juamei

[visited 3/4/4] I’ve been angling to come here for ages ever since I saw The Pikestones and wondered just how they got that far north. Access is good, you can park to within metres of the stones & then through a gate.

So accompanied by loud barking I got to see a very impressive chambered tomb facing almost true west. It used to be 100 odd metres long and had a cresentic forecourt with cobbling! Very similar in style to other outliers of the cotswolds barrows, a vein of which seem to be clinging to the western edge of englands central hills. If this mound was covered in white as per mounds further south, it would have been visible far out into the western plains.

I met a very helpful local who pointed out some stones can be still be seen in the small grove of trees on the way into the site and on the other side of the access road, but most were taken away when the road was metalled. Apparently the stones are named as a result of a wedding being held here in the 1930s, what they were called before then is unrecorded.

[visited 3/4/4] I eyed this up in the car on the way south to Congleton, on the OS map and as I approached the Bridestones, the recomendation by a helpful local was just the icing on the top! Well worth a visit for the views with amazing views in 360 degrees. Access is for the vaguely fit and up a muddy path.

You can literally see for miles from up here, it was too hazy for me but the helpful arrows-pointing-at-things-in-the-distance pointed at stuff 50+ miles away.

To have been buried at the The Bridestones would have been a momentous thing indeed...

[visited 3/4/4] “Unique in england” according to Dyer and I’m sure he’s not wrong about that. Dyer says this is a neolithic chambered cairn at the Northern end with a later southern barrow with connecting bank. The bank was built with two rows of upright limestone slabs and this is visible (I think) leading away from the southern mound. Burials were found in the northern end and cremations along the bank and at the south.

Access is inadequate, you can get to wall of the field it’s half in by car but otherwise its through a stile thing or over a gate.

Well, I didn’t know what to expect with this and left not quite sure whats going on. It is a little gem tucked away but spoilt somewhat by the fence and tank as stubob says. Its been dug into quite a bit as well, so don’t come expecting a show site! That said it is a real enigma and I’m not surprised its been put in as a bank barrow. The connecting mound is large, 2m odd high and 10m across, but the dimensions as a whole are wrong in my opinion for it to be linked with say, Long Bredy bank barrow.

[visited 9/4/4] A word of warning, Eaton Golf course is private property and permission to visit should probably be sought from the clubhouse. If you have a slightly more cavalier approach to property ownership, access is best from the south via the path that cuts the course in two. Head up the west edge of the course along the well walked track and as you surmount the rise of the hill, the first barrow is to your right next to an attractive green. I only managed to find one of these (out of a possible 4), partly through lack of looking and mostly through not wanting golf balls aimed at me for tresspassing.

The one I found is a peach though, its had its top flattened off at some point in the past and has 4 concrete cubes on it which I presume are the remains of a water tank. But other than that its in fairly good nick. Its also a bit of an enigma, being more oval than round...
It bears more than a striking resemblance to Rudham and is presumably of the same group. An excavation in the 70s? has the barrows here down as Early Bronze Age so I guess this could be a transitional stage barrow, or even an anachronism in changing times. The longer axis points to ESE which only fuels the fire!

Access wise, as the course is designed with golf trolleys in mind I don’t imagine you’d have much difficulty getting a wheelchair here, also the carpark for the golfers is but 5 minutes walk away...

[visited nov 2003] Coming down into the valley west of Crow Hill from approx the Grey Mare, I had a purpose to fulfill. Namely the rectangular enclosure which had puzzled me last time.

I had a decent forage this time & discovered a few stones in the middle of it & also got a decent picture.

No idea how old it is as like the circles within the stone drift, it could have been made in modern times.

[visited 22/02/04] I came here last on my day out to watch
the sunset over the lancashire plains, but changed my mind when I realised how likely I was to hurt myself going down the escarpment in the dark...
It really is a mess up here, I’m not convinced that much is prehistoric, given the huge industrial mill? stones just off the edge of the quarry. However if most of it is prehistoric then its a big cemetary, something like Raven Tor or even one of the barrow cemetarys down south (Poor Lot springs to mind.)
Well worth a visit, the views are spectacular & who knows what else is lurking under the heathery peat.

