Belderg

'They just keep turning up
And were thought of as foreign'-
One-eyed and benign,
They lie about his house,
Quernstones out of a bog.

To lift the lid of the peat
And find this pupil dreaming
Of neolithic wheat!
When he stripped off blanket bog
The soft-piled centuries

Fell open like a glib;
There were the first plough-marks,
The stone-age fields, the tomb
Corbelled, turfed and chambered,
Floored with dry turf-coomb.

A landscape fossilized,
Its stone wall patternings
Repeated before our eyes
In the stone walls of Mayo.
Before I turned to go

He talked about persistence,
A congruence of lives,
How stubbed and cleared of stones,
His home accrued growth rings
Of iron, flint and bronze.
So I talked of Mossbawn,

A bogland name 'but Moss'?,
He crossed my old home's music
With older strains of Norse.
I'd told how its foundation
Was mutable as sound

And how I could derive
A forked root from that ground,
Make bawn an English fort,
A planter's walled-in mound.

Or else find sanctuary
And think of it as Irish,
Persistent if outworn.
'But the Norse ring on your tree?'
I passed through the eye of the quern,

Grist to an ancient mill,
And in my mind's eye saw,
A world-tree of balanced stones,
Querns piles like vertebrae,
The marrow crushed to grounds.

Seamus Heaney 1975

Druidical Bath

John Wood the Elder - Stanton Drew Circle and Stonehenge;

Bath is famed for its neo-classical architecture but what underpins the thinking of the 18th century architect John Wood when he drew the designs for The Circus is a strange mish-mash of legend and myth, this of course is the age of the new 'druidism' that took hold when such figures as William Stukely called such places as Stonehenge the Druidical Temple. Fertile imaginations played with the ideas of sacrificial wicker constructions filled with victims, and Wood took it much further and in his book - A Description of Bath, he writes a history for Bath that is at once absurd yet full of that energetic imaginings that are still to be found in today's new age books.

To understand why Wood built The Circus as he did one must go back to the myths that formed the literature of the 18th century. Wood, though including neo-classical forms in the building, was not returning to a roman past but a pre-roman past steeped in the myths of a Britannic origin. The myth can be found in the 12th century writings of Geoffrey of Monmouthshire, and according to (R.S.Neal - Bath, A Social History) a 16th century edition written in Paris was very much alive in the oral tradition of Bath.

Putting stone circles and Druids together seems rather strange, but Wood thought that the chief ensign of the Druids was a ring. So as he began to plan his city on paper, he incorporated the pagan elements, but also he was relating the pagan symbol of the circle back to Jewish symbolism, therefore Christian, and then British and Greek, which led quite nicely to the "Divine Architect" who was of course God. This is all creative flummery, a mixing of ideas, so when we look at The Circus we see classical lines, but with little touches of druidism – in the acorns that sit atop the surrounds of the roofs – and the frieze which incorporates specific symbols of Masonic details.

First must come the story of Bladud, the founding father of Bath, an exiled prince because of his leprosy, whilst out herding pigs one day happened to notice that the pigs loved to roll in the hot muds of the spring. Bladud also tried this and was cured, and then went on to found the city of Bath on the spot. Our mythical King Bladud is given a date of 480 BC, and as Wood saw it Bladud created the city about the size of Babylon. Bladud was a descendant of a Trojan prince, a high priest of Apollo and a 'Master of Pythagoras'. Therefore this high priest was a devotee of the heliocentric systems of the planets from which the Pythagorean system was derived.

That the Works of Stantondriu (Stanton Drew) form a perfect model of the Pythagorean system of the planetary world............

At Stanton Drew it must have taken him many hours, with his assistant wandering round taking measurements of the circles, which were probably at this time partly covered in orchards. There was a precedence for this fascination with megalithic stones, Stukeley and Inigo Jones were all entranced by these heathen stones of an earlier age, and the development of myths round druidic religions were already forming and capturing imaginative minds – a bit like today.

Now Stanton Drew was, according to Wood, the university for British Druids, which thereby made Bath the metropolitan city seat of the British Druids.

