Images

Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by meg-y

A possible geometrical design for Seahenge, which archaeologists would tell us was just a poorly-executed attempt at a true circle.

The diameter of the originating circle is seven megalithic yards based on the length of the rod of 839mm found at the site.

Image credit: G.J. Bath
Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by moss

The sand dunes and in the far distance the beach and sea at Holme next to the sea

Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by Chance

Postcard Seahenge – Holme

The Bronze Age timber circle from the beach at Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk by Ray Loveday 2000

Image credit: Ray Loveday 2000
Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by listerinepree

‘applehenge’ reconstruction near the original holme site, as seen a few days ago :)

Image credit: layla smith
Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by juamei

I found this on the beach about 3/4 mile west of Seahenge. Its definately been worked.

Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by Moth

The Time Team reconstruction of Seahenge.

Image credit: Tim Clark
Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by Moth

‘Orchardhenge’ – the TimeTeam reconstruction.

Image credit: Tim Clark
Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by Chris Collyer

The ‘below ground’ part of the trunk. In the middle is the cut away bracket used to tow the tree to it’s resting place. To the left are marks from some of the 50 axes used to shape, de-bark and dress the tree.

Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by Kammer

Taken 24th July 2002: Timbers from Sea Henge in storage at Flag Fen (TL225989).

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by Kammer

Taken 24th July 2002: Another shot of the Sea Henge stump in storage at Flag Fen (TL225989). On the left and right are more tanks containing the other timbers from the site.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by Kammer

Taken 24th July 2002: This is the main Sea Henge stump, in storage at Flag Fen (TL225989). Water was being constantly run over the stump, and presumably the sack over the upper most root was intended to keep the moisture in.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Image of Sea Henge (Timber Circle) by Chris Collyer

June 1999. Not a great picture, only a few of the timbers of the circle are visible, but it was a cold windy day and I couldn’t wait any longer for the tide to go out...

Articles

Seahenge stump arrives in Lynn

Four thousand years after our ancestors built a timber circle on what is now Holme Beach, the final part of the monument was this morning lifted into what should be its final resting place.

A small crowd gathered in King’s Lynn Bus Station in the lazy Sunday morning sunshine as the glass front of Lynn Museum was removed and the giant oak stump was painstakingly manoeuvred into its new home.

Museum officials held their breath as the carefully wrapped one and a half tonne stump was gradually rolled off a special van.

The completed Seahenge display will go on show this summer inside a replica of its original setting.

Controversy surrounded the decision to excavate the 4,000-year-old monument after it was discovered late in 1998.

But while the purpose of Seahenge’s central stump remains unknown, scientists studying its ring of timbers have discovered ancient society in Norfolk was far more advanced than had previously been believed.

More than 20,000 visitors a year have been to see the oak posts since they went on show in a new £1.6m gallery at Lynn Museum two years ago.

Before going on display, the Portsmouth-based Mary Rose Trust spent almost a decade preserving the timbers, using similar techniques to those employed to preserve Henry VIII’s warship the Mary Rose. Due to its size, the 8ft high central stump took a further two years to conserve.

Area museums officer Robin Hanley said like the smaller timbers, the stump displayed marks made by individual axes when it was built on the edge of what was originally forest.

“It’s great to see the stump being reunited with the remainder of the timber circle after all these years they’re been apart and great to see the timbers back together in West Norfolk,” said Dr Hanley

“We’ve been extremely pleased with the response to the displays, a lot of people have been inspired by the preservation of the timbers and have enjoyed being able to see them in such detail.

“To be able to get so close to 4,000-year-old timbers and see individual axe marks left by Bronze Age axes is extraordinary.”

Scientists using carbon and tree ring dating estimate Seahenge was built in the spring of 2049BC. It is believed to be the only example of its kind ever found. Its timbers were preserved by peat which encased them beneath the sands until its outline was revealed by a storm.

Dr Hanley said: “It has been a complex military style operation. It was nice to see people here for what is quite a momentous moment.”

Seahenge enthusiast Christine Von Allwoderden, from North Wootton, came into the town to see the stump arrive.

She said: “How exciting it must have been when it was found. I am very interested in the history of it. I do think it’s fantastic for King’s Lynn and fantastic for the museum”

She added that although she thought it was good for King’s Lynn to have the timber circle in the museum, she thought it should still be at Holme.

EDP24; tinyurl.com/y4swt7q

Norfolk museum to install ancient timber

A Norfolk museum is to close to the public for about four months while the central stump of a Bronze Age oak circle known as Seahenge is installed.

