You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2009.
Council Barrow at Helland, Cornwall (Picture credit: Alex Langstone)
Following a recent visit to my local Bronze Age round barrow, I was saddened to see that a tractor had been driven over the top of it at some point in the recent past. I was also dismayed to see a deep furrowed track way along its eastern flank.
This set me thinking, as over the years I have seen many other sites like this, most of them have been much worse. The barrow I visited is known as the Council Barrow SX099703, and is situated on a prominent hill top at the north-western extremity of Bodmin Moor, at the tip of Racecourse Downs.
Its proximity to the two highest points in Cornwall, give unsurpassed views across the moor to the east, and over St Austell Downs to the west. On the horizon to the north-east are Rough Tor and Brown Willy, Cornwall’s highest peaks. The site was obviously chosen for its panoramic vistas. In its heyday the barrow and its surroundings would have been an amazing sight
These types of ancient monument are often overlooked, but they are as important as the more impressive monuments, more so as they often contain a wealth of artefacts that can link us to our ancestral past. Archaeologists of the future need to inherit these barrows intact, not obliterated by farming. It is essential that we all keep a close eye on our local barrows, and inform the local archaeological service of any new problems. If the recent (June 2009) press release from English Heritage is anything to go by, then there are still massive problems across England. Below is a quote from the same press release:
“The (south west) region has 7,000, or one third, of England’s scheduled monuments. In 2006 some 1,800 were found to be at high risk, compared to 1,442 at present. This reduction is mainly a result of working closely with owners and managers of monuments and putting management agreements in place. Arable farming and erosion by livestock are the two most significant threats.”
To read the entire press release entitled ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES HARDER TO SAVE THAN BUILDINGS IN TOUGH TIMES see here.
Land owners must be given more education, support and guidance on managing ancient sites. They are in effect “guardians” of these sites, and whether they like it or not, they must live up to their responsibilities of “caretakers of our cultural past”. If they do not, then action must be taken to ensure that the correct care is provided by more responsible “guardians”.
Please see the following page on our website for more details of the farming threat to our archaeological heritage here
View to Rough Tor and Brown Willy from the damaged barrow at Helland (Picture credit: Alex Langstone)
TaraWatch will send a delegation to the Oireachtas, the Irish Houses of Parliament, in a bid to get Opposition parties to confront the Government on their mishandling of the M3 motorway, which is slicing the Tara Complex in half.
Questions will relate to Minister for the Environment, John Gormley’s failure to nominate Tara as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as promised, this week the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in Seville.
http://www.33whc.sevilla2009.es/en/
Questions will also relate to the case being argued this week against Ireland, in the European Court of Justice, over Minister Roche’s decision to demolish the Lismullin national monument in 2007.
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1524&format=PDF&ag\\ed=1&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
It’s been a bad week Mr. Gormley selling your soul and putting a “concrete dagger through the heart of Tara”
We have written here before about the pull of the stones at our ancient sites, and the passion that draws people to visit and write about such places.
- (c) Andrew Johnstone
Andrew Johnstone, a graphic designer by trade, has such a passion, and has recently spent a considerable amount of time in the Peak District National Park. An exhibition for MA Design graduates, held recently in Islington London, provided an opportunity for Andrew to showcase the results of his endeavours in this field, putting together a portfolio of products for which he is now seeking a publisher and distributor.
As he says in the preface to his book, The Prehistoric Peak, the central piece of his exhibition:
Despite being born and raised in England, my interest in British prehistory began after moving to Canada in 1991 when I was inspired by singer/songwriter and author Julian Cope who had begun his own inquiry into the subject, culminating in his two ground-breaking and highly recommended tomes on the subject of European megalithic monuments, The Modern Antiquarian (1998) and The Megalithic European (2004).
I didn’t return to live in England until 2007, so the only chance I had to visit these places was during infrequent trips back to Britain. What began as a casual curiosity very quickly grew into a keen interest and I started to realize, as Cope had himself, that a whole swathe of British history had been kept from my knowledge. At school we are taught that our history begins with the Roman invasion in the 1st Century Common Era (C.E.) and prior to that we were simply illiterate barbarians, but by visiting megalithic sites and reading as much as I could about them, it soon became apparent to me that this simply is not the truth.
Anyone who chooses to look into this aspect of our history will see that the builders of these monuments were far from backward or uncivilized. They had a complex understanding of the world in which they lived, based on millennia of living, studying and moving within it. Most of us will know of sites such as Stonehenge and Avebury, but what many don’t realize is that this land is inundated with the monuments of those ancient societies. I have long felt it a shame that we don’t celebrate the truly amazing civilizations that walked on these islands long ago. It is time we stepped out of this denial and into a new era of full and complete recognition of all our past. Thankfully, I believe we are.
[The] intention [of this book] is [...] to encourage people to go out there and see these places for what they are today, after all, they are often located in some of the most spectacular landscapes available to us in Britain today, which to me is reason enough. They make fascinating destinations for journeys that are about experiencing all the wonders of the world around us. Yes, the destination is certainly something to aim for, but sometimes, as the long process that has brought me to this point has shown me, it is often the journey that informs us the most.
First on the list of items in the exhibition is a large coffee-table book of stunning black and white images. Very stark, and very stoney, Andrew admits that the book was largely put together for purely personal reasons, to fulfill his own desire for such a book.
The majority of his efforts however, went on the companion travel guide, from which the quotation above was taken. This is a fantastic piece of work, detailing over 70 sites in the National Park in over 300 pages. Each site has been personally visited by Andrew, and has a full colour photo and map of the area, as well as diagrams of what can be seen at each site, straightforward directions and a full description of the site and surrounding terrain. For the exhibition, the volume is printed on high quality paper which is fully bound in hand stitched leather – a true ‘deluxe’ edition!
There is also a set of individual foldable ‘pocket guides’, one per site, containing much of the same information as in the main guide. These were nicely presented in a ‘box set’, but the idea is that each mini-guide would be available for sale within the immediate area of the site.
All of the above were presented within a backdrop of some stunning full size posters depicting a couple of the sites in photographic, map and diagrammatic form.
It’s obvious from the care that has gone into the items than Andrew feels a strong affinity with the sites and as he explained to me, whilst visiting the sites for the book one day he had a realisation that “I was over there yesterday, over there the day before and will be there tomorrow, and suddenly the interrelationship of the sites clicked for me”, a true Road to Damascus moment that he wanted to convey that others may understand too.
If only that understanding could be bottled and presented (force fed?) to the official custodians of many sites across the country that are in danger of neglect.
Andrew hopes to show the results of his work in the Peak area later in the year. And I’ve already ‘pre-ordered’ my copy in the hope he finds a publisher soon!
