Willington

Date Added: 5th Apr 2016
Site Type: Cursus Country: England (Bedfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 2nd Apr 2016

Log Text: Ah, willington shows this entry in cople and cople shows the willington entry, so now perhaps we can join this up? Nothing in BIAB for willington

Cardington B Cursus

Date Added: 5th Apr 2016
Site Type: Cursus Country: England (Bedfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 2nd Apr 2016

Log Text: Cardington turns up search here, cursus, now is this the same as cople and or willington, or how many are they?

Bus 74 to Cople runs through Cardington.

BIAB gives hits, and unpublished works still have abstract entries, so something here but terms.

More scuffling needed

Biggleswade Cursus

Date Added: 5th Apr 2016
Site Type: Cursus Country: England (Bedfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 2nd Apr 2016

Log Text: Took the train from Biggleswade to Sandy but couldn't see anything obvious except the landscape from the window.

The excavation is written up in Beds Arch. 26 along with map showing a collection of cursuses along the river. Seem to remember that 26 has not yet been digitised, all the earlier ones have.

There comes a point where quantity turns into quality and a collection of cursuses needs a name.

Caesar's Camp (Bedfordshire)

Date Added: 5th Apr 2016
Site Type: Hillfort Country: England (Bedfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 2nd Apr 2016

Log Text: There seem to be three places called Ceasar's Camp, one might be Sandy Lodge, which is what it is called when excavation written up, another might be Galley Hill, not to be confused with Streatley, so not sure which I visited or whether there are simply different names for the same thing.

Galley Hill (Streatley)

Date Added: 5th Apr 2016
Site Type: Round Barrow(s) Country: England (Bedfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 20th Mar 2016

Log Text: Starting from where the Old Bedford Road runs out, to become a path, or from the 25 bus stop near Weydown, a short walk takes you into the Galley And Warden Nature reserve, which doesn't appear to tell you anything about the archaeology

This might though

http://www.archaeologyuk.org/cbasm/index_htm_files/VOLUME%2009.PDF

Now I've found Dyer, Barrows of the Chilterns, Arch 116, which is on ADS and found by author Dyer. The Galley Hills is only one group of the lot he mentions. I don't think I want to add this reference to all the others. How one does collections like this is a general matter.

There are more articles after 1959 by him but Arch.J. is available only until v120 at present for public access. You need to be a member of RAI for later issues access. There is a complete set in the SAL library, which membership of the RAI allows access.

There is another Galley Hill, in Sandy, for which there seems to be less literature.
can't be sure of the accuracy of the pdf locator, but it is vol 9.

I'm not sure of the reference next to the photograph in the site entry, which I didn't notice earlier, but the Beds.Arch started in 1962. There is an article by Dyer in the first edition, on Barton, which I think is a different matter. The Barton one comes up again in issue 19. This, 1974, is the only one to appear in BIAB.


I've cracked the reference matter, it is Beds Arch J. v.2., 1964, 16ff and part of a longer article dealing with Waulud's Bank, Five Knolls too.

So he has Arch J. 116. this, and BAJ 9. plus there might be some more. This is becoming untidy bibliography.

Kempston Cursus

Date Added: 5th Apr 2016
Site Type: Cursus Country: England (Bedfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 20th Mar 2016

Log Text: tried to visit, but not sure place. BIAB and other sources leave a lot to be followed up, but Beds Arch 26 decides it isn't a cursus without saying whatever it is might then be.

There is a beautiful walk along the Great Ouse from the bus 1 on the main road to the church, in the church is an ancient great stone, so perhaps we have the stone and the bend in the river as something which will keep us going.

I've now found reference to collared urns in Kempston except that it is spelt collard, some typo somewhere, BIAB or not. Beds Arch J. 5, with illus, and references to follow up still to see what we can find out. A collared urn isn't exactly megalithic, but is a typecast for timeline.

St. Anne's Well (Stanwell)

Date Added: 12th Feb 2016
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Surrey)
Visited: Yes on 12th Feb 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: I don't like selection five, in access, the driving bit. It is right next to the bus stop, 441 or 446, near the Happy Landing stop for the 555 or 203. Get over your motorism and autokrazy.

The picture shows up well in google search which got me to where I found it. I asked a postman, he gave a thoughtful response that it might be near the war memorial, but he has been walking past it every day.

