Yesterday I discovered the sarsen stone memorial to Richard Jefferies and Alfred Williams. In a field on the left as you go uphill towards Barbury Castle - just as you reach a sign saying Barbury 100yds ahead.
A lovely pitted four-sided sarsen which stands approximately three metres above the ground (though probably much larger). There are plaques attached to two sides of the stone:
Richard Jefferies
1848-1887
"It is eternity now.
I am in the midst of it, it is about me in the sunshine."
Alfred Williams
1877-1930
"Still to find and still to follow
Joy in every hill and hollow
Company in Solitude"
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"Discarded long barrow, Manton Down, as dumped in 1996 - the end (or just another phase?) of a long story of abuse of a chambered long barrow which was a Scheduled Ancient Monument supposedly protected by law; but it made the big mistake of being in the way of agricultural land improvement in the 1950s and has subsequently been totally destroyed. This presumably final resting is about a quarter mile (c.400m) from the place where these stones were built into a tomb some 6000 years ago, a tomb which was respected by prehistoric farmers when cultivating their fields 2000-3000 years later. And 3000 years later again - progress? What progress?"
Text under a photo of the destroyed barrow in "An English Countryside Explored - The Land of Lettice Sweetapple" by Peter Fowler and Ian Blackwell
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Taken from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-12499444
Bagendon Settlement near Cirencester
Head south on the A429 (Fosse Way) to Cirencester. Follow the Bypass to the A435 (Cheltenham Road). Head north and Bagendon is signposted on the left. The Iron Age banks and ditches are widespread but are most visible along Cutham Lane and Welsh Way.
In historical terms, Cirencester's heritage is impressive. As Corinium it was the second largest town in Roman Britain with a military base, a large forum, basilica and an amphitheatre. But just north of the town lay the likely remains of a tribal capital older than Cirencester. Bagendon was home to a Celtic people called the Dobunni whose territory was centred on what are now the western counties of England including Gloucestershire and northern Somerset. About half a mile east and south east of the village is a system of scattered Iron Age ditches sometimes called the Bagendon Dykes built in about AD20. In total the Dubonni enclosed about 200 acres here and there's evidence that within its walls they constructed stone-floored, half-timbered huts with thatched roofs and even a mint for the production of silver and bronze coins. They were relatively sophisticated with a system of livestock farming on the Cotswold hills (cattle, sheep and pigs) as well as an established trade in imported pottery and jewellery from the continent.
Modern Bagendon is an archetypal Cotwold village with many attractive stone dwellings and a thatched cottage beside the small parish church. Excavations took place in the village in the mid 1950s and again in 1980-81. To experience more about the area, history lovers should head for the Corinium Museum in Park Street, Cirencester. The award-winning attraction is home to one of the largest collections of Romano-British antiquities in Great Britain and holds more than one million items in total. Admission is charged and opening times vary, so you're advised to check before visiting.
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In partnership with English Heritage as part of the BBC's 'Ancient Britons' series the Stonehenge Road Show arrived at Swindon's Outlet Village on 23/2/11. Naturally aimed at children (half-term) it was a pleasure to observe. Yes, there was a 'life-size' inflatable trilithon (nothing to offend anyone though), a couple of experimental archaeologists dressed in sheepskin and a display of artefacts - antler picks, fragments of bluestone and sarsen, flint tools and sarsen mauls. David Dawson, director of the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, was manning the display and encouraging the kids to touch and handle them.
I didn't stay too long but long enough to see a group of kids (one of them in a Superman outfit) pulling a large fake sarsen along on wooden rollers.
Great fun for them I should think.
More here, a report from the Swindon Advertiser
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/8871874.Half_term_visitors_get_a_look_at_the_ancient_world/
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I received my order from Oxbow books today of the Oxford Archaeology book "Uffington White Horse and its landscape". Looks great; chapter 8 is specifically about Tower Hill which lies 4 km south of White Horse Hill at the northern end of the chalk ridge south of Wayland's Smithy and the Ridgeway. It lies withing a triangle formed by three Iron age forts - Uffington Castle, Hardwell Camp and Alfred's Castle.
"In March 1993 a local schoolteacher, Mrs Liz Philips found a dozen bronze axes and other objects while walking her dog along a farm track which ran up through a ploughed field at the northern end of the ridge known as Tower Hill ..."
She reported her find to the landowner, the Ashmolean Museum and the Wantage Museum and the site was subsequently visited by Oxfordshire County Archaeologist, Paul Smith. The hoard also includes a socketed bronze axe found by a member of the public, also in 1993 (reported to Oxfordshire County Museum Service).
Authors of the Uffington book are David Miles, Simon Palmer. Gary Lock, Chris Gosden and Anne Marie Cromarty.
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Passionate about:
Nature; stone circles and all ancient sites that involve walking through unspoilt countryside/being near the sea; islands around the the British Isles, especially those with ancient monuments.
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