Update: More information can now be found on Andrew’s web site, and we hope to have an article explaining Andrew’s personal perspective on his quest here soon.
Wake me up after the recession.
It has been disturbing to read, courtesy of ‘Village’ magazine, the results of “a cursory examination of planning and zoning decisions”, in a number of Irish counties. Granting the possibility that this behaviour might not be universal (although the suspicion would have to be otherwise), the next time you read about a conflict between Irish local councils and heritage-minded citizens you might do well, nonetheless, to keep it in mind. Here follows a few brief examples:
In County Meath, location of the ongoing Tara controversy, councillors recently amended a local area plan, against the arguments of the County Manager, to allow a new road to run through an existing housing estate and to open up adjacent land for housing. It was claimed that residents of the estate, in a town which already had a large surplus of zoned land and who had each actually signed a petition against it, were in favour
In the same county two other councillors, an independent and a Green, pushed for the re-zoning of land, close to a major town, “against the advice of planning officials”. The article goes on to state that; “Across County Meath there is concern about the manner in which more than a dozen local area plans for various towns and village settlements are being railroaded through the council.” Who benefited?
In County Dublin, two prominent businessmen, who had paid almost €25million to the Revenue Commissioners after corruption investigations, stand to recoup much of their loss due to ownership of land that is included in Fingal County Council’s housing and commercial expansion plans. Lands were also re-zoned by councillors in County Wicklow, against massive local and planning opposition, after developers promised land for schools and a Garda station. Once the decision was made it was announced that this land would cost the taxpayer €1million per acre.
Several more examples are given, all following the formula of:
(1) Councillors make a re-zoning or planning decision, that goes against local opinion and that of planning experts.
(2) From amidst the intricate weaves of connections and ownerships, a developer, often a prominent supporter of some party, benefits.
Of course, Irish property prices have collapsed and many of these developers are now in serious trouble, yet the state has guaranteed the banks and the cost of any defaults will be ultimately borne by the taxpayer, via NAMA.
As initially stated, it is not advisable to expect individual cases to represent an overall behaviour, but you’d have to wonder. Costly commuter housing estates, being built miles outside Dublin, requiring motorways to cut a few minutes off journey time and that absolutely have to go along certain routes – who owned the land? It’s our landscape and our heritage, our descendant’s landscape and their heritage, that has been finely minced into the trough, with the National Monuments Act to ease the passage down.
Preservation by Record? Oh… that’s ok then.
Connolly, F.(2009) ‘Bad planning hasn’t gone away’ Village Issue 4 (June) 55-57
Mr. John Gormley, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and see-no-evil do-nothing witness to the violent rape of Ireland’s most precious ancient heritage, has just launched not one but THREE “Agreed Codes of Archaeological Practice” in co-operation with potential heritage-worriers Eirgrid, ESB Networks and the “Irish Concrete Federation” (which includes one or two aggregate hungry outfits of the ilk of those that have desecrated so much heritage in Britain)…..
Here’s his remarkable Quote:
The codes show that development and conservation can go hand in hand.
Hand in hand, eh John? Like you let happen without lifting a finger at Tara then?
And more:
I hope that the Codes would help spread the message that “being pro heritage does not equate to being anti-development.”
Heaven forbid! But why did you avoid saying the obvious other bit John, that you also hoped the Codes would help spread the message that “being pro development does not equate to being anti-heritage“?
Too worried you might choke on your words? Or that your pals in the Irish Concrete Federation might not like it? Who knows?
Come kindly JCBs, roll over Ireland!
Hey John, stick this at the front of your weasly worded Codes, it was penned by one of your countrymen more than three years ago, before proud important you and your proud important predecessors conspired and blinkered to let it happen without a squeak. It says more about development and heritage than anything in your Codes ever could -
Tara abandoned by a generation who prefer soulless symbols
TARA, here I am. I have come all the way from Kerry to be with you before the vultures, with bulldozers and JCBs, open your lower belly. They are impatient to inflict the wounds.
You are abandoned, forsaken and rejected. All the powers that be – Meath County Council, the Government, NRA, An Bord Pleanála and the High Court – have walked out on you. We pay them to protect you but they betrayed us. We trusted them too much.
Tara, I know you sympathise with the people who are forced to commute to Dublin five days a week. But why are they not angry with Meath County Council for not putting in a bypass at Dunshaughlin and a proper one in Navan 20 years ago? They allowed them not only to close down but also to rip up the Dublin/Navan/Trim railway line over 30 years ago. And they still trust them. There were so many other options for this road. Are you the same Tara who was magic for Master O’Connell, the principal of Tarmons National School in Tarbert? He instilled a love of you into our hearts, and I can still see the face of Fr O’Flaherty (our history teacher in St Brendan’s, Killarney) come alive at your name. But that was a different generation, other times. You are no longer in fashion. This generation prefers soulless symbols – motorways, shopping malls, four-wheel drives, big trucks and, of course, the euro. I expected all the people in Ireland to have run to protect you. It would have been unacceptable, I thought, to run a motorway through the Tara/Skryne Valley, opening up a wound that no plastic surgery can cure. But this generation was not touched, nor incensed. How sad. Will you forgive us?
The day Environment Minister Dick Roche sanctioned the motorway, I was watching the evening news in a pub. One man said, when he saw Mr Roche on TV, “Isn’t he a pity? I wouldn’t ask him to mind my chickens, and Bertie Ahern put him in charge of our heritage and environment. He has no bottle, afraid of the hawks.” Poor Mr Roche. Maybe he has no power. An Bord Pleanála, which is not comprised of elected representatives, makes all the big decisions. Or does it? Who has real power today?
Democracy, the people’s participation in the ordering of their own lives, is now perceived as a meaningless facade that hides the ruthlessness of corporate self-interest. The suspicion that political ideologies and institutions are becoming irrelevant because politics is being reduced to following ‘the laws of the market’ is creating political unease among people and cynicism among the young about voting. Tara, what else can your support groups and friends do now? Are all avenues closed? Has your hour come? Will we call the lone piper to play a dirge?
Tommy O’Hanlon
Tarbert
Co Kerry
A related article about kindly snouts in convenient troughs will follow shortly.