The Lynn Museum in King’s Lynn has recorded a large increase in visitors since opening a gallery in 2008 devoted to the 55 outer timbers of the circle.

Work is now taking place to create a mount for the 4,000-year-old stump which weighs more than one tonne.

Seahenge was discovered emerging from a beach at Holme-next-the-Sea in 1998.

Its 55 oak posts in a circle with a central stump sat unnoticed and undisturbed off the Norfolk coast for almost 4,000 years, but became exposed at low tides after the peat dune covering it was swept away by storms.

Archaeologists believe between 50 and 80 people may have helped build the circle, possibly to mark the death of an important individual.


The Seahenge gallery at the museum is drawing thousands of visitors
The timbers were excavated in 1999 and went to the Bronze Age Centre at Flag Fen near Peterborough to be studied and the preservation programme begun.

To finish the conservation programme they then went to the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth.

But at 8ft (2.5m) in height the preservation process for the central stump has taken longer.

Derrick Murphy, from Norfolk County Council, said: “Why our ancestors built Seahenge remains a mystery, yet we can state categorically that it is one of the most significant historical discoveries ever to be found in Britain.

“The installation of the central stump within the gallery at the Lynn Museum marks a fitting end to this chapter of the story of Seahenge.”

The museum will close at the end of January.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/8453606.stm

Seahenge on display

From Lynn News:

“VISITORS will be taken back in time 4,000 years when (King’s) Lynn Museum re-opens to the public on Tuesday (1st April) after its £1.2 million redevelopment.

For on display for the first time will be Seahenge – the man-made timber circle found on Holme beach in 1998 which has been hailed one of Britain’s most exciting archaeological discoveries.

A new gallery has been created to show half the 55 preserved timbers from the circle and the giant upturned oak stump they surrounded, against an illuminated backdrop of Holme beach today.”

Full story

Update

Old timbers bring in new visitors

A Norfolk museum has recorded a large increase in visitors since opening a unique display of the Bronze Age wood circle known as Seahenge.

The Lynn Museum in King’s Lynn underwent a £1.2m redevelopment before the exhibition was opened last month.

Norfolk Museums Service said 1,500 visited in its opening month, 73% more year-on-year before the display opened.

Full story

More money for Sea Henge museum

.. extra features are now under discussion following news of the £65,000 grant, part of a national £4m payout for museum improvements by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Wolfson Foundation.

Area museums officer Robin Hanley said there were hopes of setting up a replica of the original structure, which was built in the spring or early summer of 2049BC.

“Obviously we are going to display about half of the original timbers but we felt it was important that people had a way to actually feel what it would have been like to walk into the circle,” he explained. “What survives is only very fragmented.

“The current plan is to have, effectively, a complete circle in the centre of the gallery, one half of which will be the original timbers and the other will be a full-size replica.”

A audio-visual display will show the dramatic change in the landscape around Seahenge from the Bronze Age, when it formed part of an inland farming community, to the shifting sands which revealed it to the world as the 20th century drew to a close.

There are also plans for an interactive interpretation, particularly aimed at children, charting the step-by-step progress of the timbers from their harvest in a local wood to their assembly into the circle, and to provide a resource centre offering a range of in-depth additional information about the Seahenge story as a whole.

“It’s obviously very good news that we got this additional funding,” said Dr Hanley. “While the core funding for the display is already there in terms of of the grant we obtained from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the funding we have received from Norfolk County Council, this additional funding will enable us to provide some extra resources in the gallery, which will help people get the most from their visit.

The Seahenge display, which will form part of a wider exhibition about the history of West Norfolk, is due to open to the public next summer.

“Although we’ve only got temporary exhibitions for this year, we’ve been hugely encouraged by the levels of people coming through,” said Dr Hanley.

The museum is offering free admission this year.

Taken from the article at the EDP
snipurl.com/v4iq

Work to start soon on Lynn Museum

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

Seahenge Focal Point of Museum Revamp

Norfolk’s famous Bronze Age timber circle should finally go on public show in 2007.

A display of part of Seahenge, which in 1999 was controversially dug up from the shoreline at Holme, near Hunstanton, will form the focal point of a major redevelopment of Lynn Museum at King’s Lynn.

The scheme, costing just over £1m, is due to start next summer, with the museum reopening in early 2006.

But it is not expected that conservation of the 55 posts forming the 4000-year-old ring will be completed until mid-2006.

Specialists at the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth are carrying out the painstaking process of freeze-drying the wood after it has been impregnated with poly-ethylene glycol – nicknamed “peg”.

This will remove all the water vapour and preserve the sponge-like cell structure of the timbers, which would crumble to dust if left to dry out. The work is being paid for by English Heritage.

