|
This barrow, although the larger of the two barrows, didn't seem to have the energy of the smaller one. The rutted track made by the MOD traffic runs between the barrow and the Iron-Age Earthwork. This track has cut into the edge of the barrow but apart from this, the barrow is well defined. Records indicate that "a recent hollow in the centre of the mound" is noted in 1926, although no record exists of the contents. The "army triangulation point, concreted into the top" noted in 1972 has also been removed.
|
For parking, see Fieldnotes for Southly Bridge Barrows
I walked up the bridleway with my bike after visiting the Southly Bridge Barrows. I got the area where the earthworks have been cut in two and left the bike in a wooded area at the bottom of the hill. Although a footpath runs along the base of the hill, I climbed up the rutted track made by the MOD along the spine of the hill. This track has really damaged the barrows and looks like it was made by tanks or heavy duty trucks.
In the Bronze-Age mindset, the hill would had made a natural sacred place when viewed from Sodbury Hill. Two natural hillocks, one at either end of the level hilltop, have both been crafted into burial mounds for the elite. One for a king and the other for a queen maybe? or perhaps a father and son. The Barrow built upon Pickpit Hill would have made up the sacred three hills found throughout the ancient landscape.
The Iron-Age Earthwork raises some questions with relation to these barrows. The Earthwork does not encompass the barrows, but is built right up to them. If the earthwork was defensive and formed a palisade of stakes, they did not claim the ancestors. Were the builders of the defensives taking over from the original Bronze-Age descendants?
The area may had become part of the Royal park at Ludgershall in the reign of Henry III. Leland records that it surrounded Ludgershall Castle (SU 25 SE 3); in 1583 it was two miles in circuit.
|
Visited late July 2012
This group of barrows are not much to look at now but would had been positioned next to a downland paradise when first constructed in the Bronze age. Below the barrows runs the River Bourne and this section contains many natural fissures where underground water rises to the surface. It would have been a place of great enchantment to ancient man, as well as being a hunting, fishing and food gathering supermarket. Today's extraction pumping has destroyed the natural habitat, along with a lot of the aquatic wildlife.
Park by the war memorial on the A338 lay-by, and cross the road using the byway (SU 23287 50957). The bridge over the river is very overgrown and looks little used. Once across, follow the bridleway on your right and the barrows are in a clump of scrubland. One barrow has been cut into by the Sunny Hill track but the other is reasonably intact and has been staked off by the MOD with "No Trenching" signs erected.
The area around Leckford Bottom would have been particularly marshy and an obstacle to any force approaching the area using the Sunny Hill track. This would explain why the Iron-age defensive earthworks were constructed to the East of these barrows, along the ridge of Windmill Hill by King Ina.
With most of the barrows or earthworks on this part of Salisbury Plain, a visit in the winter when the vegetation has died back, giving a clearer shape to the sites' features, is always going to better.
|
Although this long barrow is close to a main road, I would recommend that you park in the MOD assembly area (SU 20442 52494)
The barrow is quite easy to find and sits next to the only fenced off piece of improved pasture on that part of the training area. I was probably the only person those bullocks had seen all week. With most of the barrows or earthworks on this part of Salisbury Plain, a visit in the winter when the vegetation has died back, giving a clearer shape to the sites' features, is always going to better.
This is not really what I would call a long barrow. It does not have much of a presence in the landscape and looks like it was put together in a hurry, without much thought to any alignment or positioning. It does not say anything about laying claim to a piece of land or territory. It makes me wonder if it was even built by the "Long Barrow People" at all. The nearby henge would indicate a sizable community of people living or carrying out ritual in the area.
We can only speculate as to what was going on during the late Neolithic but the "Long Barrow People" may have been killed off as a separate race, by people coming in from other parts of Europe. Whether these people came with peaceful intentions or not, they could easily have introduced infections that the native population had never encountered and had no immunity against. This situation occurred time and time again wherever the European explorers came into contact with natives.
|
Fieldnotes - Visited Late July 2012
Another classic drive-by TMA site. Although these barrows lie within the parish boundary of Pewsey, they are only a field away from the Everleigh Barrow Group and should be considered as a sub-set of that group.
