Stonehenge & Avebury: Betjeman on Avebury (1962)

Postcards to friends of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site

“Silbury Hill on the Wiltshire Downs, the biggest prehistoric earthwork in Europe, no one knows what it was for, when it was made and who lies under it. And what strange rites went on nearby, here at Avebury? No one knows. This was the chief temple of northern Europe three to four thousand years ago, but we do know that the Bronze Age people who worshipped here, long before the Druids were thought of, were a peaceful people, highly organized and who made beautiful pottery. We know too that they shaped these stones and moved them on logs from a distant valley, “

Betjeman’s commentary on ‘Devizes’ from ‘John Betjeman in the West Country’ first broadcast 1962 and available on DVD as ‘Betjeman Revisited’. 

Betjeman features tonight in Heritage! The Battle for Britain’s Past episode 3 of 3: ‘Broken Propylaeums’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rd37j BBC Four 21.00

B.E.

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This is part of a series of short “postcards” that anyone with something to share is welcome to submit, whether that is a digital snap and a “wish you were here” or something more involved. Please do join in by sending your postcards to theheritagejournal@gmail.com

For others in the series put postcards in the search box.