“What we are looking to do is reopen the museum building, once the building works have been completed, with temporary displays and we will wait until we’ve got the Seahenge timbers ready before installing the permanent displays,” explained area museums officer Robin Hanley.

“Obviously it’s a very complicated preservation job and it’s ground-breaking in many respects, but it looks like the ring timbers will be coming out of conservation in the middle of 2006.

“We will look at mounting a display at the beginning of 2007 and then it will hopefully be finished by the summer of 2007.

“What we didn’t want to do is keep the museum closed until the timbers are available,” said Dr Hanley.

“We do need a period of time, once the timbers have come out of conservation, to design a display around them. It will require custom-built fittings for all the timbers.

“We want to do the very best we can, which is why at the moment we are looking at a whole range of different approaches to the display.

“When the Seahenge timbers come in they are going to be a key part of telling the West Norfolk story, which is what the permanent displays will do.”

Preserving the large upturned tree stump which was at the centre of the circle is expected to be a much longer undertaking.

“It’s such a massive piece of timber,” said Dr Hanley. “It may take an additional couple of years before the central stump is ready.

“What we are expecting that we will need to do in the short-term is to have a replica of the stump alongside the original ring and replace that with the original one when it comes out of conservation.”

The museum closed at the end of September so preparations for the project, which has a £778,500 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to begin. It will result in a better entrance, a new study area and extra learning space on a mezzanine floor and removal of the suspended ceiling, revealing the interior of the historic converted chapel building.

Dr Hanley promised that although the finished displays would not be ready for the reopening “there will be lots for people to see and activities”.

Sue Skinner. EDP24 website.

More Seahenge secrets revealed

A second timber circle, 300 years older, was found near Seahenge. Instead of being composed of plain wooden posts, parts of it could have been decorated with carvings. The hypothesis is linked to the discovery of a carved wooden figure called the ‘Dagenham Idol’ (pictured on the website). The story will also be explained in the September issue of British Archaeology magazine.

Also see the Times at
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,61-1224115,00.html

Two long articles can be found at the EDP24 site
here.

How Seahenge Will Go On Show

EDP24 November 19, 2003 09:41

Yesterday, West Norfolk area museums officer Robin Handley explained that about half the original circle would be displayed and gave an insight into what visitors had in store.

“The idea is that they would obviously be able to look at the timbers themselves, and the backdrop would be showing it as it was built,” he said.

“What we would be looking to do is to treat the circle quite respectfully. That was something that came out quite strongly in a public meeting at Holme.

“We are looking to be quite restrained in the interpretation we put on the circle, using light effects so people get a clear idea of how it would have looked.

“But in terms of telling the story, we would be looking to use a range of devices, including audio wands, so people can select a commentary. The interesting thing about Seahenge is the different levels on which it has a story to tell.

“We are looking to interpret it on a range of levels and give people the opportunity to decide what they want to hear about, but we are also looking to have some discreet computer-style interactives.”

As well as Seahenge, the other key element of the scheme is to restore the museum building to its former glory.

“Clearly the other thing we are looking to do and one of the advantages of having it in the Lynn Museum will be displaying it in the context of other sites and finds from the area,” said Dr Handley. “We have a very good archaeological collection here.”

The outcome of grant applications for £900,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £85,000 from Norfolk County Council’s capital fund will not be known until spring, but the new-look museum could open in autumn 2005.

More Details On Kings Lynn Museum Progress

Holme Henge pushes up museum costs
07 October 2003
Lynn News.co.uk
lynnnews.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=991&ArticleID=670976

Plans to display half the Holme Henge timber circle in Lynn Museum have pushed up the cost of the museum’s development scheme to £1.2 million. Originally, it was expected to cost between £800,000 and £1 million to re-display the Market Street museum’s collections, which include a lot of West Norfolk Bronze Age material.
But now it has been agreed that all the timbers, which are currently being stored at Flag Fen Bronze Age site, near Peterborough, in chemically-treated water, can be housed at Lynn – half of them on permanent display.
An application for £940,000 is being made to the Heritage Lottery Fund and a bid sought for £80,000 from Norfolk County Council towards the cost of the expanded project.
Area museums officer Dr Robin Hanley said: “Including Holme Henge has increased the display costs quite significantly. We are planning to display it well and the plans are exciting and expensive.
“But with a monument of that international significance we need to ensure that the way we display it is right.”
The Holme Timber Circle Working Group, which comprises representatives from groups such as Holme Parish Council, West Norfolk Council and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, has already welcomed the idea.
And when the plans were explained at a public meeting in Holme on July 31, it was recognised that this offered a way to display the timbers in West Norfolk even if it was not the ideal solution of a purpose-built display in the village, Dr Hanley said.
He pointed out that Lynn Museum was a showcase for the whole borough and Holme Henge was important to the interpretation of the area’s archaeology.
Although only half the circle would be displayed in the museum, a suitable storage space would be found for the other timbers where people could access them, he said.
Dr Hanley said all the timbers would soon be going to a conservation laboratory to undergo “a very delicate and slow” freeze-drying process, so that they would not need to be displayed behind glass at Lynn Museum.
“The timbers will be capable of going on open display so that people can get close up to them,” he said.
The central stump could take up to five years to conserve, so a replica may be needed for the display until it is ready. Lynn Museum hopes for decisions from the Heritage Lottery Fund and county council by April next year, so that work on the project can start next September and be ready to open to the public in September, 2005.

