Well where do you start with the 'Fairford Incident'? Definitely go down in history.
Could it have been an American, Israel or even Iran set-up, if so, it failed miserably. As the news comes out in dribs and drabs and one of the five arrested men had actually phoned the police an hour before the farmer😎. Or, just some young lads stealing farm petrol. The saga continues but don't believe anything you read in the newspapers, well I might go and read the Guardian. But rumours will abound - lets see where the next bit of the story works out.
There was a glorious drone photo of Silbury Hill this morning taken by a farmer. Completely surrounded by harvested field, a faint dust of goodness know what on the empty fields and Silbury basked perfectly in the sun. I have said this before, but Silbury was only one of three mounds built around a similar time. (mines bigger than yours, you can hear the tribal chant;) one at Marlborough within the grounds of Marlborough College. The third, now gone, was Hatfield Barrow set in Marden Henge.
Marlborough College is an upmarket college in the pretty town of Marlborough. Always stop at the Polly Tea Room restaurant for scones and tea by the way, real traditional English fare. And you can see the pretty schoolboys, immaculately dressed, strolling around the town.
Paul always wanted his ashes scattered over Silbury he had a deep and abiding love for the hill but strangely that changed when he came to Yorkshire and he fell in love with Normanby village, he was at his happiest there.
I have actually climbed Silbury (you are not supposed to) but married to an archaeologist obviously obviously gave me credence. Trying to remember who was one of the first amateur archaeologist. It was man of the cloth - Dean Merewether no less. See this early 2008 blog. I see I had been reading Michael Dames on the subject, his name has been nagging at the back of my mind lately. Dames produced a beautiful book on Ireland, an author who looked for the magic and Celtic in archaeology but well worth reading.
When Shirley and I visited Silbury Hill, I wanted to climb it but she restrained me. Near where I was born you find Skipsea Castle in East Yorkshire. It was always thought of as a typical Norman motte and bailey castle but more recently archaeologists have concluded that the mound was there many centuries before Normans appeared on the scene. It may well have been a contemporary of Silbury Hill but 200 miles north.
ReplyDeleteLarge barrows, though not very common but there are large Roman barrows at Bartlow on the Essex border. I looked at Skipsea Castle and it seems to have been recognised as an Iron Age barrow, so its reuse as a Norman Castle was one of a convenience. I believe Silbury was flattened at the top by Saxons, there are rumours of a big battle around there. Shirley is obviously more sensible than you, though I think many people go up just for the thrill.
DeleteMy only claim to interesting neighborhood history is the playground and park near my home that my children always played at and I often take walks through. It's called Nike Park because it was actually a missile site back during the Cold War with large missiles buried in silos underground with radar towers near. That was all gone years before I moved here. Now there are soccer games, baseball games, pickle ball and tennis courts, basketball courts, volleyball courts, cricket grounds and a large playground. It's a very popular and busy park.
ReplyDeleteThat is a bit scary Ellen, a playground on top of missiles. It sounds a very large park to have all those courts for games and I have never heard of pickle ball. But it is clearly a better use of ground then storing missiles.
ReplyDeleteOh, the missiles were removed before it became a playground. :)
DeleteWe have interesting history here, although our written history is, by your measuring stick, almost current events.
ReplyDeleteWell there has been a lot of interesting American history over the last few years. Most of it bad, but when did it start changing I wonder Debby. I have a feeling that the upset that is going round the world, is that like rats in a cage we have become over populated in all corners ,and we probably should be more like Wendell Berry but without the religion.
ReplyDeleteOur own history was largely unwritten, carried on in oral tradition from one generation to the next. Unfortunately as the indigenous population was slaughtered or lost to disease or starvation, those stories were lost forever.
Delete"The Conservatives are going to build more prisons with 50,000 places for inmates". Oh really!
ReplyDeleteIs that to reduce crime in the country through progressive techniques? or to get the criminals behind brick walls for all time?
The liberals are losing the moral high ground in these moments of unrest Hels.
ReplyDelete