'And since there is an apparent connection between the ancient works of Akmanchester (Bath) and those of Stantondriu, it see s manifest that the latter constituted the University of the British Druids; that this was the university which King Bladud, according to Merlyn of Caledon planted; that it was at Stantondrui the king feated his four Athenian colloeagues and that they were not only the heads of the British Druids in those early ages, but, under Bladud, the very founder of them'

The Circus is based on a diameter of 318 feet, Wood's rough measurements of the circumference of the stone circle at Stonehenge, the terraced houses form a perfect circle around a 'timber' circle of planted trees in the centre. There is an early drawing by J.R.Cozens which shows hitching stone post for the horses arranged symmetrically round the The Circus which would give the allusion of stones.

Wood also incorporated into his thinking the hills around Bath, giving them various titles such as Sun and Moon Hill, and The Parade is also aligned on Solsbury Hill which had an Iron Age settlement on top. The Royal Crescent built by his son John Wood the Younger, was crescent shaped representing the moon. Where you might ask is the masonic symbolism, well it is only seen from the air, taking The Circus as the round part of the key walk down Gay Street to Queens Square which is square, and you will see the 'key' of Bath.

ref; R.S.Neal - Bath, A Social History.

A Description of Bath - John Wood 1765

Badgers and barrows

A badger entrance on East Kennet Long barrow

A tale; Once many thousands of years ago a great barrow was raised by men over their dead, nature grew its flowers and trees over the barrow, birds came and went, the little bones of their deaths adding to the fertility of the soil. Foxes, badgers and deer sheltered in the shade of its trees and bushes. All around the great downs stretched, softly rounded, giving semblance of the goddess that may once have been worshipped a long time ago.

But we are not concerned with the affairs of man, for they are soon over, it is the barrow, decaying gently over the years, the purple of violets and pale primroses in the spring, that would have grown on this mound under the shade of the trees . In the hot summer months, the scarlet poppies, the pale blue, butterfly blue of the cranesbill, the white ox eyed daisy would be seen in the fields around, and the sweet smells of crushed thyme on the path, the yellow of ladies bedstraw as it laced its way through the wheat, would perfum the air on hot afternoons.

Flowers drifting through the seasons, then their lives spent, seed would fall to the ground, and the cycle would go on. Nature moving through time.

Many years ago, badgers moved into the barrow, this was a slow process, for badgers are territorial and home-loving and take many generations to build their small clans. They must create a great burrow deep in the earth, warm and dry with the roots of the trees hanging from the earthen ceilings. Their bedding would be the soft dry hay of the meadows, arranged in a soft comfortable pad for daytime sleeping. Coming out at night to hunt, they would raid the nearby farms, rustling through the gardens of the sleeping village below the hill on which they lived. Drink from the clear flowing river that wound its way past the church and the manor house.

Denizens of the night we may call them, these black and white creatures, low-bellied they scuffle along in the dark intent on hunting for food, in the damp rainy season it would be worms pulled from the ground. When the earth was hard baked from the summer sun, then they would raid the farmers barn, perhaps taking a chicken or two, or if they were quick enough a baby rabbit from the burrows on the hill.

As the generations of badgers grew in the mound, they would expand the tunnels deeper into the barrow, going down beneath the soft dark earth, through the layers of white chalk till eventually they came to stone. Now badgers are strong creatures, and if you look outside their entrances you will see the small stones dragged out of their setts. But for our badgers in the mound these stones were enormous, like the walls of the houses in the village below.

They would eventually dig round the stones, finding themselves in a small stone cave, unvisited for thousands of years, a sepulchral space, bones would be scattered on the floor. Luckily for the badgers they would be indifferent to such a find, bones are just bones, the last remnant of a living creature. We humans on the other hand, would be given to excited speculation, a reverence for our past ancestors that would make an animal look with complete astonishment at such foolishness.

But stop are'nt we more intelligent than the dumb brain of our black and white friends, we have a right surely to know everything that there is about the world. Inquisitive and curious we pry and turn over any new find that passes our way, and so we acquire learning, though where it gets us goodness knows. I could make up a story about the humans that once raised this great mound, their hunting and growing of crops. Children born and dying in a time when illness was little understood, look over the hill there are more mounds and settlements around. The soft murmur of voices, the lowing of cattle, a tree is being cut down and the sound of its snap on the air travels down time. The sun is up in the sky and all is well in the world, but these people are gone and all that remains are the spirits of the mind.