[visited 22/02/04] What a site for sore eyes this is, its condition reminds me of Grey Mare in Dorset, but the ground plan on the wellkept sign makes it look more like Hetty Peglars Tump. I parked on the corner & headed across open moor to the barrow. Its a bit trashed, but the location made up for it.

Didn’t find the circle mentioned here, but did find a cairn with stones on the center which was approx 300m at 58 degrees from the Pikestones so maybe...

[visited 22/02/04] A brisk walk above Bolton leads you to this sorry site. It looks to be a dead ringer for an abused twin of Twelve Apostles, sitting sorrowful by the side of what is surely an ancient track. Despite the top of this windswept moor
doing steady traffic, I was the only person who stopped & walked over to the stumps, a somewhat depressing fact.

This circle isn’t impressive, unique or even readily recognizable, but still it struggles on & fair play to it. Go visit & make sure it is less forgotten.

[visited 7/11/03] A possible site, not 15 miles from Medway, how could I refuse! This site is a touch tricky to find, however I eventually located it behind a disused battery chicken farm.

Now on an astonishing birthday weather wise, after an amazing summer, I wasn’t that surprised to find the ruins of the church completely overgrown. Trouble being, so overgrown as to make it impossible to ascertain the presence or non-presence of any sarsen stone(s).

Anyone wanting to attempt this one should wait till January or turn up with lots of people prepared to clear a lot of foliage...

[visited 22/09/2003] My first view of a certified cursus and I was not disapointed. I visited a bit near the middle of the cursus at approx SU025167.

I parked in a weird layby next to a farm gate on the edge of the A354 & worked my way through Oakley Down barrow cemetary, past a small wood and onto the cursus at SU023163. I then followed the path of the cursus north, touching on a wood full of some kind of pheasant thing. The best viewable remains seem to be in the wood itself, I didn’t look for the west bank in the wood but the east bank reaches a height of approx 1.5m skirting the edge of the wood. Also look out for clear marks in the soil to the south of the wood, the east banks path is clearly visible at this time of year (late september).

So general impressions, it is huge. The only other sites that had this vastness about them that I’ve seen are Silbury & Avebury, but the overall nature of this dwarfs them. Two banks of earth taller than me, ploughing across the dorset landscape for miles upon miles, over hills into valleys, onwards ever onwards. One of those few occasions I’ve been overawed by what I’ve seen at a site.

[visited 28/7/03] Magnus Magnusson opened this idyllic retreat in urban north kent in 1985. The Rising Sun pub noted by Dyer, is long since gone and has been replaced by a council estate. The closest we londoners get to Ballybrack, I guess.

Nothing to see unless you like pebbledash coverered cubes of cement. The first piece of the skull to be found was where the large ‘plinth’ is now, the next two pieces where the small ‘seats’ are.

As I left the site, the phrase ‘one for the enthusiast’ ran through my head...

[visited 14/07/03] Well, I’m by far a cursus expert but I always thought they were much wider and generally bigger than this. However look at the pictures; it is a very strange track, it heads straight to one end of the barrow and it does go straight up a very steep hill. I would guess the central mound (and it is raised) is about 5 metres across.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to the end at the bottom of the hill due to time constraints, so I have no idea how far it went etc...

[visited 14/07/03] Amazing views to the east, spoilt by the low sun & the early morning haze, which to be fair made the whole experience seem more mystical. This mound is a strange one, I wasn’t sure where the mound ended and the edge of the hill began. Of course being the wrong side of the barbed wire fence didn’t help.

I’ll be back to have a proper shufty at this, the other side of the fence.

[visited 14/07/03] If I hadn’t known this was a barrow, I would have thought it was either related to the fint mines next to it or some weird hillfortesque defense. The reason for my confusion is it seems to curve along the edge of the hill, though that could have been my sleep addled mind...

All in all its a good length, though fairly denuded & with a bit missing (the platform?). The question in my mind is whether the fint mines are contempory as Dyer hints.

[visited 14/07/03] Been here a couple of times before, but this was the first time I’ve climbed the hill (Like Dyer says, you can see it with binoculors perfectly well from the carpark :).

It apparently dates from Saxon times, though as per the rumour is something was painted here well before that. I will say the hill surface it is on is surprisingly flat and to my mind marks the quarries, almost like a first attempt at a billboard!

