We had a pleasant evening last night in Bath. After finishing up at the Roman Baths, we returned to our hotel, where we ate, then retired to our room. We finished yesterday’s blog entry, went to bed.
This morning, we arose early, and set off for Avebury. This wonderfully fascinating location is only 27.7 miles from Bath, however it took us just over an hour to get there, once again on the small, windy roads of England!
We arrived early for this location. It’s various offerings do not open until 10 pm, and we were on site by just a few minutes past 9, so there was little to do but wander around.
Avebury is small, just a few homes, along with Avebury Manor, and a marvelous ancient church, the Church of Saint James. This Church of England edifice has a 1000 year old Nave, but the main portion is more recent. Originally dedicated as All Saints Church. Also in town is Avebury Priory.
While we waited for everything to open, we talked with a local docent who gave us a lot of information about Avebury. Following this, we wandered around the afore mentioned church.
We toured the Manor building, built in 1557, along with it’s gardens. The last individual to inhabit the manor left huge debts, and all furnishings were auctioned off to pay for them. The manor itself was given to the National Trust.
A few years ago, the BBC filmed a show there, and they furnished the home in reproductions of vintage furniture. Because of this one can sit in the furniture, lie on the beds, and gain tactile experience of what this might have been like.
After Tea at the gift shop (scones, clotted cream, jam, and tea with milk and sugar….YUM! I shall miss that!) we then began walking the boundary of the megaliths surrounding the town. These stones are a third of a mile across, and encompass two smaller stone circles. Construction of this site is said to have begun around 2,600 BCE. That’s 4,600 years ago. Wow!
Also part of this site is Silbury Hill, begun about 2400 BC, the tallest artificial hill in Europe. We viewed this from afar, but in the interest of time, decided to forego it (as it turned out, this was good, because it is actually closed to tourists at this time!) We instead drove over to West Kennet Long Barrow, an even older structure, built beginning in 3,600 BCE… that means 5600 years ago!
A drove from the Long Barrow through rolling fields of rapeseed, a beautiful sight, with their yellow flower and pleasant aroma… that is until you stop and actually smell them close up. Pleasant does NOT describe them, then! A short distance on we came to what is probably the pinnacle of anyones visit to England, Stonehenge.
We visited here for about 2 hours, wandering around the stones, listening to the recorded description of the site. Nothing really can describe the place, certainly not my words. And even our pictures do not do justice to the sense of the place.
After our brief visit here, we drove on through the town of Andover, and into Wherwell, where we met up with the Strom Family. This was a fun way to wrap up the day! We sat up until late chatting!
This seems as good a place as any to address something about Stonehenge, Avebury and indeed many places we’ve been.
England drips with age. I don’t know how else to describe this! There is evidence of human habitation in England dating back 500,000 years. Can you wrap your head around this number? The oldest physical remains of human habitation or presence that Scott and I have encountered here in England dates back 5600 years (West Kennet Long Barrow). There is a sense of antiquity here that one can only imagine experiencing in a few locations on this planet. This fact tends to still one’s spirit. As I wandered over hills and through pastures walking to and from these various locations… West Kennet Long Barrow, Carn Euny, Sutton Hoo, The Roman Baths of Bath, Glastonbury and Tintagel; whether visiting stone age settlements or burials, or the habitations of Romans or the Saxons or the English of 1000 years ago, the experience was similar to me.
I found myself drawing back into myself, meditating on the flow of life, the journey of time and I realize how childish my own images of that flow… of a circle of time (one can picture this as January starting at the bottom end of a circle, and moving through the months up to July/August at the top, then returning down to December)… seem so wrong. Time flows as a river, but not in some circular construct, but as a vast river, straight through the vale of this existence to some point as yet indeterminate in the future… a future as lost in the mists of time as the past is here in England. One feels a great sense of awe. And one feels very small compared to the giants around one.
It is a sense that I shall long remember.
On The Road II 