The wind can be cold up on the downs, past spirits can haunt the air, rustling grass bending softly beneath an unseen footstep, the wind through the trees plays a different seasonal music as it bends the leaves to and fro. Just for a moment though, imagine the great entrance of stones to the mound, the forecourt on which the people will be gathered to perform some ceremony, an animal slaughtered maybe, the human dead picked clean of its flesh by the black carrion crows that wheel in the sky, now the bones must be laid solemnly in the dark cave with reverence. This will be the duty of the shaman, he will be attired in some form of dress (you must imagine this yourself) a decorated stone mace raised to the sky he will chant in a strange language. The smell of the woodsmoke, embers crackling and spitting on the fire, and up in the sky a great moon shine down illuminating the scene - the barrow's function is suddenly understood........

The great bulk of East kennet long barrow hidden beneath trees

Note; There are many different burial practices in other parts of the world, and one is the Tibetan Sky burial. Now this is far to gruesome to write about but in the Buddhist faith, when a person dies his body becomes an empty shell. Tibet is a high country mountainous with great plateaus, well above the tree line so that timber is scarce. Soil is also scant on top of this mountainous region, so that burial of the dead is difficult. So the monks take the body to a high sacred ledge or ground near a chorten and get rid of the corpse through a ceremony called Jhator - 'which means giving alms to the birds'..

Why I mention this is because there is a certain similarity between the Tibetan method and excarnation which is believed what happened in prehistoric Britain, the empty husk or shell of the body no longer housing the soul is disposed of. Which of course brings one round as to how the neolithic people may have thought of the 'inner being', was it represented in the bones of the dead, or was there another layer to their beliefs.

http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~pamlogan/skybury.htm

Stories

Reading Roger Deakin's The Wildwood and I come up with any number of delightful stories be it the interior walnut veneer of a Jaguar car (always wanted an XKl140) or Japanese wooden prayer shoes. But firstly a Japanese tale...

This is to do with driftwood, that rather lovely material of wood that has ended up in the sea and is given back to the land in various beautiful convuluted shapes. Well the story is more human than that for it takes in the concept of being cast out on the sea and left to live or die on the will of the currents.

There is an initiation custom by certain monks on an island in Japan in which a novice monk is launched in a wooden box on the tides, the currents could take him out to sea and he could never be seen again. Or the boat may take him on a circular trip back to shore, so the box can either be a coffin or a boat, the novice has consented to be human driftwood.

Perhaps we are all human driftwood, the vagaries of life pushing us here and there like a tumbling piece of wood on the crest of a wave, reminding us that though there may high crests there is also deep troughs of dark water as well.

Deakins has on his desk a wooden pine prayer shoe of a monk that has been washed up by the sea, and he wonders on the fate of its owner. Another fascinating thing I read is about the waves around the Islands of Japan, there is a painting somewhere of great crested waves meeting together, it always fascinated me, apparently this is a 'truth' (I will explain later) the sea does work in this different way quite different to the seas of our shores, that lap gently back and forth with the tides.

Now why I bracket the 'truth', for years I have loved the Chinese paintings of tall vertical sided mountains, these rocky crags with stunted fir trees make an eloquent magical landscape with their tiny bridges over rivers, but I never believed such landscapes could exist. That is until I saw a television programme a few months ago and saw the exact shape of the mountains somewhere in China.
Another story Deakin tells is about David Nash, an artist who sculpts in wood, often with a chainsaw, his works can be seen all round the world. Now I' m not quite sure I like the way he has with wood, he tends to 'torture' living trees to adopt certain shapes, but one story is fascinating. He lives and works in Wales at Blaenau Ffestiniog, and this tale is about a wooden ball carved and then set free on a river. David Nash followed the journey of the wooden boulder over the years, for it took a great many years for the boulder to dislodge itself from the rocks of the river and move gradually downstream till at last it reached the estuary. Here Nash would hire a boat and follow its progress as it washed back and forth on the tides over the months and lodged on different beaches. One day of course it disappeared and is now presumably out on the wide sea floating who knows where, another piece of flotsam that may appear years later on a foreign beach...... The Wooden Boulder can be found in this rather long article here....
http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag01/dec01/nash/nash.shtml