[visited 19/5/3] – This is another delightful sight with what I’ve just found to be Robin Hood’s Stride very close by (ooh thats a very interesting rock outcrop). The stones definately look like the sorry remains of a circle & reminded me quite strongly of Bathampton Down. Very easy to reach from the road & lots in the area, well worth a visit as you’ll probably get this to yourself like me!

[visited 19/5/3] – Following an abortive first visit at night earlier this year (I was considering whether to tresspass when a dog licked my hand & I was so freaked I gave up :), I arrived here with the rain just starting. Luckily it was only a twenty minute shower and gave me a chance to eat some lunch.

So the skies temporarily cleared and I quickfooted it to the henge. In one word, wow. I loved the visual effects the makers had created, not being able to see the stones from outside the henge & aiming straight at the meeting of the two hills in the distance. I was lucky enough to have the sight to myself and if I hadn’t been on a fairly strict timer I’d have stayed much longer. As it was more rain & more sites to see drove me back to the car.

And so onto the incident which prompted the unwritten actual fieldnotes to start ‘Still shaking & ouch’. Whilst at the henge the kindly farmer had put cows, sheep & lambs in the field between the henge & the farm. I’m not sure but I think cows like to protect lambs in the same field & I am definately sure that a cow trotting into me is gonna hurt more than the electric fence I gripped two handed after leaping over the nearby stone wall. Watch the cows, keep watching the COWS!!!

[visited 19/5/3] – What a lovely site. Ignoring the rape of the landscape from the mines, the views are tremendous & the ambiance just right. I parked at the start of the Five Wells farm track & walked the 10 minutes across the fields, setting myself up nicely for the landscape to open up in front of me as I reached the summit. When you are at the site, stand on the mound and rotate 360 degrees, warmed the cockles of my heart that sight!

[visited 19/4/3] Yet another hacked apart site with only sporadic clues left as to what on earth was actually here. It’s easy enough to find due to the large stone standing defiantly by the side of the road. I found further stones in the hedgerow & field to the North, where the OS map marks a few stones. My notes say 6 or 7 in hedge & 5 in the field, the OS map has 7 in the field.

As to what I think was here, well... 3 in the field seem to be in an arc, giving the other two as outliers or even a row. Presumably the howevermany in the hedge were dragged there from the field. And the one by the road?

One final note, I _think_ you could see Avebury from the one by the road.

[visited 19/4/3] So first of all I went to the church in Alton Barnes, St Marys, which a pleasant enough Saxon church but not what I was looking for. A bit of intelligence took me to All Saints, the church in question located surprisingly in Alton Priors.

I can happily confirm it is indeed on a mound, there is a 1700 year old yew tree in the churchyard (according to the certificate inside the church) and there are indeed sarsens under the floor boards. The church is no longer used but is still consecrated and is maintained by The Churches Conservation Trust.

I was pondering on how I was gonna find the sarsens, but one is located to the right as you enter the church, under a handy trapdoor. I presume one is located under another trapdoor near the altar, but someone seems to have built a plywood stage over it...

This is well worth a visit if you are in the area and (I think) is open everyday in the summer. There is a note on the door telling you where to get the key from if its locked.

[visited 19/4/3] An interesting and bracing walk from Avebury, especially with a fierce cold wind straight into your face for the majority of the walk. But cross the ridgeway and head down over the gallops into the fields of stone and the heart lifts.

I walked to the south of the copse, then round the back with the density of stones ever increasing. It was a cold day but I spent about an hour here, searching for the elusive Polisher. I had to give up in the end, if only cos my Avebury carpark ticket was in danger of running out. However I didn’t go home entirely empty handed, I found two stones with holes in and a nice sense of well being.

[visited 19/4/3] Another ruined circle with Sarsens in hedge rows nearby and lonely survivors standing proud. Bizarre to find it so close to Avebury however, WK avenue is clearly visible, yet somehow seems to ignore this circle.

No purpose is apparent given the location, but who said anything had to make sense.

[visited 19/4/3] Whilst in the area I thought I had better take a look at a genuine archaeological fiddle at The Cove, as these things are getting increasingly rare. I was disappointed to see no info board & no activity but the complex metal work around the stones was fairly entertaining. Lots of other intrigued looking people as well.