Part 1 My first memory of Hengistbury Head is a childhood school visit and I recall huge banks of large pebbles on the beach, not unlike those on Chesil Beach further west along the south coast. I have visited the site probably thousands of times over the years for walks and occasional jogs along the seafront. I have also researched the archaeology of Hengistbury and its environs a little over the years, especially during my visits to the excellent Red House Museum who kindly allowed me access to their archives some years ago, before my local studies took a backseat to my Stonehenge-related activities and other projects from December 2013. Sometimes it is easy to overlook the history on one's own doorstep, and to date ... Read More

Part 1 My first memory of Hengistbury Head is a childhood school visit and I recall huge banks of large pebbles on the beach, not unlike those on Chesil Beach further west along the south coast. I have visited the site probably thousands of times ... Read More

On Monday 4 April 2016 I visited the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester. This visit was first inspired last year on viewing a photograph of the above object, which is on display at the museum. The chalk carving is described as 'found in the south ramparts of Maiden Castle, Dorset. The spiral -- a common decoration in prehistoric art -- suggests a human face.' The carving also incorporates a primal solar form into the 'eyes' of the face, hinting perhaps at observations made by man of the apparent movement of the sun across the skies and horizon between midsummer and midwinter solstice standstills. One of the most iconic displays in Dorset County Museum are the mosaics inlaid on the floor, which came from Roman townhouses ... Read More

On Monday 4 April 2016 I visited the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester. This visit was first inspired last year on viewing a photograph of the above object, which is on display at the museum. The chalk carving is described as 'found in the south ... Read More

As a child, I enjoyed many family summer holidays in the West Country, particularly in the area around St Merryn, Trevone Bay, Constantine Bay and Harlyn in Cornwall. Living on the south coast of England in Bournemouth, Dorset, the drive across the 'green and pleasant land' of Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall was unfailingly an inspiration.  In recent years, I generally visit Glastonbury in Somerset three or four times a year, and to this day, driving west from Bournemouth somehow naturally lifts my spirits, perhaps in echo of those halcyon days of sunshine, seaside, innocence and childhood. My first drive to Glastonbury in 2016 was on Sunday 13 March, accompanied initially by a perfect early spring blue sky. By mid-afternoon, as I walked from the town ... Read More

As a child, I enjoyed many family summer holidays in the West Country, particularly in the area around St Merryn, Trevone Bay, Constantine Bay and Harlyn in Cornwall. Living on the south coast of England in Bournemouth, Dorset, the drive across the 'green and pleasant ... Read More

The sarsen stones of Stonehenge represent the principal building material used in the monument's construction, of which 53 stones remain, from around 85 in the original structure. Sarsen stone is a silicified sandstone found as scattered blocks on the chalk in southern England. There is no significant geological source of sarsen stone in the immediate vicinity of Amesbury, only  a few scattered single sarsens, such as the Cuckoo Stone and at Bulford, but no sarsen drifts. Interestingly, my friend Pete Glastonbury, the Wiltshire Antiquarian, has indicated that there is also a collection of sarsens at a long barrow near Robin Hood's Ball that must have originated from a local source. The lack of a local geological source for the main building material appears to have been ... Read More

The sarsen stones of Stonehenge represent the principal building material used in the monument's construction, of which 53 stones remain, from around 85 in the original structure. Sarsen stone is a silicified sandstone found as scattered blocks on the chalk in southern England. There is no ... Read More

Stoney Littleton Long Barrow is a Neolithic chambered tomb with multiple burial chambers, dating from approximately 3500 BC. It is 30 metres long and located near the village of Wellow in the English county of Somerset. I visited it for the first time on a leaden-skied Sunday afternoon on 13th December 2015. English heritage state, 'Although usually considered to have been tombs, it is possible that many long barrows were in fact shrines -- places where the presence of the ancestral dead helped the living to contact their gods, much as a medieval church contains graves while being primarily intended for the living community that built it. Some barrows have provided evidence that use continued even after burials were no longer made.'   [caption id="attachment_1914" ... Read More

Stoney Littleton Long Barrow is a Neolithic chambered tomb with multiple burial chambers, dating from approximately 3500 BC. It is 30 metres long and located near the village of Wellow in the English county of Somerset. I visited it for the first time on a ... Read More

