
Went to the Avebury area to celebrate a friend’s 50th in March 2024. They’d not been to Avebury before so we had a wander around the stones. A week or so before I’d watched The Modern Antiquarian BBC doc on YT, so when we got to the beech trees, I said to my friends there was something interesting ‘about a 20 minute walk away’. Massively downplayed the time, added to by very muddy conditions and a suspicious eight year old who doesn’t trust my timings, for good reason. The walk was worth it, even for the little one. We found the Polisher Stone, and my daughter was amazed by the smoothness of the grooves. I told her that running her fingers down them was like a time machine that could take her back 6,000 years, that she was doing what people had once done in that same place. She got it. Although when I picked up a hand axe online she asked ‘Why are you buying old rocks, dad?’ Wasn’t remotely interested when I reminded her of the Polisher Stone and why it was so smooth. Bless her.