Funding Bid Put In For Seahenge Home In King’s Lynn

Museum chiefs are awaiting the outcome of a funding bid which could pave the way for Seahenge to go on public display in West Norfolk.

Norfolk’s museums and archaeology service has submitted a £900,000 bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the redevelopment of Lynn Museum at King’s Lynn.

Earlier this year county councillors decided that the Bronze Age timber circle, which was discovered on the Le Strange estate at Holme near Hunstanton in 1998, should form the focal point of the £1.2m project.

Organisations including West Norfolk council have already agreed to make financial contributions towards the revamp.

A bid for £85,000 capital funding from Norfolk County Council has also been submitted.

Area museums officer for West Norfolk, Robin Handley, said that they should know the outcome of both bids in the spring.

“We have obviously put in as strong a bid as we can. We have had support from heritage organisations to demonstrate to the Heritage Lottery Fund that the bid is supported locally”.

“The borough council has indicated its support as has English Heritage. It is a really substantial piece of work and it has taken six months for us to put together,” he said.

Dr Handley said that Seahenge would form part of a display telling the story of Lynn and West Norfolk.

“We want to put Seahenge in the context of the archaeology of the area,” he said.

“We are not only wanting to create an exhibition but to put in lots of interactive elements and real objects on display. We have an excellent collection and during a consultation of people before the bid was put in they said they wanted to see lots of artefacts.”

From the EDP website.

Seahenge Display By 2005 (Well Bits Of It)

August 5, 2003 06:30 – from the EDP24 site

Seahenge could go on public display for the first time in the summer of 2005, it emerged last night.

The future of the 4000-year-old Bronze Age timber circle has been the subject of fierce debate since its controversial excavation from the beach at Holme, near Hunstanton, in 1999.

County councillors have now decided the internationally-important find should form the focal point of a £800,000 redevelopment of Lynn Museum at King’s Lynn.

Norfolk’s museums and archaeology service is making a bid for Lottery cash towards the scheme and, if all goes to plan, work could start towards the end of next year.

English Heritage is in the process of choosing a specialist firm to carry out the conservation of the structure, which is being kept at the Flag Fen Bronze Age site near Peterborough.

Originally, it was thought that only a third or about 20 of the timber posts could be included in the display, but there are now plans to accommodate more than half of them.

“The smaller timber posts should be conserved by the middle of 2005,” said Norfolk Archaeological Unit’s archaeology and environment officer, Brian Ayers.

“We always knew the larger central tree was far too big to do by then – nobody in the world has conserved anything as big as that. It’s going to take a lot longer, so at the moment we are discussing a replica for the tree, which will go on display until it can be replaced by the original.”

The role of Seahenge in the new-look museum, which is expected to re-open to visitors around mid-summer, 2005, was explained to a public meeting at Holme Village Hall.

“There were a lot of folk who would like to see the whole thing on display, but there was a general consensus that it was a move forward – we did stress it could be put on full display at a later date,” said Mr Ayers.

“It does get it on display back in West Norfolk, within a stable environment and, importantly, within one which is already a focus for activity. It should be good.”

A mobile exhibition charting the remarkable story of Seahenge is touring a series of venues in north-west Norfolk.

edp24.co.uk/content/News/

Permanent Home Plan for Seahenge

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/3011098.stm

A home for the ancient timber circle is planned in King’s Lynn. Proposals to put the ancient Seahenge timber circle on display in Norfolk have been put forward.

The circle, discovered five years ago and at present being conserved at Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire, could form the centrepiece of the redeveloped Lynn Museum in King’s Lynn.

The plan would give Seahenge, discovered off the coast of Norfolk at Holme-next-the-Sea near Hunstanton in 1998, a permanent home. Seahenge sat unnoticed and undisturbed off the coast for almost 4,000 years.

