The chalk
downlands of southern England have been occupied by humans for thousands of
years, and evidence of their presence is still there to be seen and wondered at
today. Everybody knows about Stonehenge (on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire), but
there are many more examples that are worth a visit.
The sites
mentioned here are all in the county of Oxfordshire, which includes part of the
Cotswold Hills to the north and part of the Lambourn Downs to the south.
(Follow this link for some other places of interest in Oxfordshire that are more recent in date)
(Follow this link for some other places of interest in Oxfordshire that are more recent in date)
The Rollright
Stones
Maybe less
impressive than Stonehenge , but certainly more
accessible, these mysterious arrangements of stones have been the stuff of
legend for many centuries. They lie close to the minor road that connects the
A3400 near Long Compton to the A44 between Salford and Little Compton. The road
in question marks the border between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.
The stones
are in three groups which date from different times.
The main
circle of “The King’s Men” (see picture) comprises many stones of various sizes that have
been weathered into strange shapes. Just across the road is a single large
stone, protected by iron railings, that is named “The King Stone”.
The myth is
that the stones represent a king and his courtiers who were turned to stone by
a witch, but a more likely explanation is that they were set up as funerary
monuments or for ceremonial purposes. The circle dates from around 2500 to 2000
BC but the King Stone is somewhat younger, having been erected at some time
between 1800 and 1500 BC.
A short walk
away are “The Whispering Knights”, a Neolithic burial chamber that is much
older than the other Rollrights, having been placed there at around 4000 to 3500
BC. Several of the stones stand on end and lean towards each other as if
whispering secrets that are still being told some 6,000 years after they
started!
The
Rollrights can be visited at any reasonable time. They are on privately-owned
farmland and a fee of one pound is requested.
Wayland’s Smithy
This is a Neolithic
chambered burial mound, surrounded by beech trees, on the Ridgeway to the west
of Wantage, on the southern edge of the county. It was probably built in two
phases, at around 3700 and 3400 BC. What you can see today are the internal
stones that formed the chambers of the barrow, originally covered by a mound of
chalk. Several skeletons were discovered when the mound was first excavated.
A certain
amount of restoration work was done in the 1960s, but this stopped short of
trying to rebuild the barrow to its original state. It is therefore possible to
get a close look at the structure of the barrow and appreciate its development.
The name
comes from a Saxon legend of a smith who made invincible armour. Local legend
has it that if your horse has thrown a shoe and you leave it there overnight,
together with sufficient silver as payment, Wayland will take your money and
shoe your horse!
Wayland’s
Smithy is free to visit, but access is on foot along the Ridgeway path.
Uffington White
Horse and Castle
Not far from
Wayland’s Smithy, and also on the Ridgeway, is the oldest “white horse” in Great Britain ,
dating from around 1000 BC, although it could be 400 years either older or
younger. It is very “modern” in its depiction of a running horse, indeed almost
abstract in design. However, as with all such chalk figures, it is best seen
from a distance and this can be done from many vantage points in the valley
below. At 374 feet in length, the horse is hard to miss.
On a fine
day the views from the downs in this area are magnificent. It is well worth
the effort to leave the car at one of several small car parks and walk along a
downland track for a couple of miles to commune with nature at its best!
© John Welford
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