english country cottage stonehenge

Coach House, Old Vicarage Burcombe Wiltshire UK
The Old Vicarage Burcombe
english country cottage stonehenge
Home Page   About us   The Location   Tariff and Booking  



self catering wiltshire, salisbury vacation, visit stonehenge longleat, holiday accommodation, acomodation accomodation acommodation, english country cottage, family rural retreat

You may find this information helpful when researching the area prior to your visit

The West Kennet Long Barrow

Kennet Long Barrow is situated on a ridge one-and-a-half miles south of Avebury in Wiltshire. The site was recorded by John Aubrey in the 17th century and by William Stukeley in the 18th century. Aubrey describes it as "On the Brow of the hill, south from the west Kynnet" (i.e. the River Kennet, see Silbury Hill for some comments on this stream), and adds that it is "without any name." Stukeley observes that "It stands east and west, pointing to the dragon's head on Overton-hill." The barrow is marked on Stukeley's drawing of the 'great stone serpent' of Avebury in which one can also see Overton Hill (also called The Sanctuary by Stukeley). The barrow was dug into in in 1859, and properly excavated in 1955-56.

It originally consisted of a trapezoid mound 330 feet long formed of a core of sarsen boulders and a capping of chalk rubble from two flanking quarry ditches. At the eastern end of the mound is an elaborate megalithic structure of five chambers opening off an axial passage. The entrance passage is fronted by a semi-circular forecourt with a flanking facade of massive sarsen uprights aligned along a north-south axis.

The interior with the chambers are located off the axial gallery. A minimum of 46 individuals of all ages and both sexes, together with many pottery sherds, flint implements, beads and other objects, were discovered in the course of excavation. The burials evidently took place over a considerable period of time. It appears that a number of the bones, mainly skulls and thigh bones, were abstracted from the tomb at different times, possibly for ritual purposes.

At some point the chambers and passage were filled with chalk rubble and the semi-circular forecourt blocked with a filling of sarsen boulders. At this time, it seems, a 'false entrance' of twin uprights was erected, and three massive blocking stones placed in line across the entrance to the forecourt. This final blocking and closure of the tomb appears to have occurred around 1600 B.C.E.

Silbury Hill - Another Mystery

Pundits have postulated that Silbury Hill could have been used as an accurate solar observatory by means of the shadows cast by the mound itself on the carefully levelled plain to the north, towards Avebury. The meridian line from Silbury runs through Avebury church which stands on a ley line running between Stonehenge and the stone circle at Winterbourne Abbas. The same ley line also passes through two churches and the eastern slope of Silbury. Silbury, in fact, is a centre for alignments of straight prehistoric tracks, resurfaced by the Romans, and of standing stones. The Roman road between Marlborough and Bath runs directly towards Silbury Hill before swerving to avoid it. This would indicate that the Roman road followed a pre-existing track or ley line. John Michell makes the following observations:

"In view of the fact that in China mounds like that at Silbury were erected upon "lung-mei", the paths of the dragon, there is good reason to suspect that Silbury itself was sited by Pre-Celtic Druids on a dragon line with the assistance of a geomancer's compass. It may also be inferred that the Chinese "lung-mei" stretch over the entire globe. Many centres of English dragon legend stand at the junction of well-marked leys, one notable long-distance example being the St Michael's line that runs from the Avebury circle to the extreme west of Cornwall."