Video showing the amazing chalk drum from Burton Agnes. The archaeologist who discovered it is interviewed, and you see the drum on display next to its cousins the Folkton Drums. It was found in the grave of three children (the three drums were in the grave of one child). Carbon dating of the site has enabled a more accurate date for the Folkton Drums too.
I think you will like this video by Allotment Fox, a softly spoken man who finds and reads passages from Saxon charters and then walks the landscape in search of the features they use to outline the boundaries of areas of land. Here he’s discovered mention of Yarnbury, which he thinks must mean the ‘yearning’ or ‘yonder’ fort. There are nice aerial shots of the fort and images of the local wildlife.
The folktale from the stones enacted (followed by Ronald Hutton).
This is a very British (i.e. a somewhat awkward, but rather endearingly so) trumpeting of the stone. The besuited Mr Chadwick is an accomplished musician in his other videos, so it must be nice for him to add Blowing Stone to his list of instruments.
I was struck by how similar the sound is to the carnyx – like those on the Gundestrup cauldron (you can hear some on this video ) – or is that just me overthinking things :)
Michaela Strachan relates some spooky stories (and what sounds like the coblynau) in her ‘Great British Ghosts’ series (begins 13 minutes in).
A short video showing what LIDAR can do – you swoop in over Stonehenge, the Normanton Down barrows and the Cursus.
(The most surreal bit comes at the end when the ‘tile’ of this hugely detailed data is illuminated from different angles, as though the sun is moving through the day.)
The giant comes to life with this creative costume made using E L wire. I think it might be cruel to make one of the Uffington horse though.
Ah the thrill of fear as a child watching ‘Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World’. This episode includes the Cerne Abbas Giant and some other English hill figures.
“The key to the giant’s identity may lie in something missing from the drawing: what did he have in his left hand?”
The locals report it’s supposed to be a head he’s chopped off – or a dog on a string. But an archaeologist gets involved with some geophysics equipment and appears to discover it was a cape, thus suggesting the figure is Hercules. He even gets out a bucket of whitewash and paints on the outline. To be honest the resulting figure looks quite convincingly balanced. But who knows – sometimes you find what you’re looking for, don’t you.
(Most is in part 2 but it’s worth seeing the end of part one not least for the strange local inhabitant).
A video clip of the Big Brother advert with the eye logo (posted by Chichclock). Though in light of the trampling at the Long Man in aid of Television, this almost seems tame now?
Hamish Miller dowses at the Merry Maidens. Video added by TScript.