by Nigel Swift
You’d think, if Princess Anne’s policemen ask for your mother’s maiden name then the least they could do in return is talk to you about the Gatcombe Lodge Long Barrow but they won’t. It’s actually in full view, only a few tens of yards off the public right of way, so it seems unlikely their denials they’ve heard of it are sincere. It’s badly mashed up; maybe they’re ashamed of the state HRH has let it get into and the lack of an information board. Royal personages hijacking the common heritage. Who’d a thought it?
Technically it is a blind-entranced Severn-Cotswold type similar to Belas Knap but for all practical and Royal purposes it’s a bit of a mess. Once you get close up it’s pretty big and there are lots of stones still on it.
“You mean TheTinglestone” says one of the officers. “You can’t go to that either”.
“Either?” you wonder. Does that mean you can’t go on the other one that he says he has never heard of?”
Either way, he has made his point. You’ve been warned. You can get a distant view of The Tinglestone from a nearby lane but you’d better not approach it.
Looks interesting, but I guess most people will never know for sure.
Princess Anne obviously thinks it is as all her pedigree Clumber Spaniels, Bull Terriers and Shire Horses have the suffix “Tinglestone”.
Bless.
The Heritage Journal 
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