18 description 2 -
Fyfield Down
photo 17 description 4 link 1 -
Monkton Down
photo 10 description 3 -
Easton Down
photo 22 description 1 -
Cherhill 4
photo 6 -
Tan Hill (west)
photo 15 description 3 -
Yatesbury Village Barrow
description 1 -
Lockeridge Dene
photo 20 description 5 -
White Barrow (Lockeridge)
description 1 -
Knap Cottage Stone
photo 2 description 1 -
White Horse Barrow
photo 9 description 2 -
Fyfield 1 and 2 barrows
photo 2 description 1 -
Tan Hill
photo 6 forum 2 description 5 link 1 -
Knoll Down Earthwork
photo 1 description 1 -
Rybury
photo 32 description 2 link 1 -
Fyfield Down settlement
photo 4 -
Cherhill Down and Oldbury
photo 52 forum 4 description 13 link 3 -
Kitchen Barrow
photo 8 description 3 -
Knap Hill and Walker’s Hill
photo 4 description 4 -
Old Chapel
description 2 -
Long Tom (Fyfield)
photo 6 forum 1 description 4 link 1 -
Oldbury Long Barrow
photo 3 description 2 -
Devil’s Den
photo 97 forum 4 description 27 link 2 -
Noland’s Farm Barrow
description 1 -
Roughridge Hill
photo 4 description 3 link 1 -
Adam’s Grave
photo 51 description 18 -
Knap Hill Pass
photo 2 -
Knap Hill
photo 33 forum 1 description 13 link 1 -
Calne Without
photo 7 description 1 -
Golden Ball Hill
photo 10 description 3 -
Manton Down
photo 10 forum 2 description 6 -
Clatford Barrows
description 1 -
Berwick Bassett Down
photo 3 description 1 -
Rough Hill Barrows
description 1 -
Cherhill cross dyke
photo 4 -
Easton Hill
photo 1 -
Baltic Farm
photo 2 description 2 -
Rough Hill Row
description 1 -
Adam’s Grave Fallen Stone
photo 3 description 2 -
Cherhill Hill (West)
photo 10 description 1 -
Draycott Hill
photo 25 description 2 link 1 -
Temple Bottom
photo 1 description 3 -
Barrow Copse
photo 25 description 4 link 1 -
Broad Stones (Clatford)
forum 1 description 2 -
Brade Wyll
photo 2 description 1 -
Shepherds Shore Long Barrow
description 1 -
Alton Priors
photo 12 forum 2 description 7 link 1 -
Morgan’s Hill (eastern group)
photo 10 description 1 -
Manton Round Barrow
photo 6 description 6 -
Hackpen Hill (Wiltshire)
photo 3 forum 1 description 7 -
Mount Wood
photo 6 description 4 -
Ridgeway (Southernmost Remains)
photo 8 forum 1 description 1 -
Winterbourne Bassett
photo 34 forum 5 description 14 link 1 -
Barton Copse Barrows
description 1 -
Morgan’s Hill
photo 25 description 3 -
Fiddlers Hill
photo 1 description 1 -
Huish Hill
photo 8 description 1 -
Ogbourne Maizey Down Barrows
photo 1 description 1 -
Picked Hill
photo 8 description 5 -
Granham Hill
description 2 -
The Hanging Stone
photo 3 description 3 -
Marlborough Common Golf Course Barrows
description 3 -
Marlborough Mound
photo 15 forum 7 description 11 link 2 -
Roundway Hill
photo 9 description 1 -
Giant’s Grave (Martinsell)
photo 16 forum 1 description 3 -
Woodborough Holed Stone
photo 3 description 3 -
Swanborough Tump
photo 3 forum 1 description 6 -
Martinsell
photo 15 description 7 -
King’s Play Hill
photo 20 description 3 -
Barbury Castle
photo 40 forum 3 description 18 link 1 -
Ogbourne St Andrew Barrow
photo 15 forum 1 description 8 -
Ogbourne St Andrew Church
photo 6 description 3 -
Roundway Hill Covert
photo 3 -
Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)
photo 7 forum 3 description 24 link 3 -
Pewsey Church
photo 7 description 1 -
Oliver’s Castle
photo 30 description 14 link 1 -
Bincknoll Castle
photo 11 description 2 -
Pewsey
photo 6 description 3 -
Mother Anthony’s Well
photo 4 forum 1 description 1 link 3 -
Forest Hill Farm
photo 3 description 2 -
Whitefield Farm
description 1 -
Savernake
photo 8 description 3 -
Laggus Farm Mound
description 1 -
Mud Lane Barrow
description 1 -
Square Copse Barrows
description 1 -
Bowood Park Mound
description 1 -
Savernake Temple
description 1 -
Broadbury Banks
description 2 -
Bowood
description 1 -
Hoare Stone
description 1 -
Savernake Lodge
photo 5 description 1 -
Giant’s Grave (Milton Hill)
photo 15 description 3 -
Burderop Wood Stone Circle
description 1 -
Devil’s Footprint
description 1 -
Easton Clump
photo 2 description 1 -
Loxwell
description 3 -
Down Farm Group
photo 2 description 3 -
Everleigh Barrows
photo 11 forum 1 description 3 -
Casterley Camp
photo 2 description 2 -
Broome Long Stone
description 1 -
Broome Temple
description 2 -
Rushy Platt Bowl Barrow
photo 2 description 1 link 1 -
Liddington Castle
photo 30 description 4 link 4 -
Chisenbury Camp
description 1 -
Oldhat Barrow
photo 12 description 1 link 1 -
Coate Mound
description 2 -
Grant’s Firs Group
description 1 -
Shipley Bottom
photo 3 description 1 -
Godsbury
photo 3 description 2 -
Coate Stone Circle
photo 13 forum 7 description 19 link 1 -
Aldbourne (west of Giant’s Grave)
photo 7 description 1 -
Warren Farm
photo 1 description 1 -
Naish Hill
photo 2 description 3 -
The Giant’s Grave (Aldbourne)
photo 20 description 1 -
Lidbury Camp
description 1 -
Liddington Warren Farm
photo 13 forum 1 description 3 -
Aldbourne 'Cup Barrow'
photo 1 description 1 -
Enford
photo 3 forum 1 description 2 -
Sugar Hill
photo 9 description 1 -
Aldbourne Four Barrows
photo 11 forum 1 description 5 link 2 -
Aldbourne 7
photo 3 description 1 -
Crofton
description 2 -
Ell Barrow
description 1 -
Slay Barrow
description 1 -
Aldbourne Blowing Stone
photo 3 description 2 link 1 -
The Aldbourne Way
description 1 -
Chisbury
photo 7 description 3 -
Summer Down
photo 14 description 3 -
Ringsbury
photo 6 description 5 -
Weather Hill Long Barrow
description 1 -
Weather Hill
photo 5 description 3 link 1 -
East Down Long Barrow
photo 1 description 1 -
Comesdeane Well Long Barrow
photo 3 description 2 -
Fairmile Down
photo 19 description 2 -
Ballards Copse Long Barrow
photo 3 description 1 -
Net Down
photo 1