Avebury, Silbury and the surrounding area by H J Massingham: circa 1936
Wonderful indeed it is, a vast circumvallation that was already two thousand years old before the dawn of British history; a great wall of earth with its ditch most strangely on its inner and not on its outer side; and within this enclosure gigantic survivors of the great circles of unhewn stone that, even as late as Tudor days, were almost complete. A whole village, a church, a pretty manor house have been built, for the most part, out of the ancient megaliths; the great wall is sufficient to embrace them all with their gardens and paddocks; four cross-roads meet at the village centre. There are drawings of Avebury before these things arose there, when it was a lonely wonder on the plain, but for the most part the destruction was already done before the Mayflower sailed. To the southward stands the cone of Silbury Hill; its shadow creeps up and down the intervening meadows as the seasons change. Around this lonely place rise the Downs, now bare sheep pastures, in broad undulations, with a wart-like barrow here and there, and from it radiate, creeping up to gain and hold the crests of the hills, the abandoned trackways of that forgotten world. These trackways, these green roads of England, these roads already disused when the Romans made their highway past Silbury Hill to Bath, can still be traced for scores of miles through the land, running to Salisbury and the English Channel, eastward to the crossing at the Straits and westward to Wales, to ferries over the Severn, and southwestward into Devon and Cornwall.
H G Wells (1922)
As the old saying goes “Where there’s muck, there’s Brass”, but in this case, the Brass is Bronze – or at least a bronze age roundhouse.
The discovery of stones that are thought to date back to the Bronze Age have halted a multi-million pound sewage treatment project in Cornwall.
Whilst such sites are relatively common in Cornwall, each site investigated adds a little more knowledge about the daily lives of our predecessors, which can only be a good thing for the communal knowledge base.
More information can be found on the BBC website.
Prior to the event we thought it best to say little about the announced up-tick in the degree of policing and the accompanying slightly confrontational dialogue coming from the police themselves as we thought there was an obvious danger that it might inflame things and we had no wish to be accused of having contributed to a problem.
In the event, all went pretty well according to most accounts. Was this because of the increased police activity and announcements – or despite of them? The latter, we suspect.
Certainly there were some downsides – the Daily Mirror ran the headline Pagans Litter Stonehenge with obvious relish but didn’t mention that English Heritage’s spokesman had gone out of his way to point out that the area of the stones had been left immaculate and that they would be able to tidy up elsewhere in a few hours (courtesy of pagan stewards we believe).
It is certainly obvious that such gatherings do need approaching carefully to avoid an echo of the bad old days and we would have thought that the police, of all people, would realise that – particularly so soon after what happened at the G20 demonstrations.
Whether well intentioned or not, police actions were seen as provocative by some – see this, from the Indymedia UK website:
“Anyone who went to Stonehenge for the summer solstice 2009 would have noticed that the crowd has changed from previous years. Sure, there’s still a massive hippie contingent and plenty of druids and shamanic types there for the ritual and the energy buzz, and this year considerably more ‘normal’ sorts; middle class families and large crews of inner city kids just out for a good party. But aside from these peaceful masses a smaller core of bad apples turned up in their high-viz and their riot vans to make everyone feel uncomfortable. For the first time since the Battle of the Beanfield, the police presence at Stonehenge was enormous.”
“They were everywhere, in your eyes and up your nose and as irritant as hayfever. Hundreds of coppers in total; at the entrance to the stones, the exit from the car park and patrolling all over the site supported by considerable numbers of private security contractors with stab vests, handcuffs and sniffer dogs at the entrance to the stones. I saw two police horses, and big canvas adverts warning about drugs tests and sniffer dogs and encouraging people to deposit drugs anonymously in red ‘Amnesty Bags’ rather than run the gauntlet. Even more sinister, I spotted a Wiltshire Police evidence gatherer team (two guys) filming around the stones just after dawn but didn’t have my camera and was a little too wasted to intervene. There was also a UAV Hicam Microdrone – a small remote controlled camera thing with rotor blades flitting around the stones all night, filming the crowd from above. To cap it all off, a police helicopter buzzed the car park at low altitude for about an hour from around 10.00 in the morning, presumably to keep people awake after a heavy night of partying so they could fall asleep at the wheel on the long drive home.”
Worse and ominous are some of the comments that some people have left after that article. “Itching for a fight and willing to indulge in very nasty tactics” sums some of them up.
It seems to us that Solstice 2009 could easily have gone very wrong and unless the police realise that – and why – then there is an obvious risk that Solstice 2010 will go wrong and it will not be real pagans that are to blame but others – on both sides.
Article from the Irish Examiner, John Gormley – Green Party Minister for the Environment. Is he about to betray The Hill of Tara?
Gormley denies u-turn on Tara UNESCO designation
Environment Minister John Gormley has denied accusations that he has abandoned his promise to include the Hill of Tara on Ireland’s list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The Tarawatch organisation says Mr Gormley has backed out of a pledge to present a revised list of nominated sites – including Tara – to UNESCO in Seville tomorrow…. more here
A demonstration is being held today against John Gormley at 12 noon at the Custom House Dublin.
The demonstrations will mark the day when Minister Gormley was supposed to submit Tara as a World Heritage Site to UNESCO, as well as the week that the European Court of Justice is hearing a case by the European Commission against Ireland over the M3 at Tara.
Good old BBC news, up with the birds and in deepest Wiltshire, reporting that the Solstice went very smoothly at Stonehenge last night…
A record crowd of about 36,500 revellers has welcomed the dawn of the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge.
The number of people attending the event caused roads in the area to become gridlocked in the hours leading up to sunrise at 0458 BST.
Druid ceremonies took place alongside music and Morris dancing, however overcast skies obscured the sun.
Police praised the crowd and said there had been only 25 arrests for minor disorder and drug offences.
Sam Edwards, from Wiltshire police, said: “We are very pleased everything went to plan.
“The atmosphere has been very good, especially around the stones.”
“So what happens at solstice?”
“People come at the wrong time of year to look in the wrong direction at the marvellous sight of the sun appearing between two stones one of which isn’t there and they get drunk and it rains.”
Lets hope its peaceful!!! See the Guardian article today…
Big police operation planned for Stonehenge summer solstice
A big police operation involving an unmanned drone, horses and drugs sniffer dogs will be launched at Stonehenge tomorrow as huge crowds descend on the ancient site for the summer solstice.
Because the celebrations fall over the weekend and fine weather is predicted, bigger crowds than usual are expected and Wiltshire police have said they will clamp down heavily on antisocial behaviour.
Restrictions are being placed on the amount of alcohol revellers can bring in and police have said they will not tolerate illegal drug taking or unlawful raves.
The force’s no-nonsense approach, after a more relaxed feel in recent years, has raised fears that there could be clashes…………read on
BY GRAHAM ORRISS, HERITAGE ACTION
Dolmen de Kermario
Carnac, in Brittany, is world renowned for its’ fantastic array of megalithic monuments. Due to the sheer quantity of stones (of which there are reckoned to be over 3000!) it has been suggested that this is where the megalithic culture all began.
