Solsbury Hill

The tabletop appearance of the Iron Age fort viewed from Bathford


Bathampton Celtic field system as seen from Solsbury Hill, with the River Avon in between


On top of Solsbury looking down the Swainswick Valley with Freezing Hill (I/A) in the distance.


Solsbury Hill, Iron Age fort overlooking Bath, dance to the music of Peter Gabriel who wrote a song about it years ago. Gabriel lives in the little village of Box a couple of miles away, but to get to Solsbury you must drive out of Bath on the London Road, Turning left at Northend, park the car in the village and then begin the steep climb. Northend stands at the head of one of the prettiest valleys around Bath, Catherine Valley. Drive your car along the narrow lane if you must, but walking is a great deal better. Jane Seymour the actress owns the beautiful Elizabethan House along here - Catherine Court, at one time let out to summer visitors but apparently there has been controversy with her neighbours over an alcohol licence she had applied for and succesfully got - too many noisy parties!.....

But to return to the hill itself, it overlooks the River Avon, and on the other side the Iron age settlement at Bathampton would have been a twin sentinel in guarding the route into Bath. And it is strange that on the other side of Bath (the Bristol side) we have Littledown Fort and Stantonbury fort doing a similar thing. That there was a period in the dark ages when defended strongholds were seemingly a must, and just perusing the Iron Age map round the south west one realises that there are literally hundreds of such places.

Solsbury has of course another more modern history, the A46 widened beneath it in the late 1990s, was also a scene of road protest, with the young protesters taking to the trees and there is on top of the hill a maze done at about this time.

The maze, the bonfire was probably down to a pagan festival

The steep sides of the banks

The landscape is characteristic of the small valleys and downs round Bath, in a sense this beautiful countryside has always been difficult to develop, and in its own way protects the small, intimate nature of the City of Bath, development almost being non-existent. This is the last fall of the Cotswold landscape, a place of small fields often stone walled, for around here and on Lansdown the monks of Bath raised their sheep, a few fields will be ploughed where the land is level enough, but the small winding sunken lanes harbour many wildflowers and may often go back to prehistoric trackways. The Fosse Way makes its way near here, as does of course the old London to Bath Roman road. History's imprint still defined on the land though it takes a long time to understand the area.


Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMwn_hnoS5Y

Landscape characterisation; http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/BathNES/environmentandplanning/landandpremises/Landscape/rlarea16.htm

One Brave Lady

the following clip was received from an American friend this morning, with the proviso that it may be taken off the web, Obama seems to be having an effect already!

"Here is a powerful and amazing statement on Al Jazeera television. The woman is Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychologist from Los Angeles . I would suggest watching it ASAP because I don't know how long the link will be active. This film clip should be shown around the world repeatedly!"


http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak

Trees

A blank page, nothing to write, but words will tumble eventually......A book by Richard Mabey describing the great storm of 1987 when a great swathe of trees was cut down. The percieved wisdom at the time, was to clear and get rid of the trees, to remake the landscape. But as anyone knows that is foolish, the landscape is perfectly capable of making itself. New tree seedlings start up, colonisers or invaders, call them what you will, but they are there in the soil, Old trees their roots wrested from the ground, lying like beached whales, will still cling tenaciously to life, half buried roots succouring the fallen giant so that leaves still flourish. Life is perfectly capable of getting on without us, the sunlight space that felled trees make will in turn suddenly produce woodland flowers that have not been there before.
There is a creative edge to nature we know nothing about, in spring and early summer there is a vibrancy of growth, late summer and the air will be hazy with minute seeds and spore, falling softly to the ground they are trapped till the right conditions come along.
Now in winter,the branches and twigs stand out in sharp contrast against a blue sky, we see haphazard growth in old trees, limbs lost, thickly textured barks, an intricate balance of twigs along the secondary branches, a stand of beeches on a hill top, their branches sloping away from the prevailing wind. We inherit trees, we do not own them. Tolkien portrayed them as venerable, slow, old gentleman, plodding through the wildwood ready to fight.
We bemoan their lose in our lifetime, for we will never see a tree grow to full maturity, but it is of little consequence, they are not there for our pleasure...
A tree is beautiful because we are seemingly programmed by our senses to respond to its shape, it becomes a familar on the horizon, should it be cut down, there is an empty space, yet the spirit of the tree is still there. But can trees have spirits, physically it draws water from the ground up through the outer layer to the leaves which then transpires the water through the stomato of the leaves creating a perfect environment. Once I cut a branch of the large walnut tree up on the bank in early spring, and all of a sudden water gushed out of the wound, running down the trunk, it was if I had cut an artery of the tree, a scary happening.

Neglected wood with old coppice stools

The old yew at Alton Barnes

Strange shapes

So what went wrong with the planning application

Bonds Garage development which was granted planning application on January 2008, but why?

Regulatory Committee 10th January 2008 Planning Services , will give some idea of the strong opposition to the building of these houses in a World Heritage Site.

Note the fact that the "stand of horse chestnuts on the opposite side of the Swindon Road are dying from bacterial growth". See latest news on this one as the trees are to be chopped down; http://www.gazetteandherald.co[...]95.Avebury_trees_for_the_chop/ making even more visible the houses that are to be built..

The following quotes will underline some of the strong opposition:


"KDC Landscape and Countryside Officer: No objection in principle - the planting scheme should be designed by a suitably qualified professional who can address the issues related to such a sensitive site……

The stand of horse chestnuts on the opposite side of the Swindon Road are dying from bacterial canker and once they have gone there will be open views from the site to Windmill Hill. Therefore, the dwelling design and landscape design must consider the intervisibility between the two and the need to integrate the design into the village. ......