I visited Stanton Drew Stone Circles and Cove in Somerset for the first time on a leaden-skied Sunday 13th December 2015. 'Although this is the third largest complex of prehistoric standing stones in England, the three circles and three-stone ‘cove’ of Stanton Drew in Somerset are surprisingly little known. The Great Circle, 113 metres in diameter, is one of the largest stone circles in the country and has 26 surviving upright stones' - English Heritage 'Stanton Drew Stone Circles and Cove comprise a large regular stone circle ('the Great Circle'), two large irregular stone circles, two associated stone avenues and 'the Cove' a closely spaced group of three standing stones. These Late Neolithic monuments are situated in close proximity, near to the village of Stanton Drew, ... Read More

I visited Stanton Drew Stone Circles and Cove in Somerset for the first time on a leaden-skied Sunday 13th December 2015. 'Although this is the third largest complex of prehistoric standing stones in England, the three circles and three-stone ‘cove’ of Stanton Drew in Somerset are ... Read More

Carol Druce recently kindly sent me the above image of one of the resident rooks of Stonehenge, adding, 'There are three that sit on my hand for food now -- one in particular. This one follows me around quietly and prefers to take food from my hand. (I work there).' The jackdaws have nested under the lintels for centuries. The real guardians of Stonehenge! In his Natural History & Antiquities of Selborne, a series of letters written following visits around the area, the famous ecologist, Gilbert White, recorded in 1788 that "Another very unlikely spot is made use of by daws as a place to breed in, and that is Stonehenge. These birds deposit their nests in the interstices between the upright and the impost stones ... Read More

Carol Druce recently kindly sent me the above image of one of the resident rooks of Stonehenge, adding, 'There are three that sit on my hand for food now -- one in particular. This one follows me around quietly and prefers to take food from ... Read More

On the morning of Monday 28 December I witnessed sunrise and moonset at Stonehenge, Amesbury, Wiltshire. I took the above photograph of an ethereal waning gibbous moon over Stonehenge setting to the west on arrival. This was a few days after the lunar minimum standstill point, which won't happen for another 18.61 years. The preceding days were typical of the often relentless mild grey gloom of what now forms much of an English winter here in southern England. Driving up in the dark from Bournemouth early that morning, as soon as I was north of Breamore I could see from the first inkling of light in a perfectly clear sky that the sunrise that morning might be something special. I arrived at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre ... Read More

On the morning of Monday 28 December I witnessed sunrise and moonset at Stonehenge, Amesbury, Wiltshire. I took the above photograph of an ethereal waning gibbous moon over Stonehenge setting to the west on arrival. This was a few days after the lunar minimum standstill point, ... Read More

English Heritage write Maiden Castle, Dorset is 'the finest Iron Age fort in Britain and was first laid out in 600 BC over the remains of a Neolithic settlement. During the following centuries the hill fort was extended and additional defences thrown up around it. In AD 43 it was taken by the Roman army and its inhabitants moved to the new town of Durnovaria, modern Dorchester'. A brief history of the hill fort is here. I visited the site on Friday 4 December 2015 on a mild sunny day interspersed with cloud and a persistent prevailing south-westerly wind. On first sight, as always, the sheer feat of construction of the fort left me in awe of the achievements of our prehistoric ancestors. The above ... Read More

English Heritage write Maiden Castle, Dorset is 'the finest Iron Age fort in Britain and was first laid out in 600 BC over the remains of a Neolithic settlement. During the following centuries the hill fort was extended and additional defences thrown up around it. ... Read More

This year my interest in the prehistoric sites of Britain has opened up 'the view from above', more by chance than design. The result has been an ongoing  joint film project with Pete Glastonbury and a close working relationship with the aerial photography company CamAero based in Dorset  The photograph above is Badbury Rings Iron Age hill fort in east Dorset. During the Roman era, five Roman roads formed a complex junction on the north side of Badbury.  Aerial footage seems to further reveal the sheer scale of the achievements of our prehistoric ancestors.   Below are Bronze Age barrows at the northwestern approach to Badbury Rings:   [caption id="attachment_1853" align="aligncenter" width="743"] Bronze Age barrows Badbury Rings[/caption] The Badbury barrow carving in the British Museum, described by Aubrey Burl ... Read More

This year my interest in the prehistoric sites of Britain has opened up 'the view from above', more by chance than design. The result has been an ongoing  joint film project with Pete Glastonbury and a close working relationship with the aerial photography company CamAero based in ... Read More