The brass plate says it was of medicinal value, so rather more or different than well perhaps, but well could have several meanings.

Useful discussion in the branch library about keystages following the UCU meeting on education cradle to grave, this sort of place is a strength for locals.

Stanwell Cursus

Date Added: 18th Mar 2016
Site Type: Cursus Country: England (Surrey)
Visited: Yes on 12th Feb 2016

Log Text: Tried to visit but not at all clear where the terminus of the cursus actually might be.

You get a good view though from the top story of Terminal 5 at Heathrow.

The other end, according to Pevnser is Bigley Wash, but I haven't found that spot either.

It is much written up in Landscape Evolution in the Middle Thames Valley, which isn't the sort of title you would expect to be about Stanwell

Cissbury Ring

Date Added: 18th Dec 2014
Site Type: Hillfort Country: England (West Sussex)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 18th Dec 2014. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: The bus from Worthing to Midhurst, 1, or the other way round, with a stop at Pulborough for the other railway, passes.

What needs noting now is the wonderful library in Worthing, and the Museum.

The local studies centre for west Sussex is here, there is a complete run of SAC, a run of Archaeologia, and of the Archaeological Journal.

How to use these to find out more about the place perhaps means knowing about the BIAB, which is public access and open, and the ADS, which is also mainly public access and open. Worthing has Access to Research but I haven't worked out yet how useful that is.

Chipping Hill Enclosure

Date Added: 10th Nov 2014
Site Type: Misc. Earthwork Country: England (Essex)
Visited: Yes on 10th Nov 2014. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: The Witham report is published as Oxbow manuscript 26, Rodwell, which makes it a bit harder to find than usual, but WorldCat now makes a considerable difference. It is in Witham, and Witham has an email .gov.uk address, so I'm going to try using these for retrieval.

There are walks guides to the Blackwater Valley, and a Tourism Information Centre, but nothing mentioning Rodwell or the hillfort, or picnic site, as you would have it.

The recovery from 1844 is in Chelmsford Museum, fire pokers they call them, so there must have been quite a picnic.

The railway was driven through the centre apparently, but walking the curve of the river gives a distinct sense of hilliness, by Essex standards. More puzzling is the church, which seems to be on a mound, so one wonders whether there is some sort of combination?

West End Common Barrows

Date Added: 14th Feb 2013
Site Type: Barrow Cemetery Country: England (Surrey)
Visited: Yes on 14th Feb 2013. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The 34, 35, bus, four an hour, with a stop at Red Road. This is the beginning of the Brentmoor Nature Reserve, or the Aldershot Military Lands, depending on your preferences. The four barrows are a short walk along the right of way. There is a Surrey Wildlife Trust Board, and a megalith, or sarsen stone, which they seem to have placed there. If there is no evidence of excavation, then how it is known that it is a barrow cemetry is beyond me. There is a reference to Needham and Longley, so that text I'm going to try to track down. I wonder why it couldn't be called a battered long mound?

Horsell Common W

Date Added: 14th Feb 2013
Site Type: Barrow Cemetery Country: England (Surrey)
Visited: Yes on 14th Feb 2013. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: |I've heard there has been some excavation around here recently, but haven't yet been able to track down any references. It looks as if there has been at least some scrub clearance.

Stumblebury

Date Added: 1st Dec 2012
Site Type: Round Barrow(s) Country: England (Kent)
Visited: Yes on 1st Dec 2012. My rating: Ambience 2 Access 3

Log Text: I don't think I've found it, but I can't be sure. Saw it on the village map in Otford, you then walk beyond the station, past the chalk pit, turn right up the hill, and then you will find the poster for the North Downs Way. Opposite, walk up the track, mud, clay, chalk, right to the top of the downs. I think it might be on the edge where the clearing starts but not sure. There isn't a lot here, it isn't in Halstead, so need to check more. Otford has a really good train service so is easy to reach. The best accound of Kent recently seems to be Jessup so that is my next point fo call. Arch Cant isn't available online.

Arminghall Henge

Date Added: 6th Jul 2012
Site Type: Henge Country: England (Norfolk)
Visited: Yes on 1st Jul 2012. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 2 Access 3

Log Text: Went past the site in teh 587 bus, two and hour, then got off in Trowse. There isn't much to see in the field but you aren't far from Whitlinghan country park. someone has already mentioned white horse lane, and I'm taken by whit lin ge ham... in the country park there is a thoroughly misleading poster board. One wonders whether something more couldn't be made of all this. Nothing in Norwich Museum which only starts with the Romans from what I can see. The 587 bus continues, or comes from, Caister, so you can add in some Roman stuff. The Pastscape article has bibliography, so to the UEA library for a read.

