The UMD Study in England Programme at the University of Worcester offers students opportunities unavailable at the University of Birmingham, the previous site of UMD's British connection. Students who participate in the UW/UMD SIE enroll in both UMD, as well as University of Worcester, modules (the British term for what we call "courses"). This generated a great opportunity for me and my colleague Linda to participate in a field trip for an Archaeology course two of our students were taking.
The course deals with British Heritage sites and includes a field trip to Avebury, a World Heritage Site "at the centre of one of the greatest surviving concentrations of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in Western Europe." To be honest, I had never heard of this before coming to England this fall. Early on some of us were talking about places we wanted to visit and I think I said I wanted to return to Stonehenge, having visited it when I was young. I'm not sure who first mentioned Avebury, but the gist was that the stone array was much more accessible and covered a much broader territory than Stonehenge. When our students told us about the trip, they said they had been encouraged to invite people from SI to come with them. Linda and I both expressed interest.
The day of the trip was drizzly and foggy, but we loaded up on the bus and headed south to Avebury. The professor of the class is an American archaeologist who has lived in the UK for twenty years. When we have traveled by coach, I've been awed by the drivers' amazing skills. Driving on the motorway is a breeze. Driving on the narrow roads leading to sites such as these is a different story altogether. Having done a fair bit of driving along these two-lane roads in a moderately sized sedan, I have found the experience daunting to say the least. Driving on these roads in a coach can be death defying. That said, our driver did a great job negotiating these ridiculously narrow roads.
We started our visit at the West Kennet Long Barrow which dates back to the Neolithic Age, 3,700 BC. This is the longest burial mound at Avebury and one of the longest in the British Isles.
The site has been excavated twice, in 1859 and 1955-6, revealing five burial chambers. Archaeologists found remains of 36 people. There was some evidence of a pattern--some segregation of adult males, and adults and children.
We found flowers positioned in various places.
We moved from the West Kennet Barrow to The Sanctuary. The marker at the site says that it was probably constructed about 4500 years ago as a ceremonial site. It was noted in the 1700s, excavated in the 1930s and then again in the 1990s. The structure included first timbers and then later stones arranged in concentric circles. The mystery is what kinds of ceremonies they performed, when and why--and who the heck were 'they'.
These markers identify the sites where the timbers and stones were located.
From the Sanctuary we walked to the West Kennet Avenue, passing over stiles.
Once again we traversed the narrow roads, risking life and limb.
The "Avenue" consisted of stones cutting across fields over a mile to the Avebury Henge.
The stones aren't as impressively tall as those found at Stonehenge, but they are so purposefully placed that one can't help speculating what these people had in mind. It's hard to do justice to the site with the perspective of a 5'2" woman. Birdseye views are much more descriptive and revealing. Still, there were some impressive rocks, particularly as we neared Avebury proper. The "devil's chair" is one such stone.
According to a
website on Avebury. the stone weighs around 60 tons and measures 14 feet wide by 13 feet tall. The stone features a gully at the top which occasionally smokes.
The site goes on to report that "Locals say that running around The Devil's Chair Stone one hundred times
anti-clockwise, will summon up supernatural powers or even the devil.
Whilst other stories say that if you dance around the stone 13 times at
midnight you'll see the devil sitting on the chair.
"Young girls for hundreds of years have sat on the devils stone ledge as
part of a fertility rite. When you sit on it you will observe the rising
midwinter sun at the start of the winter solstice straight in front of
you. The stone is said to have magnetic qualities and preliminary
research reports reductions of pain in women with chronic refractory
pelvic pain using magnet therapy."
The stone sits at the southern gateway of the main ring. After a brief photo shoot, we moved through the stone array to the village of Avebury.
Once in the village we were feeling a might peckish, so we sought an appropriate venue for tea. Fortunately for us, there was a nice tea room at the rear of the Avebury Manor. We had to walk through the back garden filled with topiary to get there.
The tea room was charming.
Naturally, I had cream tea.
After we ate, we headed to the Manor itself.
The Manor has been featured on the BBC series, "To the Manor Reborn". The BBC followed a group of volunteer historians and designers as they remodeled and refurbished seven rooms of the house representing eras from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the beginning of the second World War.
This is a view of the Keiller Parlour using furniture and decorative elements from the end of the 1930s.
This is a sideboard from the late 18th century dining room.
This room was transformed into a billiard room during the First World War.
The kitchen is furbished in the style of 1912.
I think I liked the bedchambers the best. This one is decorated in the style of the 1590s.
I loved the ceiling details.
The Queen Anne suite was the centerpiece of the house.
Avebury Manor is part of the National Trust, and there is a cost to enter the house. The rest of the site is free. It was a great discovery and I think I can speak for Linda in thanking our students Kinsey and Danie for wrangling an invitation to jump on board this field trip. We are also grateful to Archaeology professor, Dr. Helen Loney. It was a terrific experience.
