Silbury Hill and Beyond

Silbury Hill (above) is the largest man made mound in Europe. It’s Neolithic and sits on the Wiltshire landscape. It dates from around 2700BC, and it is estimated that it may have taken 700 men 10 years to construct. Moving about 248,000 cubic metres of chalk and infill. When we think of the population of the time, both number of, and spare labour, it must be the Neolithic equivalent of putting man on the moon! Interestingly it was built on a lower point of the landscape, rather than close by higher areas, so it was clearly not meant to be a landmark. Neither was it a tomb. It was obviously important, but it’s purpose and meaning have been lost.

It is no longer possible to climb it, or even walk up to it when I visited, as you can see from the flood waters at it’s base. The best that can be done is make a photo from the road, or the end of the car park. There is a very informative information board, but my feeling is that the road, carpark and indeed info board just reduce it to an 5 minute pit stop view, rather like stopping at a motorway stop to stretch the legs and let the dog out! It’s a shame, it deserves more.

Just up the road is Avebury, and it’s stone circle, claimed to be the largest in the world, indeed so large, give or take 340 meters diameter, that half the old village is inside it! I don’t intend to write about Avebury or it’s circle, there are endless sites and pages to read – just google! The stones are impressive, and well worth the visit.

Unfortunately it was one of those visits where things just didn’t happen. The drive there was long and hampered, although one miss turn was entirely my fault! Having checked the National Trust website the night before, I arrived to find a notice in the car park, informing me that the Manor House was closed due to flooding. That would have been understandable, but it turns out closed for repair from flooding two months earlier!! Not much point in having a website if you don’t keep it up-to-date with basic info like “it’s closed”! Despite the good weather on my departure, by the time I got to the rings it was dull and raining. I can’t say that improved my mood. I pressed on and made some photo’s, protecting the camera as best I could. In the end I got some decent shots with my last roll of Tri-X.

The stones are truly impressive, how on earth they were moved into place at the time is just incredible! There were also two inner circles, one largely lost and another with a good curve still showing. I made my way around in a anti-clockwise direction.

I took my Leica M4-P with the 35mm Zeiss Biogon fitted. As I’ve mentioned before it’s a combination that I’m enjoying using, and was my choice for this early spring break. The light was poor all week, so I raided my stash of film for 400 speed stock, and used up my remaining HP5 and Tri-X.

Having completed the circle I got more than a little damp. I decided the best option was to head to the tea room. Luckily there was an “a board” at the top of the lane saying that despite the Manor being closed the shop and the tea room were open. I walked down the lane in the rain, shop closed, around the corner, tea room closed! Again, what’s the point of putting out a sign saying open??? It would appear that the National Trust don’t know whether they are open or closed! One would have hoped for better from a national “charity”. I walked back up the lane, and to save others wasting their time and getting wet, I turned the sign to face the wall.

All in all it was one of those days where it would have been easy to wish I’d just stayed at home. In the end it was the stones themselves that saved the day!