KDC Conservation Officer: The garage was constructed to provide local services following the clearance of established houses and businesses from within the henge. It seems that the need for the garage has diminished over time and the current condition of the site is less than satisfactory. The prospect of some mitigation is therefore generally welcomed but the location is of the utmost archaeological and visual sensitivity and the Council needs to take account of the long term. Not sure that redeveloping this remote site with new housing provides the best solution.
The new houses will be seen from the bank of the henge monument and other key locations within the historic landscape. The construction of three houses well forward on the site, in particular, will significantly alter the northern approach to Avebury. In terms of the principle the scheme appears to fall foul of the Local Plan policy which states “proposals which would harm the historic landscape, archaeological features or visual setting of that part of the world heritage site … will not be permitted”. This policy echoes Objective G in the original WHS Management Plan......

As regards the detailed design of the proposed development I do not consider this to be very convincing. The terrace fronting the main road is relatively modest but the wide span of the houses produces box-like proportions. … Similarly, the units 4 and 5 appear to be designed in the form of barn pastiche with a high number of roof lights which are likely to be visible in hours of darkness from the henge. The cramped parking yard also suggests that the proposal is an over development of the site..........

World Heritage Site Officer: Objection; the proposal contravenes a number of policies within the local plan not least HH3 designed to protect the World Heritage Site from harm. The Local Plan states clearly that at paragraph 6.16 that the “protection of the World Heritage Site should take precedence over all other demands for development and the use of the land in the inscribed area”. It follows, therefore, that this planning application should be refused.
The site is located within the Avebury world Heritage Site. The UK, as a signatory to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (UNESCO, 1972) must provide adequate legal protection and management mechanism for conserving the site and ensuring its outstanding universal values are transmitted to future generations. The Avebury World Heritage Site Management Plan (AMP 2005) fulfills this condition and is recognised as a material consideration in deciding planning applications.

HH3, the local plan policy on the Avebury World Heritage Site, states that developments that will harm the historic landscape, archaeological features or visual setting will not be permitted. In paragraph 6.16 it is stated that the protection of the WHS should take precedence over all other demands for development and the use of land in the area. The development could potentially harm the site in a number of ways.

World Heritage Site Landscape and Setting of Monuments ;

HH3 prioritises the historical landscape visual setting of the monuments. Management Issue 16 in the Avebury Management Plan 2005 (AMP 2005) states that the visual sensitivity of the monuments within the WHS extends to a broad area and that careful and particular consideration should be given to the visual impact of new developments affecting the WHS and its setting. The AMP 2005 emphasises the importance of the wider setting and its visual sensitivity. It draws attention to the importance of panoramic views. Objective H of the AMP 2005 is to enhance and protect the visual sensitivity of the key monuments and their settings. It highlights the retention of views from Windmill Hill as key.

The proposed development is clearly visible from the banks of the Henge monument and would have a major impact on its setting, particularly during the winter months when the beech trees are without leaves. It lies only 200m from the Henge. Although the current garage and its outlying buildings cause a certain level of intrusion, there is no justification for replacing them with housing. The WHS is of international significance and its sustainable management is key to safe-guarding its values. Simply replacing one visual intrusion with another is not a way to ensure that the site is not harmed. The AMP 2005 Issue 16 (AMP 2005) requires careful consideration of the visual impact of new developments affecting both the WHS and its setting. It also encourages the removal or screening of currently intrusive features, not simply their replacement with relatively intense housing development. The development also seems to challenge PD1 of the Local Plan which requires sensitivity to the relationship to historic features.

The Local Plan states clearly at paragraph 6.16 that ‘the protection of the World Heritage Site should take precedence over all other demands for development and the use of the land in the inscribed area’. It follows, therefore, that this planning application should be refused.

NR6 states clearly that development will be restricted to locations within the Limits of Development; this application lies outside this area in the countryside. The development would benefit neither the rural economy nor the social well-being of the community to any measurable extent. The plan contains no provision for affordable housing and there is no longer any school in Avebury that needs to raise its intake of children to remain open. Furthermore, the additional houses in Avebury will increase the need to travel and thereby compromise sustainable development.

In addition, the proposal fails to meet the requirements laid out in PD1 under B2 due to its scale and height which is not at all compatible with its position in a WHS on the approach to one of its major monuments, the Avebury Stone Circle. The barn-like development in particular is of such a scale that it will detract from the setting imposing a tall, mass across the field of vision of visitors approaching the banks of the Henge. It is crucial that the impact of the approach to the monument is maintained.

PD1 B7 clearly states that any proposal must take into account its relation to historic features, while B3 requires consideration of the relationship to landscape context. The elevation and angle of the barn building in particular is opposed to the character of a landscape internationally important for its clearly visible, outstanding monuments. The current proposals would detract markedly from the Henge’s setting. The current simulations do not accurately portray the impact of the developments significant scale and height having been done from a bird’s eye perspective. They also fail to set the development in context i.e. within close range of the banks of the Henge.

Although the removal of the garage forecourt may take away what is perceived as an eyesore locally, the seriousness of the very wide departure from local plan policy cannot be justified. It far outweighs any benefit to be gained from removal of the cars. I have mentioned in my previous comments the range of other policy the proposal does not comply with, most notably HH3; the requirement to avoid harm to the World Heritage Site. As the World Heritage Site officer I must strongly recommend that the long-term protection of the internationally recognised significance of the site is not compromised.

International Council on Monuments & Sites UK: ICOMOS-UK is recognised by government as having special status with regard to World Heritage Site. Its parent body, ICOMOS, is official advisor to UNESCO on cultural World Heritage Sites, as set out in the World Heritage Convention.

The UK has an obligation, under the terms of the World Heritage Convention 1972, to protect the Avebury part of the Stonehenge and Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage site. This does not exist as a planning entity, rather its boundaries reflects a collection of designations such as scheduled monuments, listed buildings, and conservation areas as well as parts that do not have discrete protection. Its overall protection delivered through agreed policies in local plans and in accordance with the agreed Management Plan for the site.