Ebbor Gorge

Ebbor Gorge; Photos from 2007 show, a lovely green wooded stone gorge, fallen branches, ferns and wildflowers growing in its hidden depths. It is approached from Priddy village, there is a car park at the beginning of the walk. Its quite a difficult walk for Somerset, for you have to go a long way down and then through the gorge and up again, a good hour or two is needed, but it is worth the effort climbing the natural limestone steps through the gorge. From the first rock shelters that were occupied 10,000 years ago, like all the landscapes of Britain it has been occupied through Bronze age, middle age etc, it is a hidden place that allows you to look into the wild heart of our countryside......

verdant green

the slope through the gorge

                                                            Nettle leaf bell flower

                                         this is the path through the narrowest part

                                                The narrowest part of the gorge

Sacred Groves

I have just been reading Roger Deakin's Wildwood, and one chapter immediately catches my interest. It is called the Sacred Groves of Devon, and he gives a list of village names all with Nemet/Nimet in their names. Celtic mythology, or at least here be our Romans naming an old celtic site and calling it sacred grove., so the villages are called Nymet Tracey, Broadnymet, Nichols Nimet, Nymet Roland, Nymet Wood and Nymphays. All named probably after the River Yeo(also after Nimet/Nymet) who's source is at Nymph. He also mentions that Beer, Bear or Beere are versions of the old english bearu, again the meaning is close to Celtic nemeton.

The Roman fort of Nemetotacio, the romans built a mile or two away on the banks of the River Taw, is obviously the place where it stems from Nemetotacio meaning "The Road Station of the Sacred Grove".

What visions this conjures up, history falling through time in its etymology, Deakins speculates that the Dumnonii people of the area refused to surrender their sacred woods and holy rivers of Nimet and Nemet to the Romans, for there are other forts in the area as well, and they put up a stout resistance.

Also about 20 years ago a wood henge at Bow was discovered by Frances Griffiths by aerial photography, information here on the Megalithic Portal ........ http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=17581,

Now Deakin goes on to say that the name Bow has contracted over the last seven years from Nymetbowe (the bend in the sacred river) and Nymetboghe, its root in the old english boga, a curve describing the wide curve in the River Yeo nearby. In fact very similar to the relationship of Durrington Walls and the River Avon. Frances Griffiths also discovered a large cluster of barrows and ring ditches surrounding Bow, and feels that this area was a major focus of ceremonial activity.

The flow of history is incredibly beautiful, Bronze age barrow cemeteries round the wooden henge, the river acting as a focus, and the names remembered through the Celts, the Romans and the small village settlements.

Terminology; Here I will break off to stand by my use of Celts/Celtic, there is so much contempt for the usuage of these words that perhaps we should use the term indigenous British people, but to be quite honest I like the term Celts, it has a far more romantic ring....

And what about the sacred curve of the river, does it not call to mind Silbury also surrounded by the curve of the Winterbourne, with the Swallowhead marking the rising of the River Kennet.

http://northstoke.blogspot.com/2008/01/roman-temple-of-nettleton-scrubb-to-be.html

Longbarrows

Beckhampton Longbarrow

But the masons leave

for the lime-pits of time, with flowers, chaff, ashes,

Their plans are spattered with blood, lost,

And the golden plumb-line of sun says; the world is leaning,

Bedded in a base where the fingers

Of ancient waters touch the foundation.

But feel the walls; the glow stays on your hands.

From the House of the Dead - Part one; taken from Richard Bradley's book The Significance of Monuments. The actual poem is from Ivan Lalic, 1996 'Of the Builders'

These late neolithic long mounds can be very complex, yes they may have burials in them but sometimes they do not - such as South Street and Beckhampton, both having a similar design pattern - Paul Ashbee in his book The Earthen Long Barrow highlights the different types to be found. Some can be extraordinarily long, and are often described as bank barrows, such as the one found in Maiden Castle.