But since the timbers were first discovered they have rarely been far from controversy with some people feeling they should stay put.

They were moved to Flag Fen, near Peterborough, where the archaeologists could ensure they were preserved. That work will take at least two more years.

This will give the Lynn Museum time to apply for lottery funding to allow it to display Seahenge. Even then only about a third of the smaller posts would be displayed – along with the central trunk.

The ancient timbers have brought a new perspective to our knowledge of Bronze Age man. Use of 3D laser scanning has revealed the earliest metal tool marks on wood ever discovered in Britain.

Seahenge Roadshow Set To Go On Tour

edp24.co.uk/content/News/story.asp?datetime=11+Feb+2003+20%

A new exhibition charting the incredible story of Norfolk’s Seahenge is set to hit the road this summer.

Archaeologists are putting together a travelling exhibition, focussing on the Iron Age monument’s discovery and its controversial removal from the beach at Holme, near Hunstanton.

Brian Ayers, Norfolk’s archaeology and environment officer, said it would be launched in Holme in May or June.

“It will be a mobile display we can take to other locations in North West Norfolk,” he added.

“It will be talking about the history of the excavation and what this has told us about the technology of that time.”

The timber circle, which was uncovered by the tides in early 1999, was hailed as one of the most important archaeological discoveries for decades.

But there were angry protests over the decision to remove the 4000-year-old relic from the beach.

The 55 timber posts which made up the circle and its central tree stump are currently being conserved at Flag Fen, near Peterborough.

When the preservation process is complete, in two years’ time, archaeologists hope it will be put on display somewhere along the stretch of coastline where it was found.

Axe marks gave new insights into the tools used during the period. Electronic scans showed 38 different axe heads were used to shape the timbers – at a time when metal technology had only just arrived on our shores.

The marks – believed to be the earliest tool marks found in Britain – show the society that inhabited the wild North West Norfolk coastline was far more advanced than was previously thought.

Sea Henge stays on dry land

(from northcoastal.freeserve.co.uk/holme_beach.htm)

27th November 2001
Holme Village Hall Meeting

A meeting was held in Holme Village Hall tonight for what has been called the last of the consultations regarding the fate of ‘Seahenge’.

David Miles Chief Archaeologist of English Heritage explained to the villagers of Holme-next-the-sea what had happened to change the decision to bury Seahenge deep into the clay of Holme beach. A decision made at the last consultative meeting in the village hall in October 2000, when it was suggested that there was neither money nor expertise to preserve the timbers on dry land.

When various archaeologists and academics from the international scientific community urged
preservation of the timbers as burying them could not guarantee their survival, English Heritage
released funding to Flag Fen for further investigation of the timbers.

The Seahenge timbers, which have been dated to the spring of 2050BC and 2049BC using pioneering dating techniques, are now being studied using new technological advances in laser scanning which is allowing scientists to study, on computer, three dimensional detailed images.
This study is revealing in fine detail exactly how the timbers were cut and shaped and showing what tools were used. This, and other information, is unlocking the mystery of the builders of Seahenge.

Referring to the axe marks as ‘fingerprints’ a report from Flag Fen suggests that 38 different bronze tools were used and that a number of ‘builders’ appeared to be involved. That report concluded a whole community would have been involved in the building of ‘Seahenge’.

English Heritage has now agreed to release £50,000 for a 5 year programme of conservation and preservation to be carried out at Flag Fen Bronze Age Centre in Peterborough under the direction of Francis Pryor the Director of Archaeology and his wife Maisie Taylor. At the end of this process English Heritage will provide the funding for storage. English Heritage scientist Mike Corfield explained how the timbers could be preserved using a water soluble wax which process would make the wood solid. David Miles said no decision had been reached regarding display of ‘Seahenge’.

The option of placing the conserved timbers into storage would give access to scientists for research purposes and allow future generations to experience for themselves ‘one of the most important discoveries of recent years for British archaeology’. Another option to storage is the founding of a local trust to take over the responsibility of Seahenge and to raise the funds and find a suitable environment for permanent display allowing this present generation to experience this ‘important discovery’.

It was suggested at the meeting that there was now a breathing space of 5 years in which to come up with the answers to the eventual fate of ‘Seahenge’.

Holme Parish Council Chairman, Geoff Needham said “They have now realised the national importance of Seahenge and that they have no option but to provide the money for preservation.

The enthusiasm for long term display must come locally, but the Government will have to provide the money”.

