La Pierre Levée as a banquet table for local scholars who, ‘when they have nothing else to do, pass the time by climbing up onto the stone and banqueting there with large quantities of bottles, hams and pastries, and inscribing their names on the capstone with a knife’. Illustration from 1561 in Georg Hoefnagel’s “Civitates orbis terratum”
Legend says that St. Radegonde , who is buried just over the river in Église Ste-Radegonde, brought the huge capstone block on her head and the pillars in her apron. The church of Ste-Radegonde can be seen in the background on the 18th c. print of La Pierre Levée from Monuments Druidiques.
Close up of the groove from which Pierre du Sacrifice is named. This is hardly natural and does not travel the whole width of the stone.
View showing the size of the stone
View showing the size of the stone
View showing the width of the stone
View showing the length of the stone
Artist’s impression of the Sheppard’s crook or Crosse carved into one of the upright stones
Artist’s impression of the tomb as it looked 6000 years ago
An ancient legend tells of the “petits hommes”, the little people who were said to inhabit the forest. They were said to have built the tumulus and made it there home. They were so strong that they could carry the enormous 15 tonne blocks with their bare hands.
View looking East from the village of Tusson. The top of the ridge contains four huge tumuli, including Le Gros Dognon, running in a line north south. The arrow is pointing to La Justice tumulus.
Early 20th Centenary postcard showing Poitiers La Pierre-Levée before the prison was demolished and the area redeveloped.
19th Centenary postcard showing Poitiers La Pierre-Levée before the prison was demolished and the area redeveloped.
19th Centenary postcard showing Poitiers La Pierre-Levée before the prison was demolished and the area redeveloped.
Detail of the middle section of the Normanton Down Barrow Group.
The barrows are numbered with offical titles. (Example Bush Barrow – Wilsford G5)
Part of the earthwork as seen from Normanton Down barrow group. One of the small Long Barrows can be seen in the forground
Part of the earthwork as seen from Normanton Down barrow group
The Lake group Long Barrow is aligned north-west to south-east, stands 2.5 metres high, is 42 metres long and 23 metres wide.
Records suggest it has never to have been opened or excavated in any way.
This Bell barrow seems to have been cleared from trees and was the best preserved barrow within the wood.
The Bell barrows within the wood are safe from the plough but not tree roots and wildlife.
One of the Bowl barrows within the wood showing the damaged caused by animals and vegetation.
The Bowl barrow nearest the wood and on the corner of the track as it skirts the wood.
The most western Bowl barrow has been reduced to virtually nothing but is still just visible.
Looking along the barrows outside the wood from the top of the Bowl barrow in the corner.
Of the barrows in the Lake group, those that stand outside the wood are best preserved such as this Bell barrow and the smaller Bowl barrow.
Drinking cup from Hoare’s barrow No.93 which lies just north of the Cursus on Stonehenge Down
The Stonehenge urn
The Winterbourne Stoke group in 1810 showing how the group radiate out along the same axis as the original long barrow.
This group consist of the long barrow, two disc barrows, large bell barrows, and the smaller, but more numerous bowl barrows. The earthwork on the bottom left ran all the way down to the Lake group of barrows and their single, immense long barrow.
To date the road system has only been changed by a roundabout, a lay-by and the name A303.
The Normanton Down barrow group in 1810 showing how the group stretch out along the ridge over looking Stonehenge.
The group contains: two small long barrows 151 and 175, eight disc barrows, including the one William Stukeley dug 159 and Bush Barrow 158.
The Lake barrow group in 1810 showing the long barrow, two disc barrows, large bell barrows, and the smaller, but more numerous bowl barrows. The earthwork on the left ran all the way up to the Winterbourne Stoke group of barrows, while the one of the right was designed to encompass a specific area only.
Looking over the disc barrow dug by William Stukeley towards Bush Barrow
View of Stonehenge down looking east from the Cursus Barrow group towards the end of the Cursus.
View of Stonehenge Down looking west from the Cursus Barrow group towards the gap in the Fargo Plantation made by the Cursus.
View of Stonehenge and car park from Amesbury G43
Bell-barrow,(Amesbury G43) recorded as No. 28 by Sir Richard Colt-Hoare and opened by Lord Pembroke in the year 1722 with no record of contents. Dimensions in 1957: mound dia. 99 ft; mound height 10 ft; berm width 25 ft; ditch width 18 ft; ditch depth 3 ft.
Bell-barrow,(Amesbury G43) recorded as No. 28 by Sir Richard Colt-Hoare and opened by Lord Pembroke in the year 1722 with no record of contents. Dimensions in 1957: mound dia. 99 ft; mound height 10 ft; berm width 25 ft; ditch width 18 ft; ditch depth 3 ft.
Looking along the Cursus Barrow group eastwards
Bell-barrow (Amesbury G43) and Twin bell-barrow (Amesbury G44).
Bell-barrow was opened by Lord Pembroke in the year 1722 with no record of contents
The Twin bell-barrow was open by Stukeley who found
In W mound: high in the mound a skeleton, head to N. This was opened again in 1803 by William Cunnington who found, south of centre, a large oblong chalk-cut pit in which was a cremation with 6 horn beads.
In E mound: Stukeley found a cremation (primary or secondary ?) in an urn, with a bronze knife-dagger, bronze awl, gold-mounted amber disc, and faience beads, amber studs, amber beads and space-plates, and beads of shale and ‘yellow glass’. He writes ‘This person was a heroin, for we found the head of her javelin in brass’.
Plate 30 – Prospect of the West end of the Cursus of Stonehenge
From Stonehenge, A Temple Restor’d to the British Druids, by William Stukeley, 1740
The Cursus and it’s group of barrows looking east. A is the end of the Cursus and the Long Barrow; B is the gap on King’s Barrows Ridge and the course of the Aveune; C is Stonehenge with the modern route of the A303.
The Cursus group in 1810 from the map of the area made by Hoare. The numbers start at 28 and progress westwards to 44. The largest barrow, Amesbury G55 was marked as No.40 by Hoare as ‘in point of size, the monarch of the plain‘
The Cursus Group as seen from King Barrow Ridge
The first of the Old King Barrows is much reduced as it once housed a fuel tank when Seven Barrows Cottages stood here in the 1950’s
View of the central Old King Barrow
View of one of the Old King Barrows looking towards the site of the Cursus Longbarrow
New gate and fence enclosure for one of the Old King Barrows