As has been set out clearly in the response to the application from the World Heritage Site Officer, this application is not in line with local planning policies. English Heritage has stated in their letter that this application must be determined in accordance with local and national policy guidance.
If this application is approved against the policies of the local plans, then the overall protection of the World Heritage Site is put at risk as these policies can no longer be relied upon to deliver the necessary protection as set out in the approved Management Plan for the site.

ICOMOS-UK appreciates that the existing garage may be considered an eye-sore and that development may be perceived by some to deliver ‘benefits’ in tidying up the site. However, it is in ICOMOS-UK’s view not acceptable to approve proposals that are against local policies on the grounds that they deliver benefits when the disbenefits they deliver are identified as being adverse impact on the values of the World Heritage Site.

Protection of World Heritage Sites means a commitment to sustaining the values for which the site was inscribed in the long term: these may be compromised for short-term gains or expediency. There seem to us to be other ways to tidy up this site than approving a development that is out of line with policies to protect the World Heritage Site and which could through setting a precedent undermine future protection through planning policies.

Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society: Objection, for archaeological and conservation reasons.

The proposed development lies close to the Avebury Henge; it is visible from it and whatever is built here will affect its wider setting. Five new houses built in close proximity and forward of the established building line would look out of character here and adversely affect the setting of the Henge and the village, contrary to Local Plan Policy HH3 and Structure Plan Policies HE1 and HE5 - all of which relate to the WHS as a whole; and Local Plan Policy HH1 and Structure Plan Policy HE2 which here apply in relation to the setting of the Henge. If the present tree screen were to go at some future date, the new build would also be conspicuous in longer views from the Henge towards Windmill Hill.

Similar objections from CPRE, The National Trust and The Avebury Society


And what does the local Avebury parish say....

PARISH COUNCIL COMMENTS
Avebury Parish Council: no objection. The proposals represent good design and will look much better than what is there now, especially as this is one of the main routes in the World Heritage Site. It will improve the area, bring new life to the village and make a very run down area much nicer. The area can be well landscaped and it will soon lose the newness of the build.

No comment!

http://northstoke.blogspot.com/2009/01/bond-garage-and-repercussions.html

A Welsh Celtic Story - Water and Mirrors

A first century AD Celtic mirror


The story starts with Peredur, the first person who was supposed to go looking for the holy grail... now on his journeying through the Celtic landscape he rode through a river valley, heavily forested. Eventually he came to a river with meadows on either side, on one side there was a flock of white sheep and on the other bank a flock of black sheep... When a black sheep bleated a white sheep would cross the river and turn black, and when a white sheep bleated a black sheep would cross the river and turn white. Also when he had crossed the river he saw a tall tree, one half of which was green, the other half was aflame..

Now here we have that marvellous Otherworld of the celts, a dreaming place of eternity, so that when a man died he passed over to the joyous place called the Otherworld, but he could also return from the Otherworld back into our world. This is a version of 'heaven', though without the miserable 'hell' that the christians tagged on to make its worshippers suffer. Both places reside in the imagination of the people who believe in them. The Celtic magical place having a more fun loving aspect to it than religions have today.

They were simple people, death meant nothing to them because you went to a better place, the soul/essence resided in the head, so that chopping off the heads of their enemies and bringing them home to display meant they respected the enemy if he had fought a good battle.

We think we know of this period through the Roman writers and their mention of the druids, but worship went on in the natural world, in the great groves of the woods, or by a spring or a river. These shrines were part of the natural world, water was a life-giver, and if you peered into its depth you could see the reflection of yourself, a mirror image of that otherworld underneath.
Water is after all a life affirming resource, its powers stem from far back into the past...

It could perhaps be argued that this nature worship went back into the Bronze Age, and that water may also have been seen as a mysterious 'force'. It is difficult to set out that history which is not written down, we have tantalising archaelogical evidence here in the West of ritual shafts such as the Wilsford one, and the swallets on the Mendips with their bronze age votive offerings to be found.

"It is difficult to imagine how prehistoric populations would have explained swallets. Not only can they open virtually overnight but many make very strange noises due to water percolation - gurgling, rumbling and echoing. They could not be entered easily. Whereas caves tend to involve a horizontal descent into their depths, swallets have to be entered vertically, probably aided by ropes and ladders. Descending a swallet is truly an entering of the earth, undoubtedly a somewhat unusual experience. Some of the deposits in swallets represent a deliberate emplacement, deliberate intent on the part of prehistoric populations to access these places. The artefacts deposited show no sign of the damage that would have occurred if they had been simply thrown in." taken from the Jodie Lewis article...
http://www.capra.group.shef.ac.uk/2/upwards.html

These swallets cavernous holes that appeared inexplicably, making strange noises underground, a half understood message from an unseen creature, added to the magical qualities of the Mendips with its gorges, rocks, caves and underground river.
Slowly as I meander round the Iron age and Bronze Age, I am edging my way towards that sacred spring in Aqua Sulis, here we have living proof of goddess worship at a spring. A native goddess respected by the Romans, and evidence of her powers in the written curses that have been found, and the memorial stones dedicated to her name.
The hot steaming water, its outfall housed in an arched cavern like interior, gushing forth on reddened stones, its powers remembered in the Saxon poem 'The Ruin'.

Bob Stewart in his book the Waters of the Gap, explains the mythology of the sacred springs at Bath concentrating on the Celtic/Roman aspects. He mentions that "Suil" or "Sulis", means an eye, gap or orifice, which creates a natural name for the presiding goddess; so the place-name of Aqua Sulis is a Latin-Celtic joint term meaning "The Waters of the Gap", or "The Waters of the Goddess of the Gap", and here we come to the etymology of other places of combined worship of the Latin-Celtic gods such as Appollo Cunomaglos - Apollo the Runner of the Hounds, (dedication to be found at Nettleton Shrub 15 miles from Aqua Sulis) Medionmeton - The Middle Tree Sanctuary; Loucetio Marti et Nemetona - Mars the lightening god and the goddess of the wood; Aqua Arnemetiae - the waters of the goddess of the grove....