I really wanted to have a good look around this barrow group as it is said to have contained virtually every kind of round barrow from a Bell, Bowl, Disc, Pond, Saucer and even an elusive "Cone" barrow. As it turned out there was no direct access and I couldn't be bothered to arrange it with the land owner. The last time I visited the area, the farm was a dairy but this time the field was full of very fat and sunburnt pigs. All their mud pools had dried up and the ones that were not in their huts were wondering around looking angrily at anything that came near them. I decided to leave my visit for another day and carried on towards Everleigh and the Plain.
|
Fieldnotes - Visited Early Aug 2011
Came past this site and the crop had just been harvested so went to investigate. You can just see the twin barrows from the road as they stand out from the stubble. I would imagine that this is the only time of the year they are visible as they have been ploughed down so much in the past. The current plough boy seems to show some respect for them which is more than can be said for the animal that has dug into one side of them. Clearly this would not have happened if the dreaded black hound was still about. Guess the dog gone when the MOD moved in. Went up to see the single barrow behind the wood but the field was still in wheat, so decided against destroying a valuable crop for my antiquarian curiosity. Site made a good example for the drive-by TMA.
|
Fieldnotes - Visited Late July 2012
Like a lot of prehistoric sites, Godbury lays a forgotten relic of the past. An Iron Age enclosure, it was probably used in cattle breeding as a corral or way station between summer and winter pasture. Whatever it's original purpose, the area is now ploughed up and planted with wheat or peas. Only the old drovers tracks, with their wide hollows remain to indicate what use this rural part of the old west once was.
I travelled up to the site by the byway which runs next to it, having skirted the bottom of the hill after visiting Old Hat Barrow. I encountered the tenant farmer at the bottom of the hill and asked a few questions about the area. He seemed mystified as to why I wanted to visit such a place but was happy enough for me to carry on with my exploration so long as I didn't get in the way of the harvest of disturb his birds. He couldn’t tell me anything about the site or the surrounding fields. I asked about Falstone Pond but he reckoned that the pond had dried up years back when the underground aqua fore had been tapped and the water extracted. Seems that this had also reduced parts of the River Bourne to a stream too.
Godbury itself was much overgrown with scrub and decaying trees. The perimeter was planted very close with peas and after working my way round half the site, I decided it would be a thankless task to go any further into the enclosure. Defiantly a site that is best visited in the winter months when the vegetation has died back and the earthwork is more visible.
I was going to have a look at the barrow on Easton Clump, but after seeing the extent of the vegetation, I decided against it at this time.
|
Old Hat Barrow - Fieldnotes
Visited - End July 2012
Although there are a lot of round barrows around these parts, this one was the only one given a "title". The description on Pastscape painted a picture of an overgrown mound dug into by wildlife, but it appears the site has seen some TLC since the record was made. Today the barrow looked in excellent condition, complete with protection stakes and warning signs against trenching by MOD employees.
Like most site visits, I used my bike, leaving the Marlborough road opposite Summer Down Farm and continuing down the byway past Hogdown wood and up to the Scrubs. Leaving the track, I walked along the headland, (the field boundary) and up to the edge of the wood and the barrow. The barrow was easy to see from the field, as stated, looked in very good condition.
I met a local walking his dog and asked about the second site of my visit, Godsbury. He told me that the landowner had created a "permissive path" not shown on the map and I should be able to follow this on my bike as it was wide enough for a horse, down the hill and back out onto the byway. This path follows the parish boundary, which is the dotted line shown on the O.S. map. Although the map shows several other barrows around Milton Hill Farm, I fear that they have been ploughed out but I couldn't really visit them on this occasion as the fields were all in corn and about to be combined.
After reaching the end of the "permissive path", I came out by a gate onto the byway and found a notice board giving details of the paths created in the area. It showed the paths connected up to The Giants Grave on Milton Hill, so you could explore a lot of the prehistoric sites from there.
|
Visited Early Aug 2011
An unexamined late Neolithic Long Barrow with slight traces of it's side ditches.
The barrow is the hangin' of teenage, green smoking, special brew crew of Bulford.
Wasn't riding with my possie when I breezed through on the way to Ratfyn and the new Tesco, but had me some pictures and gassed with the kids for 10 mins. Site had a nice vibe to it.
Not much change here on the scrap metal front since the last field notes were written.
Brothers and Sisters this hood needs cleaning up! Where's Heritage Action when you need 'em?
|
Visited Early Aug 2011
A pair of Long Barrows lie just off the Tidworth to Bulford road and are very close to the Devil's Ditch which forms the county line between Wiltshire and Hampshire. A major track runs next to the barrows and the surrounding area is used as an assembly point for the army. There is an area set aside for parking and the site seems to be a favourite for local dog walkers. Public access is not a problem, although the area to the West is part of the MOD ranges and access is prohibited when the red flags are flying. There are a number of round barrows close by, together with numerous earthworks, some prehistoric while others date from the First World War. Some of these First World War trenches were practice trenches dug by WWI solders prior to digging the real thing in France. The better examples are now listed as protected monuments in their own right.