There was no mention at all of the new discoveries on Holme’s beach. See ‘At Holme with Seahenge’ where three new photographs taken by John Lorimer show the central logs of a 22’ circle clearly showing what are assumed to be bronze tool marks.

Update 2

Thanks again to Kevin for providing us with this update on Sea Henge...

It’s official. Norfolk’s Sea Henge is to be returned to the waves.
Here is a couple of paragraphs from a recent addition of the local rag “The Lynn News and Advertiser”.

Chairman of Lynn and West Norfolk Museums Committee Ted Benefer said: “The mystical quality the timbers had in their beach setting in Holme would just be too difficult to recreate in a museum. The preservation and upkeep of the circle, if displayed off-site, would also be a drain on resources, because it is unlikely the timbers themselves would be a big draw for visitors”

BBC Local radio and regional Television have subsequently been running with the line that early next year the timbers would be buried “as close to their original setting as possible”.

The story doesn’t seem to have made the national press. I am assuming Time Team wont be
doing a “special” about the sites re burial ( despite the fact that their TV companion book features a picture of Sea Henge, pre desecration, on its cover).

So the timber will be re buried, in the wrong place.

A case of Flawed Genius Loci.

Update

Thanks to Kevin for supplying the following update and thoughts on Sea Henge...

Oh dear.. looks like a black day for the desecration brigade.

It appears that no one wants to give a home to the displaced timbers of Sea Henge.
Strangely such an interesting story has made little impact in the national press but here is a transcript of a recently broadcast BBC Regional TV item.

“Seahenge timber circle may end up back on the beach where it was originally found. Talks are continuing over its future... and siting it on Holme beach is one of the options being considered.
West Norfolk Borough Council has turned down the chance to have it.”

It seems some people have noticed that the rotten timbers slumped in a visitor centre somehow lack the enchantment they had when glimpsed rising from the waters once every thirty or so years on a windswept Norfolk beach. What a surprise. I would hazard a guess that if you pulled Stone Henge down and re assembled it in the car park at Heathrow airport it would also lose some of its dignity.

Pulling a sacred site apart may help archaeologists find out HOW it got there but will never reveal WHY it got there. The answer to that is in the question; it is the THERE which is important.

If a hard pressed subsistence culture busted its ass to put stones/timbers/burials in a specific place then they did it for a reason. I think you can only begin to glimpse those reasons if you keep artifacts and site together.

Sea Henge was a local secret. Some of the people of Holme new it appeared every few decades. Grandfathers took their grandchildren to see it when certain rhythms of time and tide permitted it to be seen.

I’m not saying that was the original intention of the builders, but I would argue that it has a certain poetry about it. No one wants to gawp at some dislocated rotten stumps in a museum. No one wants to stand on a beach and say “there USED to be a sacred site out there, somewhere”.

Even the most pragmatic amongst us must have that sneaky feeling that a spell has been broken.

Meanwhile 4000 year old bits of wood free to a good home.

Sea Henge

Visited 28.10.14

Directions:
Lynn Museum, Market Street, Kings Lynn
(entrance at the bus station)

Being a big Time Team fan I have wanted to see these timbers ever since the (in)famous ‘special’. It’s a long way from Cardiff to Kings Lynn but at last I got the chance. I had planned this holiday and booked the hotels months ago but last week my dad passed away at the ‘ripe old age’ of 93. I know this is a ‘good innings’ as they say but the sense of grief remains the same. The holiday was therefore nearly cancelled but as there was nothing I could do at home it seemed pointless moping about at home.

From October to March the museum is free to enter which is an added bonus. I was able to buy a leaflet on Seahenge for 50p but was surprised there wasn’t something more ‘substantial’ available to buy. Although they did have several Francis Pryor books on display.

Myself and Dafydd eagerly went through the door marked Seahenge exhibition (unfortunately no audio phones available) and we made our way past the model of one of the Seahenge builders and the reconstructed outside of the timber circle. Although made of fiber glass it does look like real wood to be fair.

We the turned around the corner to see the real thing (well, half of the circle anyway) encased behind glass. The information boards are very good although I was expecting the timbers to be rather larger.

Enclosed in a separate glass case is the mighty upside down tree trunk, complete with hole in order to drag it across the land. The tree trunk is very big, much larger than I was expecting.

There are also several display cabinets showing prehistoric finds from the locality. There are also very good. The rest of the museum covers the Roman period right through to recent times.

The start attraction of the museum of course is Seahenge. It really is very special and well worth the effort involved in getting to see it. Lynn Museum isn’t very big and I can see that they have done their best to display the timbers. However, it is a pity that the circle couldn’t be displayed in its entirety with the tree trunk in the middle. Perhaps one day this may be possible? I assume the other timbers are safely stored away somewhere?