It is a shame that the Kennet and the Winterbourne rivers meeting at Swallowhead do not have the same mythology to trace through, there is no evidence to link them with the Roman settlement to be found round Silbury, this is of course probably due to the fact that little archaeological excavations have taken place over the last century. This may be a good factor, but it is intriguing to think that somewhere in this settlement may lie clues to a Roman/cCeltic shrine here, and perhaps much earlier evidence of the importance of the meeting place at the Swallowhead spring...........

Holloways

An old holloway between Solva and Middle Mill


One of the good things we have is of course public libraries, so a request for Robert Macfarlane's Wild Places book resulted in it coming a few days ago. He has separated his chapters into different aspects of the countryside, a map of the land as seen through rivers, waterfalls, moors etc.
But a chapter that intrigued me was about holloways, those old green roads worn deep into the earth, with tall banks on either side. Gilbert White had written about them, they are a feature of the soft earths of the south, and can be seen in such places as Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset.
Macfarlane says they date back into the Iron Age, and of course my mind immediately leapt to the title of this blog Northstoke, which is a small hamlet a few miles from my home, for I had written a piece about it a couple of years back, only to lose the blog itself. One day I will write about Northstoke again, and its church of St.Martin, for it also has that pre-christian history of being built on old pagan land, though in this case it was a Roman building. But leading up to this church with its tumbling stream alongside is a holloway.... and hunting through my photos came across these.....

The church sitting on high ground

The holloway

This looks like part of the Roman track that veered across the field to a roman villa at Upton Cheyney

The stream that cascades down by the side of the church

Gilbert White in the Natural History of Selbourne, says this

These roads, running through the malm lands are, by the traffic of ages, and the fretting of water, worn down through the .....freestone....so that they look more like water-courses than roads.....In many places they are reduced sixteen or eighteen feet beneath the levels of the field; and after floods, and in frost, exhibit very grotesque and wild appearances, from the tangled roots that are twisted among the strata, and from the torrents rushing down their broken sides...

This last photo is of a trackway that comes out of my village, to join eventually the North Stoke holloway that in turn leads to the Roman Via Julia that follows the River Avon to Bitton.This trackway though not a proper holloway comes from the Celtic-Romano Walcot settlement, just on the edge of Bath. This would have been the easiest way out of Bath/Aqua Sulis, following the middle way below the great Lansdown and joining up with the Via Julia as it made its way to the coast.

Its age can be seen from the steep sides, in the second World War a temporary air field was made at the top of the Lansdown on the old racecourse; it had a commanding view over to Bristol and would have been used to try to stop the terrible German air raids Bath and Bristol were subject to.

This trackway was metalled during this time and bits still remain, it also has a Saxon background, so stretching from Iron Age time, and probably before that it has a long history. It is a beautiful walk, but one I rarely go on, the body of a 60 year old man was found under the hedge a couple of years ago, he had been there for sometime, perhaps he had a heart attack climbing the hill, he was only found by the farmer when they started to cut back the hedge. At the bottom there is an old wood, and here last year someone from the village hung himself from a tree, perhaps the place is haunted by old ghosts, it is isolated and only walkers use it, but in summer the old wood is very beautiful, but not to end on a tragic note...
Another path, skirting a wood and the scent of wild garlic or ransomes that line it with such splendour, this path folds round to one of the most graceful trees I know.

Building houses within the Avebury WHS

Bonds Garage and the proposed five houses to be built there within the Avebury World Heritage Site;

Planning applications go forward in this modern world because local needs and bureaucratic machinery have a way of forcing their way through the labyrinth of strictures imposed by national concerns. This is evident of course when it comes to the protection of archaeological sites.

Avebury and its great Henge also suffers from this problem, to the outside eye a pleasant village lies within the protective curve of an old prehistoric monument, what you see are great stone monoliths forever fixed into a green sward. What is less understood is the wealth of prehistoric archaeological evidence that lies not only under the soil, but in a great swathe around the Henge. The ancient Ridgeway track, the old Saxon Herepath, and the many barrows still to be seen dotted around the landscape.

When the Bonds Garage was demolished rather than letting this area of land lie fallow on the approach to the northern entrance of the Henge, a planning application was put forward for five houses to be built on the site. Now this may not seem terrible, given the fact there is a mobile home site next to the garage, but as these houses are to be permanent, and I underline that word, what does it say to future developers, who with an eye on the 'potential' of building near to a famous World Heritage Site would spy a very profitable investment - will our planning laws be any stronger in the future?

There were many strong objections from organisations such as English Heritage, the National Trust, the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, the CPRE and ICOMOS-UK. but all to no avail.

The site lies on the northern entrance to the Henge alongside the Swindon Road, the Henge's four entrances are aligned broadly on the cardinal points, with the northern entrance fairly close to the site, S.S.W. The following is taken from the archaeological survey done in 2007 by Berkshire Archaeological Services; http://tinyurl.com/8j4vnr

The importance of the landscape outside the Avebury Henge in the vicinity of the proposed development land is emphasised by the local distribution of round barrows, four of which are Scheduled Ancient Monuments.
A bowl barrow, which could have been constructed at any time between late Neolithic and early Bronze Age(3400-1000 bc) is approximately 600 metres from the site. (HER SU17SW677).
Similar burial mounds on slope of Windmill Hill some 800/900 metres NW of site (HER SU17SW643)
Bell barrow on the chalk escarpment about 1 kilometre to NE (HER SU17643) stands on the western fringes of a small barrow cemetery on Monkton Down; the dating is probably around 2600-1450 bc.
A ploughed out ring ditch (HER SW17SU759), may be another bell barrow, 750 metres ENE of the site. Note; a contemporary burial recorded from one of the stone holes with the Avebury Henge, 350 metres SWS (HER SU17SW182).....

