Avebury and West Kennet Avenue

It is still Sunday 26 May 1998, though by now it is working it's way towards the end of the day and the sun has finally come out! So it's back to my favourite place, Avebury.

Driving through the village, I stop the car alongside two parallel rows of standing stones, the Avenue that stretched towards Stonehenge. Unfortunately the sun was on the wrong side for me to photograph the car next to the Avenue, which I would have liked to have done as I have a photo of a previous car parked in that same spot.

We drove back towards Avebury in a reflective mood and parked in the public car park. With some effort we ignored the ice cream van that we had already visited that morning and walked into the village passing the playing fields to our right.

We saw that most English of scenes - the village cricket match, the sound of the leather-coated ball upon the willow of the bat. The old joke goes: "I miss the sound of leather upon willow... but Willow has promised to write..." A smattering of applause as someone is bowled out and the gentle, almost lazy voices of cricketers and spectators enjoying themselves; "Well done, Brian, well done..."

The village itself tends to be overshadowed in the minds of visitors by the ancient monument. It's a shame, because the village is extremely pretty with thatched cottages and plenty to see. Avebury church stands, as do many of England's old churches, directly on a ley line that runs through the village.

The church lychgate.

The Henge Shop is a focal point for souvenir hunters and sells a large range of books about Wiltshire monumental sites, the prehistory of the area, and such topics as crop circle and other phenomena. You can hear many languages being spoken as you pass through the shop! Despite the late hour (and the pub being so full there was no chance of getting a meal) we decided to walk a circuit of the embankment outside the huge ditch.

So here are the spectacular photos from the day... With the sun low in the sky, the earthworks show their contours and their vast size in this photograph.

The stones are so massive that you wonder, as you do at Stonehenge, how the engineers of 3000 years ago managed to move and set them up to stand so firmly that they would last so long. Such is the atmosphere that even the sheep behind me are forming themselves into rings!

And I'll finish with one of my favourite photographs of all time. If the stones make you wonder how they did it, then look for the figures walking along the top of the embankment and wonder again at the sheer size of the earthworks that make up the henge at Avebury. How many hours would it take to dig that out with an ox's shoulder blade as a spade?

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Trolls! Aliens! Barrow Wights!

It's still Sunday 26 May 1998. After leaving Avebury, we parked the car at nearby Silbury Hill and walked up the long path opposite towards West Kennet Long Barrow.

This crop circle met us halfway up the hill. It had been formed in the early hours of 4 May 1998 in a crop of oil seed rape. It was a 250-280ft diameter ring with 33 scroll motifs fitted into the ring. As I took the photograph a chap said "So is it aliens or what?" With great effort I resisted the urge to laugh and say "You Earthlings are so funny!"

This is what we had really come to see. West Kennet Long Barrow. The barrow has five chambers that contained human remains. The huge stones were added much later to block off the entrance with it's small courtyard, when the tomb ceased to be used.

These places can have no small atmosphere of their own... The entrance is seen here, reached by walking around the side of the standing stones.

How light it is inside depends on whether the turf has grown over some small skylights that have been set into the ceiling of the tombs. The first set of skylights have been covered on the hillside above with a thoughtful slab of concrete, not entirely in keeping with its surroundings... We had been here once before in 1990 when the turf had blocked out all of the other skylights. Now, the light was almost enough so that you didn't have to walk holding a nervous hand outstretched before you! I had a separate flashgun with me and placed it in the side chamber to the left for this shot. It was fired with a gizmo that set it off when it "saw" the burst of light from the on-camera flash.

Finally, a view from the far end of the chamber, looking back towards the entrance. Miss Franny is playing at being a cave troll...

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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.