This is easy to believe, as everywhere you look there are seemingly never-ending examples of prehistoric structures in the form of standing stones, stone rows and circles, chambered tombs, dolmen, rectangular enclosures, cairns, cists, tumuli and a whole lot more!
The thing that struck me, when walking alongside these magnificent alignments, is how well looked after they are, and how unobtrusive the management is!
For starters, unlike the UK’s best-known and most visited megalithic site, Stonehenge, there is no high fence with barbed wire and patrolling security guards. There is no gaudy tat shop or burger outlet interfering with the enjoyment of the site. There is a visitor centre, which is set back from the stones, but most of all there is plenty of free parking, and there is no entrance fee to the stones!
A low wire fence, or a dry-stone wall, of about 4 foot in height, surrounds a large proportion of the stones in the main alignments. There are gates at various points, which are locked between March and October, but open to the public the rest of the year. In the (admittedly short) time I was there, nobody attempted to jump the fence to be among the stones. There was a respect for the conservation of the site. There are plenty of stones outside the fenced area for those wishing to be among them.
A couple of the sites we visited required an entrance fee. The Tumulus de Kercado was accessible via an unattended booth, with laminated information sheets in about 5 languages for you to take with you. As it was an honesty system, we happily paid our Euro each*. It was well worth it! (*At the time of writing, €1 was approximately equal to £1).
Grande Menhir Brise
Another entrance fee well worth paying is for the three-in-one complex of the Table des Marchants, which also includes the lovingly reconstructed Er-Grah mound and the enormous Grand Menhir Brise. You can access all three monuments pretty well unhindered (although there is a low, trip-wire style fence about a foot tall all the way around Er-Grah and the menhir, to prevent people climbing on them!). The 5 Euro entrance fee is worth paying just to go into the Table des Marchants and marvel at the fabulous engraved stones within! Again, the visitor centre is well laid out and informative, and set sufficiently away from the monuments, and the ample car park is completely free.
The overall feeling was of a fantastically maintained complex. The freedom and trust engendered to the visitor was amply repaid with respect.
Above: Mount’s Bay. (Image credit: Alex Langstone)
Last November Heritage Action’s Cornwall correspondent, Alex Langstone wrote about the battle to save the historic and beautiful beach at the heart of the Cornish port of Penzance. We can now report some excellent news, as the plans to build a ferry terminal over the beach have been scrapped!
Cornwall Council have abandoned their plans to develop Battery Rocks beach into a freight terminal, at least for now. They announced at the end of last week the withdrawal of their planning application.
For once, it seems that public pressure has paid off. It may be that there are other reasons for the change of plan, which have yet to emerge. But for now we can celebrate!
The historic centre of old Penzance town can now breathe easy, and the spirits of the founding Celtic saints which flow along the ancient sanctity of the St Michael line are once again at peace.
The wildlife of Sandy Cove is once again safe and families can bathe and relax among the ancient rocks and view the outstanding panorama of Mount’s Bay, unhindered by “21st century progress”.
See Alex Langstone’s original Heritage Journal post here
A recent visit to the Bronze Age complex at Kealkil, Co. Cork, was enhanced by the discovery of fresh improvements to access.
Access to the monuments at Kealkil, Co.Cork.
Access to the monuments at Kealkil, Co.Cork.
Situated on private land, it already had a separate pedestrian gate and was signposted, a real rarity in West Cork, but over the course of the last year or two an extra stile has been installed beside the second, inner gate and the hedge that was growing close to the southwest of the monument has been removed. This is a ‘high place‘, where one can observe the world; still part of it, but separate. The view, always spectacular to the modern eye, is now even more open.
The complex viewed from the northeast.
This complex, of a stone-circle, stone pair and radial-stone cairn, was excavated by Sean O’Riordáin in 1938. The stone pair, tall as reconstituted after excavation, must originally have been sublime; its south-westerly stone standing to 5.3m, a height well in excess of the Sarsen Ring at Stonehenge. Curiously, neither stone was raised from the ground, but rather lowered into their sockets, from above.
Two trenches were found beneath the ‘floor’ of the stone circle, spanning its inner extent, at right angles and the contents of the fill indicated that they had once contained two beams. O’Riordáin deduced that these would have acted as supports for an upright post at their junction point. If viewed along the axis of the circle and from the northeast, this upright would have appeared to stand at the right hand extremity of the axial-stone and could theoretically have been used to mark the disappearance point of a setting sun, or moon, when the circle was being constructed and oriented.
No human remains were found anywhere on site, although Borlase had reported “… the remains of two long stone graves or cists which had been apparently covered by a cairn.“ During excavation, the shape of this cairn was found to have been crudely delineated, in its interior, by a series of upright, radially-set, stones and stone sockets. Three, notably larger, sockets were found on the western side of the ‘ring’, set in a line roughly parallel to the adjacent stone pair.
“They erected hill-shrines, sacred pillars, and sacred poles, on every high hill and under every spreading tree” – 1 Kings 14: 23
- Sketch by Borlase (1897). The tallest stone is prostrate.
Borlase, W.C. [1897] The Dolmens of Ireland, London, Chapman & Hall, 420
O’Riordáin, S.P. [1939] Excavation of a stone circle and cairn at Kealkil, Co.Cork, JCHAS 44, 46-49
…or The adventures of two men and a camper van.
By Rupert Soskin
It was back in 1999 that I first approached Michael Bott with the idea of making a documentary series on little-known aspects of one of my other passions: Natural History. I was already familiar with Michael’s work. He had made a couple of films with my father, Henry Lincoln, and his impressive talent made the normally painstaking decision of who to approach, a complete no-brainer. Michael loved the idea but he very sensibly suggested that, as this was such a massive project, it would be more sensible to kick off with something else. Something we were both familiar with and could do more easily, to see how well we worked together. Little did we suspect, how an intended ‘interim’ project would become such a life-changing experience.
Michael has been enthralled by ancient sites since childhood, and for a number of years I had been leading trips and walks to ancient sites in Britain and abroad, so the decision was easy.
“Why don’t we make a pilot for a documentary about standing stones?” said Mike.
“Great idea.” I replied.
“Excellent” he said, “You write it then.”
And so a monster was spawned. As things progressed, Mike decided early on that we should aim the film towards short ten-minute programmes and if all went well, we could make an indefinite amount of these short films, working our way across the whole of the British Isles. I have walked over Dartmoor’s hills and vales more than any other part of Britain so rather than make life difficult, I stuck with what I knew best. I spent six months choosing locations, researching and writing until, in 2001, after Mike had turned my pages of writing into a format we could film, we were ready to hit the road.