Not sure if this site is unique in having two long barrows side by side but it is the only one I can remember visiting.
Having visited and read up on a lot of long barrows, in my opinion, the southern one of the pair, SU24NW102 (scheduled Monument WI10193), which is the larger of the two, is the original and dates from the early Neolithic, while the smaller, northern one SU24NW101 (scheduled monument WI10194), appears to be from the later Neolithic. Neither barrow shows signs of excavation or examination and there is certainly no account of any such actions on the Wiltshire Sites and Monuments database.
Both barrows are orientated east-west with SU24NW102 having more pronounced side ditches and the remains of a berm. The other barrow, SU24NW101, shows traces of the side ditches created when it was constructed, although these have silted up over time. Both barrows have been protected by posts all the way around and the sites are clearly marked as protected monuments `
|
Visited Early Aug 2011
A pair of undisturbed and so, undated bowl barrows. These barrows sit beside the old coach road that once linked Salisbury with Marlborough. This section of the coach road may well be prehistoric as it runs between numerous ancient sites. The barrows are now protected by a border of stakes as is the nearby milestone. The barrows are listed as a Scheduled Monument number WI10181 and are listed on the Wiltshire SMR as SU24NW600 and SU24NW601. The milestone is also listed as SU24NW527.
Although these barrows are hardly impressive and nothing really worth seeing, they are an important landmark when travelling on this area of the plain, especially when calculating your position with the O.S. map. The coach road is also a dedicated public byway and regardless of other military traffic running around the area, should always be open to dedicated antiquarians.
|
Visited 04/08/2011
Although this round barrow was probably a burial site associated with Ogbury Hillfort, which lies directly over the other side of the River Avon, the current trees have obstructed the view from one to the other.
I travelled up to the barrow from the bottom of Ogbury, past the church and the village pub. Just past this on the right is a bridleway which leads to the foot bridges across the river by great Durnford mill. Once over these narrow foot bridges, I followed what might well be an ancient track linking the two sites. This track had been recently 'stimmed' which made it appear like a round green tunnel. It was full of wildlife and I remember walking past some lovely walnut trees with fragrant leaves. Climbing to the top of the hill, the track opens out onto the Woodford road and the NCR 45. Directly over the road is a footpath which overlooks the earthworks of the deserted mediaeval village of Lake. Lake House Barrow is easy to reach from the start of this footpath although at the height of summer it is completely hidden by a high hedge which runs alongside the road.
Lake House itself is a fine Elizabethan structure and can clearly be viewed from the pasture beside the Barrow. This house was once home to the Rev. E. Duke who carried out a lot of early investigations into the ancient remains of the area. The current owner is an ex-police man by the name of Sumner. I think there was a birthday party on the day of my visit as a lot of limo's with blacked out windows came past me and into the grounds of the house. Security was present at the gates of the drive too.
|
Visited Hiroshima Day 2011
This not one of those sites that you might happen upon during a Sunday afternoon drive in the country.
True it does lie by the side of a public highway, but the only traffic I saw on my visit was an armoured convoy of Mastiffs and Buffalos practicing their driving skills before carrying out the real thing in Afghanistan. The only guys I spoke to were on the other side of a 12ft high fence topped with razor wire and carrying loaded Sa80's. They were jovial enough once they realised I was one of those wired archo types who was just checking out the long barrow. One of them got quite excited when I told him there was no record of it ever being opened and it probably still contained the bodies of a Neolithic family from the time before Stonehenge.
The long barrow is a classic Neolithic one, from the early part of the period, being over 180ft long with clear evidence of the side ditches used to create it. It stands on the highest point of Knighton Down, orientated East/West, over looking the vast plain and its training area. To the left lies the Neolithic camp of Robin Hoods Ball with three more Neolithic long barrows, and beyond that, the Bustard Inn. As mentioned above, there is no record of this barrow being opened, although Dr. John Thurnam had been active in the area during his numerous excavations in 1863. The barrow has suffered some damage in more recent times, both from the O.S. who placed a concrete trig point right on top of the barrows' highest point, and the army who had driven a tracked vehicle up it's spine in order to reach the highest point in the area. The far end of the barrow also shows signs of being trenched by the army in the 1960's. Thankfully this kind of damage is now a thing of the past and a series of posts and signs surround the barrow and its side ditches, although the O.S. trig point remains.
