Stonehenge and Avebury: William Tatton Winter’s Stonehenge

Postcards to friends of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site

From the collection of the Wiltshire Museum: William Tatton Winter (1855-1928), Stonehenge, signed etching, 350 x 270 mm, dating from just two years before the artist’s death.

It would not be obvious from the etching that the year 1926 was the year a pig farm was established on the adjacent former military aerodrome, where the redundant buildings and water tower still dominated the landscape. The recent past had seen other changes too with a traditional route that crossed the bank and ditch having been diverted. Timber props in evidence for years had also disappeared with a number of stones ‘restored’ and set in concrete, and seven years of archaeological excavation lately described as ‘disastrous’ being suspended.Recently erected fences were also torn down that year when Druids clashed with officialdom over access and burial issues that we perhaps think of as more recent history.

These were changing times at ‘timeless’ Stonehenge and to this background William Tatton Winter revives Christian infused imagery that had petered out in the previous century to portray a somewhat distracted shepherd with his flock amidst the symbolic ruin of a pagan temple.

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

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