One of the things the archaeological report highlights, is the relative closeness of the new excavations taking place at Durrington Walls, with its associated living areas close to the sacred ritual landscape of Stonehenge. This may also be true of the Avebury Henge, little archaeological investigation has been undertaken around this area, and though we can deduce that little evidence remains under the Bonds Garage site due to the petrol tanks that were sunk into the ground, in the event of future interpretation of the land, conservation of the landscape has to be considered.

How do we measure past history against development today? in a town context there is an inevitable pressure for new buildings to go up, but the countryside faces less pressure. Decisions can be easily made within a 'green belt' area, yet the decision to protect a world famous site has been put aside, the relevant bodies such as English Heritage have walked away from using their powers of protection. Maybe the building of five houses within a prehistoric sacred landscape are small in comparision to the saving of above ground castles, etc, but our past prehistory is very vulnerable because in the end it relies on the visuality of the landscape for our understanding in the interpretation of it.


http://www.heritageaction.org/?page=theheritagejournal

http://aveburymatters.blogspot.com/

Note; A rather appropiate letter was written by Alexander Keiller in August 1923, this was do with the proposed erection of a wireless mast, to be erected on Windmill Hill, he further goes on to say...

"Perhaps an even more horrible side of the proposal is that a large number of houses are to be built in connection with the scheme just outside the village of Avebury itself. Even Tom Robinson, the leader of the vandals who, in the eighteenth century destroyed so many of the mighty monoliths for the purpose of utilising the stone in the erection of trumpery cottages, could not have treated this greatest monument in Britain, or, for that matter of its kind in the world, with greater disdain and indifference"

Taken from A Zest For Life, The Story of Alexander Keiller by Lynda J.Murray

Miniaturisation

A few years ago I took up minature furniture making and then gave it up. I had bought my daughter a Bath Georgian dolls house and also a little hat shop when she was young but it had been put away in the basement unused and unloved. I became waylaid into making dolls house furniture, and in the basement are still the tools I used, small drill, miniature lathe, etc.

My love of history began to niggle as well, so constructing small boxes I created little tableaus that took my fancy, some of which, if I can find the photos, are here. My Saxon -Prittlewell burial, was made quite quickly, using the fine leather out of an old purse, and my piece- de- resistance, a working roman chair; it also contains two Persian silver salt bowls given by my first mother-in-law.




This one is based on Farleigh Hungerford Castle, and the tomb there, the custodian once told me a story about the three little children's stone coffins in the crypt, how once she had stayed the night there for a wager, and that she had dreamt? that one of the children had said she was so cold down there so the custodian covered her coffin with her coat.... believe that and you believe in ghosts..

This a whimsy, with a Harry Potter wizard, and a dried cow parsley stalk for a tree sprayed gold.

This is an extravagance which I still have because it has some good miniature furniture I bought.

Again a historical one which took ages, my young grandson at the time would find a doll, skewer it with the swords and then hang her by the neck with the chain from the dowels I had put in...

Prittlewell Saxon burial - christian/pagan burial, the idea fascinated me at the time, the father had turned to christianity, but his sons were still pagan....

Glastonbury Thorn

Reading about a new book that is about to be brought out on Jesus in the West country, http://www.eternalidol.com/ The Missing Years of Jesus -The Greatest Story Never Told by Dennis Price, my curiosity was aroused so I turned to an old book called The Ruined Abbeys of Britain by Frederick Ross. He wrote about some of the many legends that are woven round the history of Glastonbury, and if one must start anywhere about Jesus being in England we must go to "planted with the standard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was first sure rootage on the island of Britain."
Here be the Glastonbury Thorn, which is is said to flower on Christmas, though I believe it can be a bit tardy in that direction and flowers much later. The person who brought the original thorn, or at least his staff was of course Joseph of Arimathea. Now before I go on with the story, it is well to know that Frederick Ross was a 19th century American antiquarian therefore brings to his tales a somewhat sceptical approach, but he approaches the subject of Joseph from several sources. Joseph was a rich jew and a disciple of Jesus, offering his own tomb for Jesus to be buried in. He was banished with Phillip, and put in a boat without either sail or oar, and they eventually arrived in Marseilles, and from there to our "obscure and benighted land", Ross thinks they arrived at Bridgewater Bay? to a "country desolate and dreary, covered with dense forests."
They arrived at the court of King Aviragus, a pagan, but he was hospitable and granted to them 12 hides of land, one each for the members of their community. Here Ross goes on to explain the place we know as Glastonbury today, or Ynis-witrin (The Glassy/Glast Island), the Glast of course coming from the woad that was grown round here to produce the colour blue.
It was also called Isle of Avalon for the many apple trees, and in Saxon times, Glasstingabryig. Glastonbury "a long narrow tract of land, which the river Brue traverses lengthwise"
Rising from this marshy land was a hill - The Tor - nearly 500 feet, and Ross goes on to say that it seemed to have been a British Fortress (hillfort), and"moreover is supposed to have been an open air temple of the Sun-God, whose Baal fires were kindled on top", we will lightly skip over that one as pure wishful thinking but take into account the legend that comes from Weary-all Hill, because it is here Joseph finished his journey and took possession of their small portion of territory. Here we see Joseph leaning on his staff and thanking the lord for what they see, and of course the staff springing into life and covered with white blossom.
As I have mentioned before this 'miraculous' thorn is supposed to flower on Christmas day, but of course, as to what happened when the new style of calendar was adopted heaven only knows, but the tree had healing properties, and slips or cuttings were taken and sold for a huge price.
Of course the Puritans had to get in on the act and in the 17th century a soldier cut it down boasting that the age of miracles had come to an end, (Christmas also of course had come to an end as well under Cromwellian rule) but though the parent tree perished its children still flourished....
The story goes on that the brethren built a small church and small huts, and here these twelve lived and that Joseph was buried within the church.