Do try to visit the museum if you happen to be in the area. It is well worth it.

***
It seems likely that the upturned tree trunk served as a place for a body to be exposed to the elements in order to be ‘prepared’ for burial. Last week my father passed away and yesterday I had a ‘phone call from my sister to say that he is now at the funeral home being ‘prepared’ for his funeral next week. It may me think of the emotions the people who built Seahenge must have also been going through.

These notes are dedicated to my dad who I thank for taking me on holiday around this wonderful country of ours whilst I was growing up and hence installing my ‘curiosity’ to visit places of my own.

Sea Henge

Seahenge. Of course it is not a henge, not even a stone circle but built with wooden posts around the spring of BC 2049. The diameter of the circle was 21 feet (6.6m) with 55 closely fitting posts the circle averaging out at about 10 foot high. The land on which it stood would have been different, saltmarsh protected from the sea by sand dunes and mud with a mixed oak woodland nearby. Tis a place of sacred unknowingness, you may laugh but that central upturned trunk its roots reaching out to the sky must hold some sort of secret. The archaeologists think that it was used for excarnation, either for a great chief, or maybe for the small group or clan who lived here.

When I first saw the upturned tree, my initial reaction was that it was somehow a dinosaur, not quite dead, still throbbing with slow life. It has PRESENCE this tree, blackened and deeply fissured with age and a few model carrion crows perch menacingly on the edges of the mock-up wooden circle help create the drama. The tree stands in its glass cage watching over the recovered wooden posts of the circle as they curve round on their stand backed by a large photographic representation of the beach on which the circle was found.

This beach at Holme-Next-to-the-Sea must be your first port of call, drive down to the village and turn left at the crossroads, (where it says Peddars Way) and there is a car park further on. Walk over the wooden boardwalk by the dunes, the sand stretches for ages down to the sea, and on the horizon about 50 sea wind turbines stand like ghosts, blades idly turning. No mention of where the posts were found on the information boards, and I suppose if you were lucky and walked further on and the tide was out you may find the second wooden circle, called Holme 2.

There are several theories mooted on the boards that accompany the timbers, one is to do with the stripping and non-stripping of the bark off the posts, most timbers had their bark left on but one had been stripped, this one called ‘timber 30’ had its outward facing bark stripped, maybe to represent an important person, maybe because it had been struck by lightning thereby leaving a white bark. Firstly, it was said that the closeness of the posts could be that the whole site was supposed to represent a tree stump, or maybe each individual post represented a person, there were 55 posts in all. The orientation of the first timbers sunk was to the Midwinter sunset in the south-west and the Midsummer sunrise in the northeast.

About half the timbers were placed upside down, it could have been due to the fact that if driven into the ground right way up the circle would have leant inwards towards the centre. By placing them upside down they cancelled this inversion, but there again at other Bronze Age sites inverted objects were associated with death and human remains.

The narrow ‘entrance’ double pronged timber was labelled 35/37 in the initial excavation because it was thought to be two separate posts, there is a blocking timber 36 in front of the entrance.

The great central oak stump, over 50 axes were used on this tree, and 3 holes bored into its lower trunk show where it was dragged by honeysuckle ropes. Measuring about 2 and half metres high by approximately the same width, think I read somewhere it was 150 years old, there are two suggestions for why it was used, one being the excarnation theory the other “a symbolic representation of the fruits of the earth and the magical powers of trees, or perhaps a gateway to the underworld”

What to make of it all? Firstly, one has to agree with the decision of digging the timbers up, if only to help keep them for future reference and safe from further destruction by the sea, and because of their special uniqueness. The heart does stop for a few seconds as you view these old monster wooden posts, my first impression was of the old wooden Scandinavian gods found in the bogs – strange twisted and shaped… Alien, scary and dark! Imagination can run easily with Tibetan ‘sky burials,’ especially as part of the exhibition houses another upside down tree trunk to make the point that the roots easily cradle a human being.

Lynn Museum can be found to one side of the bus station, so simply head for the train and bus station and park in the car parks round there.