Seaford Head

Date Added: 20th May 2012
Site Type: Hillfort Country: England (East Sussex)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2012. My rating: Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: The walk from Seaford station is wonderful up onto the head but the matter then becomes with golf course, I can't seperate anything from barrows or bunkers and can't see what I am supposed to be able to see.

There is a phone number for the council, so we might try to work on this, and the matter of the barrow.

Etton Causewayed Enclosure

Date Added: 30th Apr 2012
Site Type: Causewayed Enclosure Country: England (Cambridgeshire)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 30th Apr 2012

Log Text: I've now tried to find this in google earth, and tried to work out the bus from Peterborough which isn't frequent enough in the bad weather, but I have now found the literature, sometimes it is called Etton, which isn't a good grep string, for places including etton, of which there are a lot, pop up. pryor is an author. There is a really good collection of material in Peterborough library local history collection. Material from the site is in the British Museum in gallery 50.

The puzzling thing though is the cursus, rather than the causewayed enclosure but that gets us back to the words matter.

Springfield

Date Added: 16th Apr 2012
Site Type: Timber Circle Country: England (Essex)
Visited: Yes on 14th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: This is a case of the words and things for this pops up as a timber circle, and I am presuming it is in the right place to be a load of other things, almost all the terms we need. See words and things, though I don't know how to reference this. I found the two volumes in Chelmsford Library, 1981 on the cursus, but I don't want to have to repeat this text there, and the 1987 on this, which they don't call a timber circle.

It is now a mess. It needs a spiral of virtue, perhaps with YOI to make something of it, and could be a real celebration. I wonder where to start?

The industrial estate and the housing estate show that we have unlearned rather a lot about planning.

Dyke Hills

Date Added: 8th Apr 2012
Site Type: Hillfort Country: England (Oxfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 7th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The bus X39 or X40 from Reading Station, or from Oxford, stop called the Dorchester layby, on the main road which lies over the Dorchester Cursus. I think the bus stops and foot bridge at the endpoint of the cursus, and it lies, or lay, under the road. There is a short walk into the village, then the abbey, and Watling Lane, which takes to a view of Wittenham Clumps and suddently the Dyke Hills comes into view. The footpath continues and the site is open and walkable, with a footpath to the Thames, the lock, and the Clumps. So this is really quite a combination. There is a good local museum though most of the stuff has gone to the Ashmolean. The museum has a good local booklet with bibliography which is more than enough for a walk and a read.

Seven Hills

Date Added: 8th Apr 2012
Site Type: Barrow Cemetery Country: England (Suffolk)
Visited: Yes on 6th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Interesingly the crematorium is called Seven Hills. There seems to be quite a lot of continuity in places of death. The complexity of finding out any more is that the museum authority is Colchester and Ipswich, if you are in Ipswich. Then there is Suffolk Archaeology. And the Suffolk Record Office. In the Ipswich museum there is a map showing a mass of things around this Nacton site, but only for one age, the other maps are only of Ipswich.

In addition there is a suffolk institute of archaeology which produces proceedings so now to track all this down. The museum curator said start with suffolk archaeology

Avebury

Date Added: 3rd Apr 2012
Site Type: Stone Circle Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 2nd Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 3

Log Text: Salisbury railway station from the 09.41 out of Surbiton, then the bus 2 to Devizes change to the 49 to Swindon. Bus stop by pub. Huge amount of traffic means walking life threatening. There are no maps in the NT retail opportunity for the area, and they don't do walkers' leaflets. The interchange in Devizes should fail so time to do the museum. This is a spiral of virtue matter. There is also a bus 4 to Marlborough with a really strange timetable, but that means Bedwyn Marlborough or Marlborough Salisbury. The unusability of rail tickets across the network is another spiral of virtue matter, so that is two small ones.


Add to the bibliography Pollard Avebury.

Then in Field on Earthern long barrows I find something on Horslip Bridge which adds to the complexity, what is an enclosure, causewayed, what is a barrow, long, earthern, and why are they called morturary or burial when many don't appear to have any bodies at all?