Avebury

Up early on June 17th after 2 nights in Brighton and spent the morning travelling to just outside London to look at an exchange University Tessa might be interested in doing an exchange at.  They were having an open day from 1 pm, we arrived at about 12 noon but having had a quick look around and at the choices, Debs and Tessa weren't impressed so it was back on the road and in the traffic going west as we were heading for Avebury in Wiltshire where there was a concentration of Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscape Monuments.  These are easily accessible as are part of the Avebury Village compared to Stonehenge and belong to the National Trust.  You are able to walk completely around the site but not through the Manor House which we did not visit.

The henge consists of a ditch and bank dating back about 4,000 years, cut from underlaying chalk rock and encloses the remains of the largest stone circle in the British Isles, the placement of the stones thought to be around 2600 BC.  Close by stands the Silbury Hill, the largest prehistoric mound in Europe and the longest burial mound in Britain but we did not go to these due to lack of time.

In the early years of Roman Britain, the main road from Bath to London was aligned to Silbury Hill, and a village or town was established nearby in AD43 - AD410.  In AD 1114, part of the village of Avebury became a priory and a small manor house was built on the site.  By the 18th Century Avebury was well known for its monuments and in the 20th century, 1908 - 2000, large excavations were directed at finding out how, when and why the monuments were built.

Avebury henge showing the bank and ditch with some stones on the south-west corner of the Circle.

The bank and ditch were created around a circular area, 340 metres across, the ditch 20 metres across and 3-4 metres deep enclosing around 28 acres (11 hectares).  Then it is thought that the stones were erected in circles from 400 or so years later.

The Stones in the south-east corner.

Tessa and Debbie beside the Swindon or Diamond Stone flanking the northern entrance to the henge.  The shape is natural and this stone has not been moved since the Neolithic period.  It Is estimated to weight 60 tonnes and was not originally set very deep in the ground.

There were 2 circles of stones within the bank and ditch, with probably 30 stones in each, the Northern and Southern Circles.  There are 36 of these stones now standing since the lastest excavations in the 1930's.

The 2 stones comprising The Cove.

The Cove are the two tallest stones of the Avebury henge.  Until 1713 there was a third stone.  The largest stone has an overall length of about 7 metres and weighs 100 tonnes.  It is thought to have been brought here from somewhere close by all those years ago.  The placment of these stones is thought to be significant to the summer solstice rising or winter solstice setting and the site was preparing for the summer solstice on June 21st and the influx of visitors coming in the next few days.

We only had time to explore around the inner area of the henge which was very fascinating before we had to continue on for 2 hours to where we had booked accommodation at an old pub at a small market town, Shepton-Mallet.