It is the practical mode of construction that is so intriguing, archaeology is good at highlighting the methods used, sometimes we drift into an abstract notion of ritual and sacred landscape, our minds wallowing in some far away land of our own making; physical evidence, although scant, gives us a reality check.

South Street and Beckhampton when excavated, showed a framework of hurdles, set on an axial line with further offset hurdles creating bays. At the eastern end the hurdling was used to form a spurred convex or facade.

Ashbee says of South Street, that because of Stukeley's drawing it was thought to be stone built, the only stones found though were, small boulders (thought to form a core) in two of the bays, whilst at the end there was a cluster of large sarsen stones which did not form any pattern. A large capping of chalk rubble may have been added, remains of such were found.

The two barrows may have been tribal monuments, a 'clan' system is often postulated, perhaps delineating territory, West Kennet and East Kennet longbarrows both seem to have the same function in the landscape as does the one on Windmill Hill.

Its fascinating to think that the later Silbury also has some of these building properties captured in its make-up. Dean Mereweather mentions 'strings' radiating from the central primary mound, he also mentions stones round this mound, and in the latest foray into the heart of Silbury small sarsen boulders were found.

The other interesting thing to be found in some longbarrows are of course mortuary 'houses'; Wayland's Smithy had one, Ashbee says of this mortuary house that at....

..."the proximal end, two considerable flat-sectioned sarsen stones had been pitched together, an arrangement that was apparently continued by timbers set against a ridge supported at each end by the trunks, which seem to have projected above the barrow."

and Ashbee quotes Atkinson's account of his excavation in 1965...

"As finally revealed, the evidence leaves no doubt that the burials were deposited within a wooden chamber resembling a low ridge-tent, with a massive post at either end, between which a ridge-pole was supported by mortised joints. The combined sides and roof were presumably formed of close-set timbers resting at their inner and upper ends on the ridge-pole, and at their lower and outer ends on the ground immediately outside the lateral banks of sarsen stones, where there is on each side a significant linear gap separating the base if these banks from the basal sarsen cairn."

Wayland's Smithy seen from the back

The ' lateral' stones that may have faced the original timber mortuary house

Here we have another intriguing facet, large 'pits' often termed as ritual, found in longbarrows, could be seen as housing large timber posts, wood before stone, or perhaps another way of looking at it wood and stone, think Stonehenge and Woodhenge, and the flexibility of these two materials in construction and ritual use.

Fussell's Longbarrow contained the remains of a mortuary house, and though I can't show the detail of the isometric drawing in the book I can refer to Ashbee's article in 1998 in BA....

"What did barrows look like when first raised? At Fussell's Lodge long barrow, near Salisbury, the discovery of post-holes in a lengthy, trapezoidal structure showed that initially there had been a structure resembling a Neolithic long house of the type found widely on the Continent. Subsequent long barrow excavations showed that this formula was widely followed. These surrogate long houses contained deposits of human bone that were added to and subtracted from, for more than a millennium, and rites pertaining to ancestors and fertility were no doubt performed. Long barrows, the long houses of the dead, should be regarded as shrines rather than mausolea."

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba32/Ba32feat.html

The idea that longbarrows are the houses of the ancient dead can best be explored through reading Richard Bradley's The Significance of Monuments, in it he puts forward the theory that the longhouses in certain parts of Europe, were left to decay after their inhabitants died, presumably the male, and that these 'dead' houses were left in the settlements alongside the contemporary'living' houses, so giving rise to the conceptual idea of a death house.. As ideas progress, and there is movement away from the original idea because it has become pared down movement of people and ideas through time and space evolve, so we can look at Wessex longbarrows as evolving in a similar fashion.

West Kennet longbarrow

West Kennet longbarrow, the thing that strikes the eye, or indeed the camera lense, is the stone facade, we are overwhelmed by the symbolism of their shapes, as well as the physical effort needed to bring such stones to a particular place. Yet we forget, that we are looking at a 'restored' forecourt, and that behind the stones there are tons of earth, something was 'created' in the eyes of the builders, it may not necessarily be what we have in our minds.