That short film (which is included in the extras on the Standing with Stones DVD) once I had overcome the extraordinary sense of feeling a complete berk in front of the camera, was a joy to make, and thankfully, was very well received. However, what became increasingly obvious to us was that in taking it to broadcast companies like the BBC, with all the logistics of film crews traveling across Britain and ultimately losing control of schedules and the final edit, we risked ending up with a very different film from the one we wanted to make.
We took a break.
For the next couple of years it all sat on a back burner until, with a healthy mix of bravery and madness we made the insane decision to go it alone and produce a single film which covered as many sites as was feasible for a dvd. After another few months we had decided which sites we would include and I had researched and written chunks of script. We acquired a camper van to act as mobile office, hotel and high vantage-point, stocked up on film, batteries and food and set off.
I had already decided that I would try to produce a book to accompany the film, so each trip involved carrying Mike’s film gear which included cameras, sound equipment, lights (just in case) and walkie talkies so we could communicate between vehicles and across hillsides. Then there was all my own camera gear for shooting the pictures for the book.
Taking Britain and Ireland in chunks, we worked in bursts of roughly a month at a time and, weather permitting, managed to sustain a high pressure approach to make the most of every minute. Up before sunrise most days in case the light was perfect for a dawn shoot, driving, walking or filming all day and researching and writing script in the evenings.
Most of the time our mass of equipment was fairly manageable. The only time it became a challenge was when we were filming the axe factory on Pike O’Stickle in the Lake District. The weather had been appalling for days so we waited… and we waited. We were traveling at such a ludicrous pace that we had no choice but to shoot in whatever conditions presented themselves at the time, especially as the filming had to take priority over the stills due to the complexities involved. Frustratingly, we arrived in the lakes at the time in 2007 when most of Britain was under water. Places that could have been stunningly beautiful were flat, grey and soaking wet. The Lake District could have been remapped to show new lakes which I am quite sure were fields when I last visited.
However, we did have some time in hand so the lashing rain on day-one didn’t worry us unduly. We stayed in the bus, researching and writing. Day-two offered slightly less rain but heavier fog so, carrying all the gear and a stack of emergency stuff in case we were stuck up there overnight, we started the climb. Two hours later we were back in the bus: what had once been a gentle stream burbling its way down the mountainside had become a boiling white torrent of water. The risk to the equipment was too great, so day-two was abandoned.
Day-three was no better than day one but day-four we had to be somewhere else entirely. So whilst our original thoughts were to take a gorgeous colour-rich footage from high in the mountains, we had no options here, it had to be done in high winds, lashing rain and mists. Not even a dramatic sky to rescue the inevitable poor light. In the event however, it turned out to be one of the highlights for us. The swirling mists and buffeting winds did make filming a serious challenge, but so much more memorable than another sunny day in the hills.
It took two years to complete the film and left Mike and me with so many memories, (a number of them at my expense, which Mike delighted in putting in the out-takes). One occasion which stretched my outdoor skills to breaking point was the Barclodiad y Gawres stew-cooking scene. Me, in the dark, in a forest, stirring a brew over a camp fire. It was actually the last scene of the whole film to be shot, not least of all because Britain couldn’t have been wetter if the entire Atlantic ocean had been emptied over it! We had spent a weekend in Devon recording the last pieces of voice-over and grabbed our chance when, miraculously the rain stopped and the sun attempted a feeble push through the blankets of grey.
Arriving at our chosen location I set about collecting firewood for our eerie night-time session. Everything was sopping wet, not a dry twig to be found amongst the puddles and sodden leaves.
“Don’t worry,” I tried to reassure Mike, “Ash, Pine and holly, that’ll do the job. Ash will burn come-what-may, resin in the pine will catch and holly leaves will always give a bright but brief flame.”
Well, there was holly, but no pine, nor any ash, so I collected the best of a soggy lot… where was Ray Mears when I needed him?! In the end I used my emergency stash of charcoal and fire tablets, but in sprinkling the last powdered crumbs of tablet onto the paltry fire, much to Mike’s amusement I nearly sent myself up in flames. Fortunately the holly did its job, as did Mike, and the final footage kept its secret… alas not so the out-takes.
Thanks Mike!
Filming over, Mike had nine months of editing ahead and it took another year before the book was complete. I could not have been happier that Thames & Hudson wanted to produce the book, and the icing on the cake was when Professor Tim Darvill agreed to check my text and write my foreword. The entire making of Standing with Stones, even though it was at times difficult and hand-to-mouth, turned out to be the adventure of a lifetime. Almost every day, even in the harshest conditions, Mike and I would look at each other, grin like Cheshire cats and shout at each other, “We’re working!”
The book: ‘Standing with Stones’
by Rupert Soskin and Timothy Darvill
(Thames & Hudson) £19.95
The film: ‘Standing with Stones’
by Michael Bott and Rupert Soskin
£15.99 at www.standingwithstones.com
The results and recommendations of the ’Condition and Management Survey of the Archaeological Resource’ (CAMSAR), in Northern Ireland, have just been summarised in the Summer 2009 issue of ‘Archaeology Ireland‘. Damage to historic and prehistoric monuments is sometimes noticed, but more often takes place ‘under the radar‘, so this type of information is vital to an understanding of how our Heritage is faring and where the danger points exist. Some care should, of course, be exercised in applying data, specific to a sample of one area, to the rest of the U.K. and Ireland, however it would be surprising if the results were not broadly representative – see below, an image from a site in the Republic.
- Stone Circle at Carrigagrenane SW, Co. Cork.
Commencing in 2004, a random sample of 1500 Northern Irish sites were visited. Their condition and any present or possible threat to that condition was recorded, and this information was compared to the site files in the Sites and Monuments Record (NISMR). Among the findings were the following, here numbered 1 to 3:
(1) “In general, sites located on arable, improved grassland and those within urban areas had the worst rates of survival and were in the poorest condition. Those located on unimproved grasslands, within woodlands and within wetlands survived best. For example, 74% of sites in woodland have survived well, while only 13% of sites on arable land can be so described.”
The other relevant percentages were; 21% for monuments on improved grassland, 53% on wetlands and 65% on unimproved grassland.
(2) “Over 90% of sites that had special protection through State Care, Scheduling or Agri-Environmental agreements were in good condition – a clear indication of the success of these protective measures”
(3) 26.5% of all sites sampled had suffered damage within the previous 5 years, but:
“When one focuses on sites that were largely complete, substantial or had some definable features, it was found that a much higher figure – 48% – had been damaged in the previous five years. Agricultural activity was identified as being the main cause of such damage, along with the growth of vegetation.”