If you decide to visit, I recommend you park parallel to the barrow as the road/track next to it is a busy convoy route. Expect to be challenged by armed security too as the barrow lies right next to the Royal Aircraft Establishment and there are highly secure areas only a few feet away. Access is via the Packway, either by the sports ground, just past Durrington Walls and up past the Stonehenge race course or opposite Durrington Down Plantation and the Fargo ammunition area. Consult the O.S. map for the Stonehenge area before you travel.
|
Old Sarum could be considered as similar to Avebury in terms of its scale, both in its earthly size and its mysterious Lay-Line energy. It has also witnessed many events that have created the kingdom(s) we live in today.
The site is run by English Heritage, but it is only the inner section that the visitor is required to pay an entrance fee (£3.70) to experience. The site is a jewel-in-the-crown kinda place and you should check the EH Old Sarum events page before you decide to visit. The bulk of the site is open 24-7 and public foot paths allow access to all the Neolithic outer banks and ditches, just like Avebury. Parking in the car park is free, although you may be asked to move on at dusk. Boo. There is a campsite next to Old Sarum at Hudson's Field, Castle Road, Salisbury SP1 3RR (01722-320713)
An excellent network of cycle tracks lead directly from Salisbury City centre, the Railway Station and the Coach parks. These connect up to many of the monuments that make up the Stonehenge sacred landscape and the WHS.
The site is connected to the almost forgotten hillfort of Ogbury, a little further up the majestic Avon valley. This waterway and ancient highway is itself scattered with Tumuli all the way up to Vespasians Camp and the Stonehenge WHS. Although some like the Little Down Barrows at Great Durnford take a bit of finding among the vegetation, others such as the Lake House Barrow have been updated in more recent times.
|
Fieldnotes - Early Aug 2011
If you can imagine Woodhenge without any concrete posts or The Sanctuary without any blocks, then you can image this site. Oh, and the only plan you get is on the O.S. map, and just the description of the site as below.
Although this site sits just inside the MOD training area, it is very easy to reach and parking is not a problem. I found the wooded area next to the henge to be very tranquil on the day of my visit which pleased me somewhat.
Go armed with the O.S. Explorer 131 map. The whole area is littered with dozens of TMA sites to explore and the old Marlborough coach road which runs next to the site can be driven down when training exercises are not being held.
Be warned, even though you might have the legal right to drive your vehicle down these ancient trackways, they are rough and your vehicle might not be suitable. You might have saved yourself on car insurance but don't get epic out here and put it to the test.
These days it's not common for a village to still have a functioning pub but the one that use to serve the old coach road is still doing a good trade in accommodation 200 years on. The coach road may be just a track but the Crown Hotel, Everleigh SN8 3EY (01264 850939) keeps on providing a good bed in old wild Wiltshire. As their website says "The Crown Hotel has now been restyled into new Rhodesian based Hotel and Village pub, yet still keeping the traditional English heritage and history, also known as "The Flame Lily Hotel".
See also - http://www.everleigh.org/the-crown-hotel/
http://totallyhaunted.co.uk/the-crown-hotel.php
If you come with a couple of mountain bikes, you could explore all the way down the Devils Ditch or cut out to Hot Cross bun for a day. The area around Sidbury Hill contains mucho TMA.
|
Visited Early Aug 2011
The O.S. map shows this flat topped, ditched bowl barrow as having a overall diameter of c50m, although it doesn't fell that significant when your standing next to it, but it is positioned at the top of a nice hill. Surrounded by a planted bank of trees it makes a welcome shady spot on a hot summer's day.
The "compound" next to the barrow, made from shipping containers, is part of the current use the training area is now being put to. This is a major position on the military sat-nav for Warthog convoys and Apache attack helicopters.
Below this barrow, just inside the military danger area lays the source of the Nine Mile River and the old Marlborough coach road.
|
Visited 05/08/2011
Although clearly marked on the O.S. map as Ratfyn Barrow, I had initial difficulty locating this barrow. After searching around the area I realised it was tucked away in the garden of a 1930's house. You can just glimpse the top of the barrow over a fence as you reach the crest of the hill between London road and the top of Lords Walk. The pictures here were taken from the garden gate and as I couldn't see anyone at home, I didn't bother to ask permission for a closer look. The side of the barrow facing the house seemed well manicured but the back facing the fence did look a little wild with plenty of Verbascum thapsus (Great or Common Mullein) sprouting out of the mound. An interesting garden feature.
|
Visited 10th April 2011
Stopped and visited this barrow which lies just off the A345 between Netheravon and Figheldean. Barrow is situated in a pasture behind a cottage.
