West Kennet Long Barrow

Wiltshire Landscape (watercolour on paper 120cm x 40cm)

Perhaps the most important part of any journey is planning the route ahead, and arranging where to stay beforehand. On this occasion, we failed to adhere to this simple rule, and arrived at Avebury right in the middle of a crop-circle convention. Hippies from all over the country had gathered to beat bongos and hug standing stones, and there was no room in any of the hotels or guest houses for miles around, so we ended up spending the night in a farmhouse near Marlborough. The next morning, we returned to Avebury, and stopped off at the West Kennet Long Barrow, an enormous tomb more than 300ft. long which had been in use for centuries and probably contained the bones of the ruling elite who ordered the building of Silbury Hill in the distance. This hill would have expended millions of man-hours, and may well have taken nearly fifty years to build. It certainly is a strange landscape, made even stranger by the fact that we know next to nothing about the culture which settled here and imposed their stamp on the environment.

And as we stood there awe-struck at these ancient feats of engineering, light aircraft were buzzing around in the deep blue sky, giving crop-circle conventioneers a bird’s-eye view of patterns in the fields below.

Long Man, Wilmington

Long Man (watercolour on paper 70m x 50cm)

Nobody knows exactly how old this figure is, or why he was originally cut into the chalk hillside. Records of him are sketchy before the eighteenth century, although it is feasible that it could date to the dark ages and beyond. In many ways, it’s like a centuries-old Angel of the North, acting as a sign of the beginning of the ancient path along the ridgeway of the South Downs. I was surprised to discover that these days the outline of the Long Man is marked out in breeze-blocks, although it doesn’t really detract from the overall sense of awe and anticipation you get when you first sight it. 

Old Sarum

Old Sarum is a fortified hill a couple of miles north of Salisbury. In neolithic and bronze-age times it appeared to have a religious and political significance, and perhaps to have been used for ritualistic purposes. The Romans adapted already existing fortifications, and in the 11th century the Normans created a town on the site, complete with a castle and a cathedral. This town didn't last long; in the 13th century the bishopric decamped to a new location - now modern-day Salisbury - and today Old Sarum is left with nothing but its ghosts, and the tourists tramping over its ancient stones.

Woodhenge

Just a few miles down the road from Stonehenge, near the village of Durrington, stands Woodhenge. Concentric cropmarks left by circular wooden posts were discovered by aerial photography in the 1920s, and archaeological studies showed it to have a similar solstice alignment to that of Stonehenge, indicating that the structure may have been a prototype for the stone circle.

The positions of the timbers are today marked by concrete stumps.

Stonehenge

My wife said that when she was a little girl, she visited Stonehenge and had a great time clambering over the megaliths. In order to discourage such wanton vandalism, English Heritage have erected a perimeter fence and employ a team of security guards to keep the pubic off the site, especially if they haven't paid the exorbitant entrance fee.