To return to a later period, this is a tale told by William of Malmesbury. In the year 177, Lucius King of the Britons, sent to the then Pope asking him to send teachers to "dispel the darkness" into which the local population were falling. Two missionaries arrived Saints Phanagus and Duravianus, and as the old wattled church of St.Joseph had fallen into decay, they rebuilt the church in stone. Twelve anchorets were given place on the island and Lucius dictated that he took away all powers from the druids and that christianity was the religon of his country. These two saints also built a chapel on top of the Tor which was dedicated to St.Michael, the tower still remains today, above the doorway is a figure of St.Michael weighing the bible against the devil, with a little imp trying to pull the scales down in which his master sat. A fair of two days was held on top of the Tor.
Here we must turn to archaeological evidence for the existence of a probable hermitage up on the Tor in Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts Glastonbury Myths and Archaeology. Dark age evidence shows fragments of amphorae, which obviously would have been traded from the Meditteranean, and would have contained liquid of some description. There was also two rock-cut graves, the two young male skeletons facing north-south, and Rahtz says that in the 'charter of St.Patrick' in the late 4th century there is mention of two lay brothers Arnulph and Ogmar. There was also a cairn of stones, again probably a 'dark age' date, only an iron ferrule was found.
One of the interesting finds up on this lofty summit, were metalworking hearths using bellows and clay nozzles to direct the air blast. And nearby a 'mask' of bronze, the head is a long 'celtic' face partly obscured by a helmet.
Rahtz speculates that this hillfort was used by a petty king or local chief, dining on fine meat with wine, etc with craftworkers producing specialised ware. The 'Chalice' well at the bottom providing water for this somewhat inaccessible site.

R.S.Thomas

As it is another miserably cold day, the seagulls are already wheeling overhead to snatch the bread that I have thrown out in the garden, perhaps Thomas can add to the mood of it..

The Island,

And God said, I will build a church here

And cause this people to worship me,

And afflict them with poverty and sickness

In return for centuries of hard work

And patience. And its walls shall be hard as

Their hearts, and its window let in the light

Grudgingly, as their minds do, and the priest's words be drowned

By the wind's caterwauling. All this I will do.

Said God, and watch the bitterness in their eyes

Grow, and their lips suppurate with

Their prayers. And their women shall bring forth

On my altars, and I will choose the best

Of them to be thrown back into the sea.

And that was only on one island.

R.S.Thomas, Anglican minister in Wales, ordained 1937. To quote "he was troubled by religious doubts which could not be easily revealed to those whose faith was more fervent" One wonders why he stayed in the job, his sensitive poetry shows a soul in torment but also the great pity he felt for the people he lived amongst, the places in which they lived "harsh, depopulated and deprived" . Codlins and Cream ( http://codlinsandcream.blogspot.com/)

excellent essays on the ruined cottages that can still be found in the landscape shows how many a Welsh family foundered and failed.

There is also George Monbiot's excellent essay this morning on railways in Wales, headed by a revival of another priest!

The Open Veins of Wales

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/12/the-open-veins-of-wales/

St.Peter Ad Vincula - Broad Hinton

St.Peter Ad Vincula Church
Copyright Brian Robert Marshall and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence.

Whilst meandering over the xmas period, we saw two churches, one in Essex and the other in Wiltshire. Both were freezing cold inside and one wonders what the parishoners of old thought about their weekly sermons amongst cold grey stones, the Welsh poet R.S.Thomas had plenty to say about the misery of believing in God in what he must have thought of as godforsaken chapels.
There is a luminosity to the Downs of Wiltshire, especially when it is frost tinged, I suspect partly because of the white chalk underneath the grass, giving the atmosphere a lightness of touch that you do not find in the great brown ploughed fields of Essex.
The church at Broad Hinton, Wiltshire, is late and there does'nt seem to be any trace of Saxon, there is a 17th century print of a 'new rebuilt' church in 1656, and fine stone workmanship in the interior, a painted font, and a 'stigmata' carved stone for the 'Lord' of the manor, I shall consult Pevesner on this one, but even he is known to have missed some details as he records the history of these churches.
He says that it was heavily restored by Ponting in 1879, and that it was probably built late 13th century, all that is left are Norman fragments at the end of the nave, which include a capital and a respond with naturalistic carving.




Pevsner says of this Elizabethan inscription of the 'canopy incised cross and hands,feet and heart of Christ' that it is a fine tomb-chest, it is the tomb of Sir Thomas Wroughton and wife 1597.

Elizabethan fine stone canopy



although I did'nt take a photo of Broad Hinton, it can be seen in this print the small stair turret attached to the tower, the Pleshey church also had a tower.