Wiltshire and Swindon Sites and Monument Record class it as an oval barrow, similar to Silver Barrow.
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/11962/silver_barrow.html
These barrows are thought to be a transitional type between the small, late Neolithic long barrows and the more common Bell and Bowl barrows. O.G.S. Crawford said it was a long barrow and marked it down as such on his 6" map.
William Hawley opened the barrow in 1910 and found a barbed and tanged arrowhead together with a few pottery sherds. The barrow was measured as 28 paces in diameter by L.V. Grinsell and listed in the Victoria County History in 1957.
I found it to be uninspiring and lacking in any vibes. It may have been disturbed by the army at some time for it now has the "Star of David" sign to ward off those trenching squaddies.
The name "Gallows" refers to a gallows which was erected in the field next to the barrow. The road was used by coaches before being taken over by the army. A policeman was killed by another policeman near here on 1st April 1913 but the gallows were not needed then.
The web link supplied below by the wysefool suggests that "Sarsen stones for Stonehenge were brought down this valley from the Marlborough downs and a mishap lead to one of them ending up at the bottom of the river Avon in Figheldean". I had a look around the river but couldn't see anything. Maybe this was the same stone that was in the river at Bulford?. May go back to search in the winter when vegetation dies back.
|
The Alter stone lies just above the ground surface in the middle of Stonehenge.
The Altar Stone (80) is the largest of all the 'foreign stones' at Stonehenge. It is a rectangular recumbent block of sandstone, 16 ft. long by 3.5 ft. wide by 1.75 ft. deep, embedded in the earth so that its top is level with the surface, about 15 ft. within the central sarsen trilithon.
Two fallen members of this trilithon now lie across it (stones 55 and 156), and their weight has probably pressed it down to its present position. Like the adjoining bluestones, it has been carefully dressed to shape, but its exposed surface is now considerably abraded by the feet of visitors.
|
Pierre-aux-Dames - Musée d'art et d'histoire
Visited 17 September 2008
South of Geneva lies the small municipality of Troinex. This area was absorbed into Savoy in 1754 to become Troinex Savoy, before returning to Geneva in 1815. A treaty was signed on 30 May 1817, making Troinex an independent municipality. During this period an official census of the region was conducted and 1819 finds the first recorded account of the Pierre-aux-Dames.
Several prehistoric monuments were recorded including a large mound with the Pierre-aux-Dames resting upon it's top, accompanied by two or three other megaliths.
In 1877, the area began to be developed with roads and building plots. The mound was cut into revealing seven tombs dating from the late Bronze Age. According to the discoverers, whose excavations are poorly documented, the graves contained the bodies of a man and several women. It is unclear if the mound was completely destroyed at this point but the megalith was classified as a historic monument in 1921 and has been "maintained" at the Museum of Art and History in Geneva, since 1942.
The 2.5 meter long stone rests in the inner courtyard of the Museum and has doubled up as a water outlet for the garden. It is difficult to imagine how the stone originally rested on the mound as its base has now been levelled with concrete.
The municipality of Troinex asked for it's return, but the Museum refused on the grounds of security, so in 1998, a high-quality copy was commissioned by the female mayor, M I Beatrice Luscher and created by sculptor, Lukas Grogg. This copy, as well as two other small megaliths, stand outside the Troinex town hall, the Place de la Mairie, on Chemin de la Grand Cour 2, 1256.
|
|
Hail and Welcome
Chance was born in Ratae in the year of the Rat, and grew up in the territory of the Corieltauvi.
Now living days walk west of Wale-dich (Avebury), on the border between the Atrebates, the Durotriges and the Dobunni.
Practical experience of excavation on Neolithic, Bronze-age, Roman sites.
Interested in the various tribes, how they divided their land, their agricultural calendar, common beliefs and ritual systems.
Often attends the tribal meetings held at Avebury and Stonehenge.
Contact - Chippychance on UTube
http://www.youtube.com/chippychance
|
Log in |
Register
Previous 20 | Showing 21-40 of 84 fieldnotes. Most recent first | Next 20 
Top of page