ocifant

Just around the corner from the village church, this was idyllic on a sunny Sunday morning. Villagers were cutting the lawn and gossiping over the hedge, giving a wonderful picture of rural village life.

The stone sits next to a memorial oak on a small green at a junction off the main High Street through the village. The information sign could do with a good clean (see photo), and the stone looks as if it’s had a bit knocked off the top. It looks for all the world like a piece of modern sculpture in its shape. Interesting texture and well worth seeing if you’re in the area.

Popped along to take a look at this today, and also its continuation in St Albans, Beech Bottom Dyke.

It’s an impressive defensive ditch, but I’d be inclined to just walk along to the end and attack at that point!

Of course, it’s very overgrown now, with bluebells in abundance, as well as the usual detritus of 21st century living: broken cycles, botles, syringes etc. Apart from that, it’d be a nice short woodland walk alongside the housing estate.

This earthwork is in a poor condition, and very overgrown but there is a walkway along the top from which the depth of the original dyke can be appreciated. The sides are very sheer in places, and seem to drop away to a depth of around 50-60 feet.

The earthwork is thought to have originally joined up with the Devil’s Dyke to create a defensive earthwork running from the River Lea to the River Ver.

I found the best viewpoint was from the alleyway running between the houses on Beech Road, near the junction with Marshall Avenue.

Esso is now Texaco.

This didn’t feel old. It seemed out of place, like those stones that are used as garden ornaments in council estates to give them some ‘character’. Lifeless and lost.

As Ironman says, easy to find, and there’s a huge layby less than 100 yards away. Just follow the signpost(s).

The only good thing about this site now is that it’s a bit of a haven for wild flowers, being covered in the same specieis that I saw at Hetty Peglers Tump the other week. No idea what they are – I’m crap at botanical identification.

I agree with Treaclechops – let’s bury Gloucester Cathedral in case it gets vandalised!

10th May.

I get the feeling this is a site you need to visit alone in order to get the real sense of why it’s here as opposed to somewhere else. Boy, did I pick the wrong day! It was like Picadilly Circus up there (and living in London, I should know!)

Obviously a popular site, there was a large group of walkers enjoying their lunch when I arrived. The sudden rain shower didn’t seem to put them off, they just carried on munching on their sandwiches. Obvioulsy a British group :-)

Consequently it was difficult for me to gauge the site. I took a look in each of the chambers, and was upset by the detritus left there by previous visitors (see photo). Interesting to note the plastic meshing peeking through the mound, there’s obviously been a lot of restoration work done here. Also interesting was the possibility of a hidden cavity, spotted on the SW side – it may just have been slippage of the mound, but some brickwork was seen under the grass, and there was a gap in the brickwork – difficult to discern whether this was original or part of the restoration work.

With no sign of the walkers moving on, and Mikki waiting patiently in the car below I took my leave, not really satisfied that I’d ‘met’ this site properly yet.

Marked on the OS map, we spotted this as we were passing.

Sadly, there’s not much to see here now at all. There’s a slight mound above the level of the field (6 or so inches), but unless you were specifically looking you’d never know it.

A piece of antler was found during the 1979-82 excavation of the North Barrow.

(Added to save other people time and bother looking...)

Looking for the Goose Stone, I found this fort at the same map reference, so I’ve added it as a separate entry.

The ‘fort’ consists of a round bank, 7-8 feet high with two entrances (roughly NW & SE), and is currently being used as a paddock, but a public footpath passes through the fort, so access is no problem.

(I didn’t find the Goose Stone).

I travelled down after reading the reviews, looking forward to seeing the site, which didn’t disappoint.

Although the church has somewhat taken over the site, the fact that it’s also in ruins just added to the atmosphere at the site, suggesting that no belief is constant...

I’d expected to see the two magnificent yews flanking an entrance from the entries here, but the placement of the trees is more in line with the church than the henge, which is unbroken by the trees (see photo)

Dropped by the Tor on our way home, and were surprised to see the tower swathed in scaffolding (see photo). It seems the tower is undergoing renovation and repointing.

Baza pointed out the following link that mentions the work:

I didn’t check for alignments when I was there, but I suspect there may be a possibility of a line up with a ‘sleeping figure’ in the hill to the south. I took a picture at the time, I’ll have to dig it out and check.

Has anyone else noticed or mentioned this?

What a wonderful site. Majestically ancient and mysterious, with a couple of resident horses who didn’t pay me any attention whatsoever.

I guess we’re lucky that the Victorians didn’t take all the stone. It’s still possible to make out a couple of the chambers from the stone peeking through the earth, although they’re covered in moss and I would guess will be impossible to see in high summer.

I loved this site, and will treasure the memory of it for a long time to come.

Like Rhiannon, it was raining when we arrived here, but luckily it was only another brief (though heavy) shower. We’d parked right by the gate to the field, by the footpath sign and I donned my waterproofs for the first time this year for the short trip across the field to the stones which were easily visible from the car.

I’ve never seen so many dandelions in one field before. I also have to say I’ve never seen so much dung in one field before either. And so varied in colour, texture and consistency! Keeping my head down to check my path, essential in these conditions, I progressed carefully to the stones.

The wind must have been in the right direction, as although the M4 was clearly visible, there was no traffic noise to be heard, even when the rain finally stopped.

There’s not much left of the original mound now – it’s probably less than a foot or so high from the rest of the field, but easily discernable. The landowner had stacked up a lot of brushwood at one end, and the stones themselves had quite a bit of undergrowth on and around them.

What we have here are two uprights, and what looks like a collapsed capstone leaning against them. There is indeed a ‘bite’ out of the lower end of the capstone – see the photos. It reminded me very much of the hole in the capstone of somewhere like Trevethy Quoit, but cut out to the edge of the stone.. a sad and dilapidated site holding only memories of it’s previous splendour.

...and I couldn’t find the wheelbarrow....

Incredible stones! So peaceful, despite being so close to the road, an oasis of calm.

As is my wont, I laid hands on the stones, and it was only later that I noticed my hand had been dyed bright green by the lichen which was rampant on the main stone.