The identification of the most threatening area types, as landscapes where the levels of human and animal activity were highest, is not surprising, but the 48% (recent damage) figure is disappointing in the extreme. Granted the aforementioned reservation about over-applying the results of the sample, it is nonetheless implicit in these figures that about a quarter of all U.K. and Irish sites may have deteriorated structurally in this five year period, this figure rising to a half when the more complete sites are considered.
Even the special protection statistic , though heartening at 90%, shows that a tenth of all protected sites were not in good condition, an analysis that could well be applied to the national monument at Bremore, Co. Dublin (see below).
Every effort has to be made to engage with landowners, particularly in heavily managed landscapes, but also where scrub overgrowth is an issue. More sites may need the security of special protection in these areas. Any serious damage, anywhere, must be exposed, lest it lead to destruction.
Gormley, S., Donnelly, C., Hartwell, B. & Bell, J. 2009 Monumental Change? in Archaeology Ireland Vol. 23 No.2 Issue No.88, 11-13 ISSN 0790-892x
Richard Jefferies (1848-1887)
How many words has it taken to describe so briefly the feelings and the thoughts that came to me by the tumulus; thoughts that swept past and were gone, and were succeeded by others while yet the shadow of the mound had not moved from one thyme-flower to another, not the breath of a grass blade… The silk grass sighs as the wind comes carrying the blue butterfly more rapidly than his wings, A large humble-bee burrs round the green dome against which I rest; my hands are scented with thyme. The sweetness of the day, the fullness of the earth, the beauteous earth, how shall I say it?
Richard Jefferies. The Story of my Heart (1883). Chapter III.
The following letter written in the Swindon Advertiser brings us up to date as to what has been happening regarding the development of land next to Coate Water, see article here. Both universities, Bath and UWE have pulled out of this deal, but Swindon Council still seems hellbent on building houses and ‘employment premises’ on this area of green and unspoilt land. The number of houses seem to have been reduced from 1800 to 750 houses as given out in the consultation of February 2009 but even so this barrier of land that lies between Swindon town and the beautiful Marlborough Downs is still very much at risk.
Letter from Jean Saunders - Monday 8th June 2009.
ALTHOUGH government is, as yet, to announce its decision about the planning application for development between Coate Water and the A419 Trunk road (the deadline set is 6 August), Swindon Borough Council is still pushing forward with its Core Strategy to permit 750 houses, 15 hectares of employment premises and shops to be built there.
In a document that is likely to be approved by Cabinet at its meeting on 10 June, a new policy for building at “Commonhead” is proposed. Whilst it calls for the creation of “a functional and robust buffer between Coate Water Country Park and new development”, we ask what has happened to the other “robust buffer” promised when the hospital was given the go ahead and the “no houses” promise, if no university materialises?
How can we believe that the land between Coate Water and the new development will be protected in perpetuity when the Council constantly changes its mind?Councils have a duty to “inform, consult and engage” local communities in everything they do. So why aren’t they listening to the opinion of over 50,000 people who object to the scheme?
JEAN SAUNDERS Hon Secretary Jefferies Land Conservation Trust.
Recently a fascinating discovery has been made very near to Cranborne Chase and not too far from the New Forest in Hampshire. Two 6,000 years old Neolithic tombs have come to light thanks to aerial photography undertaken by Damian Grady of English Heritage, who managed to capture the marks left by these long barrows in the ground.
Dr. Wickstead, and a team from Kingston University in London, using technical and non-invasive skills with electromagnetic detectors and ultrasound were able to identify the tombs.
They are about fifteen miles from Stonehenge and very close to the great prehistoric area of Cranborne Chase.
Whatever the outcome of the planning process, regarding the proposed deep water port at Bremore, Co. Dublin, it appears that irreparable destruction is already occurring at the ancient complex. A contributor to the Modern Antiquarian website reported harvesting damage, to both kerbing and mounds, as far back as 2006. According to the Bremore web page this has continued and accelerated.
It’s hard to ascertain just what stage we are at; the first heedless blow of a machine, or the slow rumble of something much larger coming up the road.
These heartfelt words were written by a recent visitor to the site:
“Today, the 31/05/2009 I visited Bremore. It was a beautiful morning, the sun danced on the sea, birds sang and a small black thing raced across the small path which leads down to the burial mounds with something in its mouth. It was a weasel I think, on its way into the safety of a hedge. A lark rose and sang its way up into the heavens and from a distance this old burial place looked as it had always did; until I got up close to the mounds.
On the latest Ordnance Survey Maps there are five mounds clearly shown, today I could see only four. Three of them have been recently mauled and disturbed by machinery, to the point where they are now imperiled. One large mound may survive as it is too big to drive a tractor on, the other three have been ploughed over and planted upon. Some of the surrounding kerb stones have been pulled loose and at least two of the mounds are only a thin shadow of what they recently were.
These mounds have been dated at six thousand years old, one more year of this, perhaps one more harvesting of the crop this year and what remains of them will sink back into the soil …
… These mounds are National Monuments, among the most important monuments we have in our land, they are legally protected, they should be fenced off, regularly checked by a heritage officer or parks warden and damage to them stopped or corrected … but like so much in Ireland now political, heritage and environmental duty has gone missing. A priceless piece of us lies wounded and soon the developers will be given the green light to move and finish off the job. They will call this progress.
The signs that were there last year, National Monument Signs, warning signs, tourist signs etc have all been removed. The Minister of the Environment has been notified about this, so too has the National Monuments Office but nothing has been done. It is obvious that no one came out to check the site, or its condition …”
- One of the neolithic mounds at Bremore; picture taken from the website below.
This report and other information can be found at: http://bremore.blogspot.com/
Today our Artefact Erosion Counter reaches 10,500,000.
This is 500,000 more than when we last highlighted it just one year and nine months ago. It suggests that ten thousand metal detectorists remove 29 artefacts each from British fields each year, mostly without telling anyone, and that this process has been tolerated for more than 30 years.
Of course, the exact figures are unknown. But one thing’s for sure. If ten thousand people are constantly flocking to the fields, undeterred, to peck at the ground (some of them for three or four decades) they are finding an awful lot more than the derisory five items a year each that they are reporting to the authorities (as reflected in official figures published a couple of years ago).
A year of searching, probably 250 hours, rain and shine, for three bits of flint and two corroded Roman coins – who would do that? Well the average detectorist apparently, according to what they claim and what is reported to the authorities. In fact they suggest half of them find even less than that each year!
There is a huge gap between what is being shown and what is even remotely credible (only a minority of detectorists has reported anything to the Portable Antiquities scheme ever!). The difference is stolen history, plain and simple.
