Old Sarum in the snow
I had to visit the museums in Devizes and Salisbury yesterday (hence the cathedral photos), in connection with an exciting little exhibition I’m helping with, as a guest of directors David Dawson and Adrian Green respectively (I earlier referred to British Museum curators as heroic: the challenges they face pale beside those of being responsible for internationally significant collections with such small resources). Going home, I passed a snow-covered Old Sarum with a red sun just falling below the horizon. The light was lovely, but very cold, as it was when I took this photo around midday from the west, the contours of the iron age hillfort and the medieval castle mound in the centre brought out by the dusting of white.
Dawn
My small daughter can’t yet write, but she can handle a Nikon. She woke me just after 8 this morning, and her first excited words demanded that I fetch my camera to photograph the sky. Only later did I realise it looked as it did because of the partial eclipse. “It’s too wide”, she said, “You won’t get it all in”; I had to take the photo as she couldn’t reach high enough for the window. Sadly no solar disc is visible, but this is how dawn appeared in Wiltshire today.
Romans at Silbury Hill
English Heritage testing the geophsysics plots.
There are now some good films about Silbury Hill itself on the web.
Four short videos (total 35 minutes) about the recent conservation work, including a fabulous tour of the section exposed inside the tunnel with Jim Leary – every excavation should have records like that.
Fachtna McAvoy has put a video on YouTube that is a longer version of the first of these films made for English Heritage by Chris Corden.
The Chronicle film made by David Collison and Paul Johnstone of the BBC-sponsored dig.
And a soundtrack:
Field recordings made by Dave Prentice (Nusphere) of summer solstice celebrations on Silbury Hill and in the henge at Avebury.
Avebury in late spring
Some photos for anyone unable to be there.
Silbury Hill
Silbury Hill
beside Silbury Hill
A partridge on a barrow near the Sanctuary
West Kennet Avenue stone
Memorials
Spooky. No sooner had I written about our disappearing churchyards, than in the post this morning comes the latest Conservation Bulletin from English Heritage, featuring places of worship – cathedrals, churches and, yes, memorials. (If you have doubts about the value of English Heritage, you should read this bulletin, full of wise, informative stuff about the extraordinary range of skills and knowledge that is being (more…)