If West Kennet is a 'death' house, than the removal of bones from Windmill hill to the barrow will signify to us that it is indeed the place of the ancestors. An emphasis on certain types of bones is also to be found in some longbarrows. Yet down the hill Beckhampton and South Street show no evidence of human bone, Beckampton of course has three ox skulls placed symbolically in its length, and up on the earlier Windmill Hill causewayed enclosure there are child bone burials with ox bones, one small human burial cradled inside the 'crown' of oxen horns.

The' stalls' of Stoney Littleton longbarrow

Stoney Littleton also has a stone facade, and a stone decorated with an ammonite on the left hand side, which can just be seen in the above photo. As at West Kennet we can imagine a forecourt in front of this longbarrow, a place where the ritual activities would take place.

Further reading has taken me to David Field's Earthen Longbarrows, strangely he doesnt say much about Wayland's Smithy, except to point out that the barrow we see today was built on the wooden mortuary house which is fairly obvious. What he does say is that West Kennet and East Kennet might have been added to, given that EK has a slightly 'waisted' side and that WK's ditches curve at one point at about 35 metres from the facade, and that there maybe in fact two 'contiguous barrows. This could well be so, a couple of miles from where I live there are two round barrows that seemed joined, and in fact several barrows on the Lansdown are paired in such a fashion.

Woods

I have been reading Richard Mabey's Essays on Landscape, his pottering through the lives of William Robinson, Gilbert White and Richard Jefferies, our relationship to the land around us, our 'rootedness' in a place, Gilbert White living all his life in the same village, recording in minute detail the daily lives of the creatures around him - a methodical naturalist.
Over the last few days we had also been wandering around, in woods this time, and one is always struck how a wood, though manmade also carries in its history the story of its growing.. there is its youth, a maturity, then decay. Old trees jostle with impudent young saplings, but sometimes the canopy is too dense, and the young tree reaches towards the sky in an effort to get to the sun, becoming spindly and elongated in its efforts. Sometimes these trees in later life are vunerable to storms and topple over, though often caught in the branches of nearby trees, they never quite make it to the ground.
One wood we walked through, had what looked like to me coppiced stools, but on reflection may have grown from a fallen tree, they circled the top of the hill. Here we come to a cleared space, the harsh reality of the chainsaw, reveals the bright cream of sawn logs, the stump of the tree exposed cruelly, curving annual rings denoting good and bad years, there is the soft epidermis that carries water up its outer skin to feed its leaves. Finished now, in death the tree provides logs for the fire, and we gather a few to carry back to the car.
The wood is damp, small streams trickle through, muddy paths, a thick dense mulching layer of copper leaves keeping the footfall silent. An abandoned shoe, encrusted with bright green moss.




I am reminded of the alder fruit we had gathered a couple of days before for dyeing, steeping them in water they had produced a strong brown dye.

Today we wander through the woods for pleasure, but for many centuries trees were an essential part of the 'used' landscape, wood for the fire, wood for hurdles, pannage for pigs, wood for the great tall ships of war, wood for the curving grace of timbered houses. We laid waste our woods, so that the great giant oaks are no longer with us, we neglected them in the last century allowing the ugly march of the evergreen fir and pine on the mountains of Wales and Scotland.





Mean while the Mind, from pleasures less,
Withdraws into its happiness;
The Mind, that Ocean where each kind
Does streight its own resemblance find,
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other Seas,
Annihilating all that's made
To a green Thought in a green Shade.

Andrew Marvell 'The Garden' 1681

Snow

Looking slightly puzzled by this white stuff

Pure white snow this morning, England slowly grinding to a halt, bliss, snowed in, unable to travel today, I potter through old photographs on Flickr and remember Moss at Avebury...

Though it may look beautiful, it was very cold early on that morning....

Moss at Solva in Pembrokeshire

Probably one of my most favourite places in the world. The last few years always done by myself with Moss as a companion. We walk the cliffs, Prescelli hills, and stay at a small cottage in the middle of nowhere at Llandinog.

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....