We can do no better than repeat what we said last time:
This is not heritage protection. In fact it is uncivilised behaviour towards heritage and it doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world. It’s time to call time on the erosion.
“Clare Balding explores walks that are good for the mind, body and soul.”
This episode on BBC Radio 4 begins in the Vale of Pewsey and ends In Avebury. A few little inaccuracies about Avebury but those can be forgiven as it is such a pleasure to listen to two balladeers so enthused with their pilgrimage.
“Clare walks in Wiltshire with the ‘modern-day Troubadours’ who have been singing for their supper as they tramp the length and breadth of Britain. After studying The Canterbury Tales from his university desk, Will decided he needed to experience the route on foot, a journey that has now expanded to walking across Britain with school friends Ed and Ginger.”
Their website can be found here
PRESS RELEASE – Tara court cases dismissed.
The fight to protect the Tara landscape from the destruction caused by the Double Tolled M3 Motorway took a surprising turn earlier this month. Some 14 protesters, some of whom had been subject to strict bail conditions for the last two years, had cases against them dismissed at Trim District Court. This was a matter of major public concern but it passed silently and without any interest from the mainstream media.
The defendants were J. P. Fay, Robert Doherty, Hugh Mac Loughlin, Heather Buchannan, Kieran O’Carroll, Carmel Diviney, Anthony Hannigan, Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin, Kitty Kavanagh, Neil Morgan, Rik Weilich, Daniel Maloney and Daniel Moore. Most of the cases arose from incidents on 18th July at Soldier’s Hill, Co Meath. Those arrested on the day claimed to have ‘lawful excuse’ in preventing the works.
Judge John Coughlan when dismissing charges asked the arresting Gardaí if they had asked the protesters if they believed they had lawful excuse to be in the vicinity. The Gardaí admitted that they had failed to do so. The protesters maintained that the works had been declared illegal by the European Parliament because of Ireland`s failure to comply with EU directives on Environmental Impact Assessments.
The failure of the Irish Govt. to comply could cost the taxpayer an estimated €50 million. A letter from the Commission to Kathy Sinnott MEP at the time stated: ‘However, in a quite separate case, the European Court of Justice has recognised that decisions to approve projects may unfold in more than one stage and that it may be inappropriate to limit the possibility of EIA to an early stage as new circumstances and new factors may arise at the time of a second-stage decision.’ Kathy Sinnott visited the site on the day of the arrests at the request of the protesters. She had called for a moratorium on the project until the legal issues were resolved.
Operation Bedrock. Earlier this year a Judicial Review Case was taken to the High Court by Michael Finucane Solicitors and, in a significant victory, details of a security Garda procedure, called Operation Bedrock, was finally disclosed. This was accompanied by a lot of video footage of the protesters on 18th July taken by the construction company. Both Gardaí and a senior member of Siac/Ferrovial proved to be less than reliable witnesses in Court and after what is described as ‘startling video evidence’ was shown, cases against two of the protesters were withdrawn by the State. One of the arresting officers claimed to know nothing of Operation Bedrock and a number of details were revealed in court: the protesters were not to be arrested unless they became extremely violent, the protesters were to be negotiated from the sites. This constitutes yet another scandal in the M3 saga.
In June 2008 a leading archaeologist who was involved in surveying the M3 for the National Roads Authority claimed that her findings were altered before being presented to Ministers in order to support the Motorway. Miss Ronayne, who was an excavation director for ACS on the project in Co. Meath, claims she was told to ‘change interpretations’ so as to ‘lessen to potential of numbers of sites’. However, these claims were hotly contested by the NRA.
In all, approximately 40 sites were destroyed in the Gabhra Valley alone to make way for the controversial motorway. The campaigners say that they are determined to carry on. They said: ‘the government has been presented with alternatives that they continue to ignore’.
One such alternative is the Meath Master Plan the brainchild of Brian Guckian and Tadhg Crowley. This delivers a programme of sustainable transport solutions while preserving the valuable heritage and tourism of the Tara landscape’. Dr Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin, the first person arrested at Soldier’s Hill (the site of the huge Blundelstown interchange) said: ‘We are all greatly relieved to have these cases dismissed but the 22-months delay was a disgrace. The battle for Tara symbolises the age of Celtic Tiger Ireland and the battle between making money and priceless heritage’.
Kathy Sinnott, MEP, said: ‘I welcome the dismissal of the case against those who tried valiantly to defend our heritage. The destruction that has occurred in Tara is a national and international scandal. The EU case against the Irish government that includes Lismullen will eventually be heard, I am sure our government will be found guilty. However the persistent delay of the EU in hearing this case is also a scandal because despite the outcome it is now too late to save Lismullen’.
For verification:
Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin 087-9249510
By Gordon Kingston. Heritage Action’s Ireland correspondent
“Ignorance may excuse the uprooting of Pabell Llynwarch Pen near Bala around 1750 but not the demolition of Lissard and Kilboultreagh, both in Co. Cork, between 1963 and 1970.”
(Burl, A. [2005] A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale, 276. ISBN-13: 978-0300063318).
There’s a stone row that’s set high on the eastern side of a prominent hill in County Cork. The monument itself has no name, or credible folklore attached to it, but the name of the hill translates from the Irish as “Hill of the Great Crowd” or “Gathering”. Once tall, though now broken, it would have emboldened the skyline for a long stretch of the valley below.
While visiting there recently, I met the landowner and in the course of our conversation he dropped the following admission: It seems that, when he was a young man, his father had told him that the row of stones on his land had only been put there some years previously, as scratching posts for the cattle. An improbable and unwieldy arrangement of posts, of course, but this is what he said that he believed. When he took over the farm himself, in the 1980s, he got some contractors in to modernise the fields, taking down fences and so on and, being in the clearing frame of mind, he asked the digger-driver to dig up the row and drop it north into the side of the boundary wall. The driver, being either a sensible or a superstitious man, refused to move it. He told the farmer to look at his fine, big open fields and all the space he now had and suggested that he would be as well off leaving the stones alone.
Just pause a minute here and consider what he was talking about. This is one of only two rows, of three or more stones, in a wide area of the county. Comparable monuments have been tentatively dated to the years around 1500BC.* In praise or in terror, these same stones were raised high into the sky, a vital expression to those who formed it and one that then stood for three and a half thousand years. At which point, only a reluctant digger-driver, one that was courageous enough to go against the man that was paying his wage, was there to stop it being fecked into a ditch. This was less than 30 years ago. The farmer finished our conversation, but not before pointing eastwards towards another hill, the site of a recorded ring fort which was dug up and the ground levelled just a couple of years ago. A rich hobby farmer, who wanted a nice empty field. It would make you sick.
