West Kennet Long Barrow

I've moved on from scanning photos from 1986 to Spring Bank Holiday weekend 1990.

That weekend saw us bundling family and luggage into my Ford Cortina and we headed south towards Wiltshire. We found a guest house in Devizes and used that as a base for the weekend, visiting the fantastic henge at Avebury (one of my favourite places in the UK), Stonehenge, the impressive hillfort and ancient royal city of Old Sarum near its modern equivalent of Salisbury, and then as we headed for home the long way, Bath and Glastonbury.

The photos are making their way into a new set at the Flickr account so I've been a bit selective here and chosen some from the same place - the wonderful and mysterious West Kennet Long Barrow.

The front of the barrow is a statement of respect and protection for the dead people whose remains the barrow contained.

There were around 80 interments of cremated ashes in pots found inside. The entrance is hidden behind the huge standing stones and is reached around the side, where the two girls are heading in the photo.

I wanted to take photos inside and so in the interests of not frightening the two girls to death, I waited for them to come out. A high-powered flash unit going off in almost pitch dark is very disorienting - and that is just what you don't want to be when you are in an underground tomb!

I've gone inside the tomb, ducked under the low doorway behind the standing stones and moved about 3 paces inside. It is dark!!!

There are supposed to be glass panels let into the roof here and there. Well actually there are glass panels but they don't let in a lot of light, especially at that time because they were mostly overgrown above...

From the same viewpoint. I forgot to close my eyes and had to stand still for a good 5 minutes until my eyes were able to make out anything in the dark. Had I know I was going to be visiting the tomb I might have thought to bring a torch... The Famous Five would never have been at such a loss...

Also taken from exactly the same spot but having turned to face away from the entrance. I remembered to close my eyes this time and it only took just over a minute before I realised that I wasn't going to be able to see anything more than I could already...

There are 5 chambers off this central courtyard. I poked the camera and flash into one and heard a cry of sheer terror followed by a "Bloody Hell!!!" and some skidding feet as whoever had come in unseen as I went into the side chamber was startled out of their wits by the bright flash from a camera they couldn't see! I must have frightened them good - there was no one else there when I came out later...

Fran said a young couple had come up and he had taken a while to persuade her to go in only for her to meet him coming out in a panic and that had impressed her so much he then had to chase her back down the hill towards Avebury!

Having literally groped my way to the final chamber, inch by inch with my hand outstretched until it struck the rear wall, I backed off a little and took this photo of the final chamber. Large uprights are capped by horizontal stones and small flat stones almost like tiles are stacked to fill the gaps.

The roof is made up of impressively large slabs of rock... The silence and claustrophobic environment is making me keen to get out by now and there is nothing else to see even if I could see... There was nothing else to feel or smell or listen to either. I hope...

The next time I was to visit would be in 1998 and then the glass panels had been cleared and it was quite possible to see to walk round without having to feel your way. It made such a difference. And yet... I was quite pleased I had had the experience of walking round it in the dark. The only thing that might have made it more authentic was a smoky burning torch of fire!

At the moment there's just short of 50 photos in the set at Flickr with about the same amount still to do. They might have to wait a few days now as I'm off to London for two days tomorrow morning. I'll let you know when I've done them all with a look at Glastonbury in a future entry.