Sea Henge

I have to admit my main reason for visiting Flag Fen was to reacquaint myself with the timbers I had last seen on a cold windswept beach near Hunstanton 4 years ago. At the time I had dragged along the girlfriend of the time and her 2 kids to watch a ring of wooden posts and a central trunk very slowly emerge from the water – I don’t think they were ever conned by the promise of ‘a day at the seaside’ again after that.
For some reason I’d left it a long time before going to see the remains of the circle in their wooden tanks, perhaps I needed to put some distance between them being there on the beach and being here at Flag Fen. Francis Pryor’s book had reawoken my memories and brought back the feelings of that day – I’m not going to go into the rights and wrongs of the subject, I think the issues were well covered in the Forum posts of the time.
Walking into the large open fronted barn was a strange experience. The central timber is placed at the end and it was almost like walking into some kind of hallowed hall with the trunk forming an alter as its focal point. The smaller split timbers that made up the continuous circle were laid out under the water, some were in with the trunk while others were in a separate tank. The view of the timbers was difficult due to the layer of green pond slime that seemed to be growing on the top of the water in one tank, I presume there is a reason why the water is not changed regularly. I was almost tempted to put my had below the water to touch the posts, but didn’t, partly because I wouldn’t want to cause any damage to the 4050 year old wood and partly because it just didn’t seem right – disrespectful somehow.
I spent quite a while in the barn and there was nobody else around. While I was there something whizzed silently above my head, I looked up to see a young swallow on the wooden beams of the barn being fed by it’s parent before the adult flew off again to gather more insects for the youngster. I was struck by the whole ‘life, death, rebirth’ thing, the timbers had grown, been felled, shaped, moved to a sacred place near the coast, erected and become the centre of ceremony, abandoned, covered in rising water and then peat, been forgotten about, uncovered by the sea and returned to the land of the living, become again the centre of attention, been dug up and brought here awaiting the next part of their journey. The swallow had been born in Britain, grown up then flown to Africa, overwintered there and then returned to Britain to raise it’s own offspring who would repeat the cycle. Somehow I felt that seeing the timbers again had completed the cycle for me too in some way that I can’t explain. A sad but quite moving experience.

Sea Henge

[Holme Beach 10/12/02] So I came up here with a friend to see if any of the other structures were visible. And in some words, not really. However reading through pages about the place inc. photos, I see we were about half a mile west of where it was found.. doh.

All was not lost as we did see some large chunks of timber, looking as weathered as the seahenge timbers. They were seemingly carved in a way that made them look like stones from a stonecircle, but I may just have been overly hoping.

A word of warning, its very very cold on this beach in December when the wind picks up.

Sea Henge

Visited 24th July 2002: We went to Flag Fen without realising that the Sea Henge timbers were in storage there. I’m certain that the experience was nowhere near as magical as visiting the site in it’s original location, but I still got over excited by the experience.

Of course, the battery ran out on the digital camera, so I had a go with the SLR. The results aren’t fantastic, but I thought I’d post them up anyway. It was good to see the timbers (I missed out on seeing them in situ) but sad to see them in the wrong place.

Link

Sea Henge
Timber Circle
The Heritage Trust

The Seahenge Gallery, Lynn Museum

“On a recent visit to the Lynn Museum in Norfolk to see the Seahenge Gallery, it was noticed by Bucky’s wife Loie, that in each of the trunks that make up the circle there is a wedge-shaped cut extending the whole width of each trunk, and one or two inches into it. Bucky writes that, “Loie noticed a horizontal band of discoloration on one timber. When she pointed it out to me, I started looking at all of them and finding similar bands, at different heights. At first, I thought they might be strips of metal helping hold the timbers to the support posts: there was a tiny bit of space between some of the bands and the wood, as if the bands weren’t tight. Looking at the bands from as close to the timber sides as was possible, it was soon apparent the bands were not connected to the metal posts: light was visible between them. So the bands were in or on the wood. I soon saw that where the bands met the sides of the timbers, they continued around the sides. And the continuations were all triangular. It became apparent that the only explanation for all the different aspects we had noted would be horizontal wedges cut into the wood, and then inexpertly filled with some kind of painted putty.”

“The cuts had indeed been filled and in-painted so, in the subdued lighting of the Gallery, they are not easily seen (which actually contravenes accepted conservation practice as restorations should be clearly visible). Staff on the reception desk at Lynn Museum didn’t know what the cuts were (and hadn’t even noticed them before) but after telephoning one of the museum curators it appears that English Heritage’s original intention was to leave the circle in situ to naturally degrade. In order to get as much information as possible before that happened however a wedge was cut out of each timber (not just the infamous chainsaw chunk from the central bole) for dendochronological cross-dating. English Heritage’s decision to leave the circle in situ was then reversed and all the timbers were subsequently removed for safety and conservation (now unfortunately with slices taken out of them – slices which subsequently needed to be filled in and ‘restored’).”

More here – theheritagetrust.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/observations-at-the-seahenge-gallery-lynn-museum/

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