Tag: Wiltshire

#303 Connections

It’s been a while since I joined in with the Lens-Artists photo challenge, but the number 303 leapt out at me this week as I have just come back from a holiday based close to the A303 in Wiltshire so I thought it would be interesting to find connections between the sites we visited in and around that area.

Family Connections

The A303 is one of the main routes from London to the Southwest and a route I have travelled many, many times to visit my youngest son who is based in Wiltshire (military) and my daughter who lives in Surrey. It’s also famous for passing by the World Heritage site of Stonehenge, the world’s most famous prehistoric monument.

History

Stonehenge (2500 BC) is not the largest henge though, that title goes to Avebury and together they form the heart of a World Heritage Site which also includes Silbury Hill. We didn’t visit Stonehenge as we have done so not long ago, but we drove past it a few times this week so had a few sneaky glances! Instead we opted for a visit to Avebury.

Stonehenge

Avebury (2850 – 2200 BC): the henge survives as a huge circular bank and ditch, encircling an area that includes part of Avebury village. Within the henge is the largest stone circle in Britain – originally of about 100 stones – which in turn encloses two smaller stone circles.

A double avenue of stones leads away from the southern entrance towards the Sanctuary stone circles on Overton Hill, about a mile to the south-east. Unlike Stonehenge, this site is free to visit though you will have to pay for parking unless you are a National Trust or English Heritage member.

More recent history can be found at Old Sarum, an iron age hill fort dating back to 400 BC. Later occupied by the Romans during their conquest of Britain in AD 43, where perhaps a military fort was set up. It was during William the Conqueror’s reign that the strategic advantage of this place was recognised and a motte and bailey castle built.

Later, stone buildings were erected and in 1078-99 a cathedral was built after the 1075 Council of London decreed that the see should be moved from Sherborne to Old Sarum. Dissatisfaction with the site and poor relations with the garrison in the castle caused the cathedral to be moved to its present site in Salisbury (New Sarum) in 1220 and much of the stone from the old cathedral was used to build the new one.

Site and excavation of the old cathedral

Continue reading #303 Connections

Friday Flashback #3

Here’s a post I wrote on 15 January 2015 shortly before the birth of my youngest granddaughter.  Sadly I have not yet been able to visit to meet her brother who was born in August 2020.

A quick weekend visit to Wiltshire to visit family gave me the opportunity to finally revisit Stonehenge after many, many years. I was one of the fortunate people who was able to run around the stones back in the 1960s. Since 1978 the stones have been fenced off and the experience of viewing them through wire did not appeal to me, even though I have passed the site often on my way to the South-West.

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The whole site has been much improved by the removal of the old A344, a major road that ran up the north edge of the stones. You now approach from the west, either on foot or using the shuttle bus, and make your way clockwise around the monument which allows you to see all the stones above ground.

north view

What you see probably originates from around 2500 BC and took 800 years to build. Obviously the site has changed over the centuries, but it seems that the larger sarsen stones were constructed then and do not appear to have been moved, whereas the smaller bluestones may have been rearranged several times. Continue reading Friday Flashback #3