The painted font at St.Peter Ad Vincula

The fine flint Pleshey church, its Norman background comes from the Norman motte and bailey Castle Mound to be found in the Village.
Notes; taken from British History online
"The watershed between the Kennet and the Bristol Avon divided the ancient parish into two contrasting parts. The division runs from southwest to north-east, approximately following a line from Cockroost Farm to Quidhampton Wood in Wroughton. South-east of the line is the Kennet valley, 4 km. wide between the watershed and Hackpen Hill, which reaches 269 m., the highest point in the parish, and marks the boundary. Most of the arable land of the parish was in the valley and streams there were used to float water meadows. One stream rises outside the parish north of Uffcott, another near the farmstead called the Weir; they meet 900 m. south of that farmstead. Chalk outcrops both in the valley and on the downland of Hackpen Hill, which was used for pasture. Settlement in the south-east part of the parish was concentrated in the nucleated villages of Broad Hinton and Uffcott. North-west of the watershed the parish extended halfway across the Avon valley, sharing a straight boundary with Wootton Bassett. A little west of the watershed Broadtown Hill and the ridge which extends north-east of it reach heights above 198 m. and mark the northwestern limit of the chalk; a white horse was cut above Little Town in 1864. On the western slopes of the hills are bands of Upper Greensand and Gault. Beyond them the Kimmeridge Clay forms level ground below 107 m. A stream west of Broad Town Lane is fed by tributaries and flows north into Brinkworth Brook. The plain and the hills west of the watershed were used mainly for pasture and settlement there was in scattered farmsteads. In the 11th century there were 4 a. of woodland at Bincknoll, probably on the ridge, and in the 14th century Bincknoll Wood was of 25 a. The wood stretched east beyond the parish boundary and west to Little Town in 1766 ) but it has since contracted and in 1981 extended 1.5 km. south-west from Bincknoll Castle.
The area of the parish richest in archaeological evidence is Hackpen Hill. There are several barrows and a rectangular earthwork on the downs and some supposed eoliths were found there. East of the Weir is the site of burials and perhaps also of a house of the Romano-British period. Bincknoll Castle, a fortified enclosure of 3½ a. in a commanding position on the northfacing ridge near the eastern parish boundary, may be of Romano-British origin but was re-used in the early Middle Ages.

Taken From: 'Parishes: Broad Hinton', A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 12: Ramsbury and Selkley hundreds; the borough of Marlborough (1983), pp. 105-119. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66520&strquery=broad hinton church Date accessed: 31 December 2008.

Xmas Holidays

Icy cold weather this side of Christmas, the downs of Wiltshire were beautiful, their softly curving slopes lightly tinged with the frost. No photos to show for it was far too cold, Hackpen Hill a long low ridge on the horizon, brave souls going for a walk along the Ridgeway. Avebury had visitors as well, the Red Lion meeting place for old TMAers, was packed on Saturday but not so on Sunday.
Friends and family we met there, pints were consumed and food eaten, people stumbled in frozen cold, boots at the door, long socks on some, why is Avebury so much colder than everywhere else. Little Michael posing for the camera, his proud father sitting next to him, running with glee to the christmas tree only to be caught by an unseen step, tears .....
My son and his friend, so different to each other and yet they complement the different facets of each other's personality.
The stones themselves grey and cold like the weather, scattered around people posing in front of them, and the Henge shop, first time I had been in there for many a year, no dog this time. Warm fire, and an exhaustive range of goodies to please most, rather lovely painted stones, glittered at the back, but prices were expensive. Books of course but my book buying days are over now, for I cannot find any to please, they are beginning to say the same thing over and over again, and truth is being lost.
Silbury posed like a frozen green xmas pudding, captured from afar, and the Longstones another first, bitterly cold in the north-east wind, they give witness to a certain amount of damage over the years, Adam and Eve stones so called, though who called them that heaven knows......

Boxing Day

A quiet and happy christmas for me has just passed and now the New Year approaches, which in turn will lead to a new life.
Boxing Day and a return to Avebury to wander round amongst the stones, very cold weather is forecast for the next few days. Journeys are all about packing and making sandwiches, locking the house and setting out. Anticipation of arrival and new things to do, there will be my son to meet and also friends who will make this pilgrimage to Avebury. For it is indeed a pilgrimage, pagan celebrations have gone on amongst the stones, cloaks and appropiate gear has been donned, poems and songs have been chanted and spoken. Though I have'nt heard them I can imagine the air of festivity, and welcome the sense of ritual that is still apparent in our modern age.
The stones have been part of the backdrop to my life for 30 years, ever since driving West to find somewhere to live in Wales, and then falling in love with the landscape of the downs, so that my journey was somewhate curtailed in Calne for a few years. We should really be allowed several lives to be able to enjoy this country of ours.
There are always memories that flow through ones life, walking on the Cherhill downs with my labrador, up to the grim Lansdowne monument and then carrying on and walking round the rampants of Oldbury Hillfort and marvelling at the energy needed to construct such banks.
West Kennet Longbarrow its long low silhouette on the horizon, and great grey enigmatic stones were far less visited when I first came to Calne. The stones of Avebury rather frightened me for some unexplicable reason, perhaps I saw them on too many misty grey days, the haunt of ghosts past.
But Christmas has been very good this year, old friends keeping in touch, the glitter of baubles and the ivy softly curling in vases with its great seed heads a reminder of how useful a food it is for the pigeons, yellowed flowerheads still clinging a reminder of its late nectar in the autumn for the last flying butterflies and of course the wasps.
And cards that bring a smile ........
http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1710854948968&source=jl999

Winter Solstice

Monty


Today has been solstice day, the turning of the year before christmas. Up at 8 this morning walking with friends there was no sun to be seen, only the bare landscape shorn of it vibrant colours. Then there will be January and February, a grey, grey landscape and then one day colour will appear and the year will make its way through its annual pilgrimage.
The dogs bounded around, Monty rolling as always in some deer poo, and his small companion added to the wafting perfume by rolling as well. Moss interested in his ball was scornful of such antics, though he likes to roll, but only in the dew.
So is today solstice or will it be tomorrow, such arbitary dating it to the 21st, the sun takes no notice but comes up each morning to remind us that there is a rythm to life, as it was all those thousands of years ago. Walking back down the racecourse and in the distance is Cherhill Down, and absent mindedly I can place Silbury and Avebury to the left of it 30 kilometres away.
Here on this racecourse with its remnants of old bronze age barrows, did the people who built these barrows also look up into the distance and think of the Avebury settlement, perhaps they had relatives there and would make an annual pilgrimage.
But what thought started this thread was the Springfield Cursus, and an explanation from John North will suffice;





