I suppose that I first visited Stonehenge
some time in the early 1960’s when, as a family, we stopped
off on our way down to Cornwall on holiday. There is a photograph
of my Mum sitting on one of the fallen stones - those were the
days when access was unhindered and anyone could experience the
magic of being inside Stonehenge.
Map Showing the Stonehenge Environs
Move your mouse over the stars for pictures & comments
Map Copyright Wessex Archaeology
My next visit was in rather different circumstances,
Midsummer, probably in 1974 with a party of friends from university.
We went swimming at midnight near Chichester and reached Stonehenge
in time for dawn in the middle of a huge crowd of hippies, Druids
and police.
Then it got a bit more serious, more proper archaeological
visits visits during the 1970’s before in 1980 I was asked
if I would like to direct a Wessex Archaeology project to study
the landscape surrounding Stonehenge. I remember being completely
bowled over when I started to explore beyond Stonehenge, like
so many visitors I had no real idea of what lay in the surrounding
fields. Here was the most extraordinary collection of Neolithic
and Bronze Age sites, not the ‘hard’ archaeology of
Dartmoor or Orkney where everything was made of stone and had
survived in some cases almost intact. With the exception of Stonehenge
itself this was ‘soft’ archaeology, chalky mounds,
ditches and banks, still visible after 4 or 5 thousand years.
Just the barrows, the Bronze Age burial mounds, are enough to
make this area worth visiting. Go to Winterbourne Stoke, this
is like a barrow builders catalogue, every type of southern British
barrow is there in one cemetery. But I mustn’t go on too
much.
I ran the ‘Stonehenge Environs Project’
throughout the 1980’s, both in the field carrying out survey
and excavation, and in the office, writing up the reports. I’ve
stayed involved in Stonehenge ever since.
I have also been aware over the years, just
how much the Stonehenge landscape has changed, slowly, almost
imperceptibly, and yet today, when huge changes in roads and visitor
facilities are being discussed yet again, most of what has gone
before seems to be ignored. This is just a reminder of what the
National Trust has done over the years.
The map, which is taken from a booklet called ‘Beyond
Stonehenge’ that I wrote in 1985 shows the extent of the
National Trust land holding around Stonehenge. Most of it had
been commercially farmed chalkland, thin soils, big fields within
which individual sites like round barrows sat as grassy humps,
plus the odd bit of woodland. Some areas had been returned to
permanent pasture in order to safeguard the archaeology, like
the field to the north west of Stonehenge marked ‘Cursus
Barrows’. Unfortunately this created the ideal campsite
and for years this was the ‘Festival Field’ (see photo
1), home to thousands where Hawkwind played and where unfortunate
incidents took place like the digging of latrine pits right between
the barrows. Not the best place .
But there were other changes for the better. The
Cursus is an extraordinary monument, a Neolithic enclosure defined
by slight ditches and banks, but so big (over 2 km long) that
getting any idea of its true size is very difficult. So the National
Trust decided to clear a gap in Fargo Wood that coincided with
the extent of the Cursus at its western end. This stopped the
continuing rabbit damage to the small and fragile ditch and bank
and gave some visual definition when looking from the eastern
end.. We (the NT and I) also had the idea of restoring the western
terminal, bulldozed flat after WW II. Excavations in the 1960’s
had shown that the bank material lay on top of a old turf line
that marked the point to which the ditch had silted up over the
millennia and where grass had developed. All we had to do was
remove the bulldozed bank material and put it back where it came
from, simply turning the clock back about 40 years . This we did
(see picture 2) , so you can now see the bank and shallow ditch
at this end rather than a flat bit of grass protruding into a
wheat field.
There were also great plans for doing something
similar to the eastern end of the Cursus where a track runs along
the length of what may be a long barrow and trees obscure the
sight line to the western end. Fieldwork was done, plans were
drawn up but sadly it never happened. It’s still a good
idea though.
There were changes to the rest of the Cursus too.
Fences that ran close to the ditch and bank were removed as they
had become the focus for erosion by cattle’s hooves. Only
one was retained, where the southern bank ran from about half
way along to the eastern end and this was because there was no
sign on the ground and the fence line provides a visual clue (Picture
3)
This removal of fences, to create the impression
of more open uninterrupted areas of grassland, was carried out
with great effect in the field marked ‘Avenue Field’
on the map. Here the old rectangular field pattern was done away
with and new fences were created that run with the contours and
are hidden in the shallow folds of a dry valley called Stonehenge
Bottom. This may have been a subtle change but the effects were
dramatic.
Not quite as dramatic as what happened to the King
Barrows (on the ridge to the east of the Avenue Field. The area
of derelict beech woodland just to the north of the A303 were
bought by the National Trust in the mid 1980’s and there
was immediately huge debate about what to do with the ancient
trees, long past their sell by date, that stood on and around
the huge Bronze Age burial mounds. Some people have a misconception
about trees. They are living things that get old and die and have
to be replaced. Old trees are wonderful but they don’t last
for ever and the ones on the King Barrow Ridge were very old.
Anyway, while the debate was still going on about whether to clear
trees or not, nature intervened in the form of the great ‘Hurricane’
(the one that the weather men failed to predict). The result can
be seen in photo 4. The majority of the trees were blown over
and huge holes were torn in the barrow mounds by their great root
balls. Fortunately the opportunity was taken to use these gashes
to help understand the structure of the barrows (photo 5) and
the area was then restored as an area of more open woodland.
Other bits of woodland have disappeared completely.
Like the Hollow Plantation south of the A303, a modern rectangle
of strips of fir trees that had no place in such a landscape.
So the Stonehenge Landscape has changed for the
better over the last 20 years or so. The monuments are better
looked after, mostly safer from ploughing and are better explained
and more accessible. If you visit Stonehenge, take the trouble
to walk out from the car park to the Cursus Barrows and beyond
to the western end of the Cursus. If you’re feeling energetic
and fancy a walk of an hour and a half or so then carry on down
the length of the Cursus, back along the King Barrow Ridge and
back partly down the line of the Avenue to the car park.
It’s a wonderful landscape that will hopefully
get even better over the next few years.
Enjoy it.
Julian