So, this is something that I’ve been musing on for a long time. There must be some simple ways for us, as ordinary people, to engage with landowners, ways to prompt them to look after the monuments on their land. Not a blind bit of use really, if they don’t care and just want their land cleared, but a weapon aimed, with hope as the trigger perhaps, towards these possessors of what they’d call “a few old rocks in the field”. It’s also, of course, specific to my own experience, to Ireland, where there are many thousands of seldom, or never, visited sites and where access to almost every one of them is through private property.
I’ve laid it out here as 4 points:
(1) Outside our control to some degree, but articles, television programmes and any type of discussion about megalithic monuments are helpful. It would be ideal if they were both sensible and responsible, but any mention has to be better than none. It all adds value to the ancient site, to what is a possession in the landowners’ minds.
This example, taken from a report on megalithomania.com concerning the circle at Templebryan, near Clonakilty, County Cork, is a reasonable illustration of what I’m thinking about: “I got talking to the farmer who said that after Grange Lios, in Limerick, was on the news he has studied the circle at sunrise and sunset at the cardinal times of year and seems to think there is an alignment, although he wasn’t too clear on which one it was.” The mid portal-axial declination of – 34.13 is very far, unfortunately, from a sunset at any time of the year and likewise for any sunrise in the opposite direction, but observe how this man’s own circle now seems to be firmly linked, for him, with one that was on nationwide television.**
Templebryan Stone Circle, a view over the internal quartz monolith, towards the axial stone
2) Whatever your views on the ownership of property and unless a site is obviously open access, permission should always be sought to enter private land. From the landowners’ point of view it is their property. They are the persons with the most power over the fate of the monument and must be made to feel part of its existence and examination. People nipping around their fields without leave will, more likely than not, tick them off and make them look to the ‘source’ of the problem.
Once again, from megalithomania.com and concerning the portal tomb at Ahaglaslin http://www.megalithomania.com/show/site/1130/Ahaglaslin.htm near Rosscarbery, County Cork: “A small note about the farmer – The first time I visited here he was really kind and showed me where the site was. This time he seemed to be very aggressive, but eventually let us visit the site. He wasn’t in the kind of mood where I wanted to ask him anything, but I suspect he may be a little annoyed at people visiting the site from the road below and not asking him. Please, whenever possible always ask to visit sites.” Or the following, from themodernantiquarian.com regarding Appletreewick stone circle in Yorkshire: “The TMA Eds have received an email from Miles Johnson, the Countryside Archaeological Adviser for the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority. He wishes to remind people that the circle at Fancarl Top is on private land not covered by the CRoW open access Act. The landowner contacted him because people trespassing to get to the circle were damaging the surrounding drystone walls. The landowner was also unhappy that the stones had been ‘inappropriately decorated’ by people accessing the field without asking for his permission. Although Mr Johnson wished us to remove the circle from the website, we would respectfully suggest that it would be better left on here with this note attached, in order that anyone using TMA to identify visitable sites will then know and understand the landowner’s wishes (unfortunately this will not influence the trespassing of people who do not use this website). TMA Ed.”
Notice on the gate at Carrigagrenane SW Stone Circle
(3) If possible, have a quick chat with them. Ask them how many people come to visit the site, or if they know any history about it. Tell them what you know about it and, very important this, roughly how old it is. It’s a good way to make the owners feel proud of their monument, if they realise that other people value it, or discover that it’s of great antiquity. Above all, make sure they know and know that you know that they know that it is not just a few rocks thrown in the middle of the field.
This kind of ‘direct’ engagement is vital. I’ve often encountered farmers, as above, who don’t know, or claim that they don’t know what it is exactly that they have on their land. If they can self-classify a megalithic monument as something piled up only fifty or a hundred years ago, for cattle-scratching or clearance, then it is very simple to bulldoze it, guilt-free, into the fence. On the other hand, it’s impossible to miss the tone in the voice of others, as they tell you of groups that have come to see their stones, or people that have studied them. Again, when they ask you if you need to know anything about them, or about what else may be around locally. Parental, almost like discussing a child that’s done well.
(4) Put simply; visit and make sure that they are aware that you were there. If landowners think that people come regularly to see a monument they may think twice before doing any noticeable damage.
Thanks and enjoy yourselves.
Gordon Kingston
* P70 in O’Brien, W. (1993) Aspects of Wedge Tomb Chronology. In: Shee-Twohig, E. and Ronayne, M. (eds.), Past Perceptions: The Prehistoric Archaeology of South-West Ireland, Cork University Press, 63-74. ISBN 0-902561-89-8
** S52 in Patrick, J. and Freeman, P.R. (1983) Revised Surveys Of Cork-Kerry Stones Circles. In: Archaeoastronomy , No.5, JHA, xiv, 50-56.
History Article – June 1st 1985
Of course we may mock the police in our previous article, but what should not be forgotten was the force of law and order that attacked young travellers, men, women and children in a field eleven kilometres from Stonehenge with such brutal consequences. It was shocking as can be seen from this video of the time.
Today, and over past years, such a thing would not happen at Stonehenge again. English Heritage, The National Trust and the police have given assurances that Stonehenge festivals will always be handled in a peaceful and friendly manner. But as a record of history, it is interesting to see the progress that has been made in the understanding of other belief systems.
“Exactly 24 years ago, in a field beside the A303 in Wiltshire, the might of Margaret Thatcher’s militarised police descended on a convoy of new age travellers, green activists, anti-nuclear protestors and free festival-goers, who were en route to Stonehenge in an attempt to establish the 12th annual Stonehenge free festival in fields across the road from Britain’s most famous ancient monument. That event has become known as the Battle of the Beanfield.”
Andy Worthington’s article of June 1st 1985 in the Guardian is a reminder of our need to guard the civil liberties of freedom in our own country and to protect those who are vulnerable when the power of the state is used against them.
“Police in the West Country, especially those stationed near to ley lines and other mystic features, were put on the alert yesterday as would-be festival-goers were turned away from Stonehenge.”
June 1st 1985
Blessed be the Guardian for a sense of fun, the following article from this day in 1985, about the coming Stonehenge Festival scene is a reminder of where we are today and what it was like in the bad old days of the 20th century.
“Police in the West Country, especially those stationed near to ley lines and other mystic features, were put on the alert yesterday as would-be festival-goers were turned away from Stonehenge. A loose but effective cordon was flung round Wiltshire to prevent the proposed 12th annual Stonehenge festival from settling anywhere near the most important ancient monument in the country.”
Did the police have maps of the leylines? and how big was that “loose and effective cordon round Wiltshire“. Don’t ask silly questions… enjoy