"The Springfield Cursus is not far from the River Chelmer in Essex. It was some 40 m wide and 670 long m long, and a pit surrounded by a semi-circular ditch abuts the southern ditch at 200 m from the eastern end. There are in the vicinity traces of various other monuments, including possibly an oval longbarrow, and at the eastern terminal there has been a ring of posts (about 26 m in dia), possibly placed there at a late date in its history. In the neighbhourhood of the Springfield ring there were many small pits containing burnt flints and cremations of cattle, sheep and pig. There is no firm evidence as to date, a find of Mortlake pottery in a ditch inclined the excavators of a date at the end of the third millenium or late" Maybe potential alignments on Spica, Pollux and alpha Centauri (34th C bc)"

Stones

There was a time when I thought to upload something to my blog everyday, but that is not possible. So in a world that seems topsy-turvy, okay we are heading for a recession but just how did Madeoff slip through the net and produce the biggest scam of the century, and don't these greedy selfish people have any moral compass.. I give up and shall post some photos of one of my favourite places which is Carn Meyn, as there has also been a bluestone controversy raging and no I will not begin to explain it..take your pick, the bluestones either came via a glacier to be deposited on Salisbury Plain to be used at Stonehenge so that the prehistoric people could play around with making pretty patterns with the stones, or the bluestones were pushed, dragged, floated on boats and made that perilous journey by winding rivers and storm lashed seas!
To be quite honest and very subjective I think they came by sea, of course there may be a third option, Geoffrey of Monmouth has them flying over from Ireland by witch transport, and who am I to argue with some long dead writer of the 12th century.
So to the photos of that strange outcrop in the Preseli Mountains, source of so much dispute and speculation - O for H.G.Well's time travel machine............

Carn Menyn source of the bluestones for Stonehenge

The bluestone moved in 1980 I think by helicopter

Moss in his homeland

a good canine companion

Gors Fawr stones circle (part of the circle)

Waldo (a poet) memorial stone - hideous metal sign!


Gors Fawr pair of stones


Foel Drygarn fort, in the distance Carn Meyn

Gors Fawr stone circle seen from afar, marvellous welsh weather, rain brewing over Preseli Mountains and this captured sunlight

One of the three great bronze age stone cairns in the centre of Foel Drygarn

Wherever the argument may lead to these bluestones, whether Wainwright and Darvill are right and that Stonehenge was a healing centre, or that the stones were used in a purely decorative form remains to be seen. But there is a very strange air to this bare mystical place in the Preseli mountains and my money is on the bluestones being transported.

Oliver Postgate

Recently Oliver Postgate, children's animator in the 1970's has died, such classics as Noggin the Nog, The Clangers, Ivor the Engine and my all time favourite Bagpuss. Postgate's and Firmin's animations must have coincided with my daughter's childhood because I remember them well.
Also a couple of years ago, there was a time when I hosted a great many language students, one of these students came from Peru. On the day this tall and fit looking boy arrived, he complained of his little finger tingling and he thought he might be heading for a heart attack after the very long air flight he had undertaken. I was a bit sceptical about this, but late evening he phoned back to his insurance company in Peru, who then arranged a London doctor to find someone for him, who then found a doctor over at our hospital in Bath (5 minutes from the house) Whilst all this was happening late into the night I sat and watched Bagpuss on tv wondering what sort of surreal world I had wandered into.... the sequel to the story was of course he was fine....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/dec/09/oliver-postgate-bagpuss


The intro to Bagpuss;
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga23iSxyXO4

The Clangers;
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HArUmqqiL0s&NR=1

Circling Stones

......."hath fallen a sacrifice to the wretched ignorance and avarice of a little village unluckily plac'd within it." Stukeley

I have to quote Stukeley as I begin this rambling blog, because what the following photos show is the tragedy of not being able to see the Avebury circles in their full, albeit reduced state, because of the houses and buildings that sit within. What would we have seen if having come down the West Kennet Avenue through the great entrance stones, you would have been confronted by the inner south circle and the great obelisk, and what to my mind is the worst offence, you can't see The Cove, though one's mind will tell you that it is placed to the right of The Red Lion.
Such things cannot be undone, the village resides in the circle and the tourist perambulate its great bank, the majesty of this great ritual complex has been lost to later history. So we are left with tantalising glimpses as to what it might have been and how it was used.
There has been a discussion on The Modern Antiquarian about alignments both within the circle and down the West Kennet Avenue. Reading John North on the subject, and he provides an impressive though complicated alignment charts, focussing both on the sun and the moon, though here the argument against him could be put that by providing so many lines you can prove almost anything.
One of the tentative theories he puts forward for the West Kennet Avenue having a moon alignment is that the male and female symbolism of the alternating stones on the Avenue points to a fertility cult, the moon having the same monthly cyclical as the female.
But what of my photos, the early morning ones were taken when I was staying there, and would walk the dog down the Avenue in the bright cold air, musing on those that had gone before. Coming back you cross the little lane with the latched gates and enter the south circle's quarter, here if you stand on the bank you can look down on the two great entrance stones and watch the shadows slowly creep down the stones, the sun is behind you.
Your mind says no this is not the way I should be entering this circle, I would be processing from the Avenue between the two great stones and would be faced with the great obelisk and the intervening stones. I would see the beautiful Cove stones in the distance and my senses would be overawed by the majesty of these gigantic stones.
It is impossible to restore this first impression that these bronze age people saw, the Avebury Circles are probably the final culmination of a great stone building era, nothing like it was to happen again, the skills became lost.
And because I do ramble, would not the Great Circle have melded with the landscape if the bank and ditch had not been built, there is something unsatisfactory and untidy about this addition, yes it says hey look what we are capable of, but by being there, imposing a moatlike appearance the serenity of the circle is somewhat diminished. Power is already asserting itself and the symmetry of peace is being lost.

The Obelisk


Morning Shadows


South Circle at Avebury


Morning shadows cast by the bank on entrance stones


Looking Towards the far end


One of the 'kinks' In West Kennet Avenue

West Kennet Avenue seen from the Ridgeway