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The Ridgeway is a route that runs between Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Overton Hill Near Avebury in Wiltshire, the trail is 85 miles long and my cousin Martha and her son Adam had decided they would walk it from one end to the other over a number of days. Martha walked it for charity, she is raising money to send a girl from Guyana to university. I was supposed to drop them off each morning and pick them up at the end of each leg in the evening but I did manage to get sick for three days so Amina filled in for me, thanks Min.
The Ridgeway history goes back at least 5,000 years as part of a prehistoric track once stretching about 250 miles from the Dorset coast to The Wash on the Norfolk coast. the Ridgeway provided a route over the high ground which was drier and less wooded than routes through the villages below. Stone Age men left their mark in the form of long barrows (burial places). The Bronze Age people, around 2,000 BC dragged the huge sarsen stones and formed the amazing Avebury Circle. Hill forts built around 500 BC are dotted along this route. The Romans, the Saxons and the Vikings all used this route and many battles have been fought, later it was used by drovers and travelers.
Today it is still popular, I was amazed at the variety of people I met along the way, some cycling, some sightseeing, some walking and others use it regularly for running, I even met a girl riding along on a nice big horse. I hope I am not giving you the impression that I walked the Ridgeway too, I didn't but sometimes I went to sites along it and so I did walk along it to get to them. Waylands Smithy long barrow is one of the things I visited which is situated a fair walk along the track and I also walked from Wendover back towards Ivinghoe Beacon on the first day to meet them as they finished. During the day I also drove around to different places such as Stanbridge near Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire to take a photo of the house that was built on the site of one of my deceased aunt's houses. I was also going to go to Whipsnade Zoo but it was rather full that day, being a Sunday in summer school holidays so I decided not to go in.
On the second day of the walk, one of the places I went to was West Wycombe, a funny little village which had a street full of old buildings which didn’t look they had been altered architecturally, one in particular caught my eye. I parked and walked up and down the street taking photos. The building that struck me the most was now known as the church hall but it didn’t look like it had such a humble beginning so I googled it and found out it was built in the early 1500’s and had no foundations. Originally it was used as a pilgrims rest as West Wycombe was the halfway point between Oxford and London. In the coaching arch there was a door to what was the jail and there was supposed to be the town whipping post there too but I didn't notice it. Amazing old building, looks like it should fall down it was that uneven and wonky but somehow there it is. The next day I stayed home but in the evening we went to he Crooked Billet, a very nice restaurant somewhere down a back lane some where not far from Reading, Amina knows where it is and we managed to get to the vicinity where she found us loitering and wondering which way to go. I am not sure but I think the meal out was a part of my birthday celebrations as I turned a year older on the Sunday. Good company, good food, thanks Amina.
After I had checked out the Uffington Hill Horse and the Castle I headed up the Ridgeway to look for the long barrow Waylands Smithy. I met some nice people on the way and eventually I found it not far off the track. On the way back I met up with Adam and Martha ambling along.
Waylands Smithy Long barrow was used over 5,500 as a burial place. Click here for the information Board
I headed down the hill to see if I could get a better photograph of the Uffington horse, I found a cute pub and decided lunch was the go. I didn't manage to get a better picture, the angle is such that aerial photographs are best so I scanned a postcard. there were lots of very quaint English cottages and villages down the hill, you miss these if you stay on main roads which is a pity really.
Barbury Castle
On the last day they walked from Ogden St George to Overton Hill and then down into the village of Avebury. It rained pretty much all day so it wasn’t a nice day to be out and about but I did see some wonderful things. My fist stop was Barbury castle, not a castle at all but an iron age hill fort. The Ridgeway is an ancient pathway and runs along the top of the hills where the route is less likely to be muddy underfoot. Along this route there are many hill forts, height being the one advantage a person might have in defending themselves and their own. Ivinghoe Beacon, one end of the designated Ridgeway as also a place with a great advantage and thus another ring fort is located there. There are many along the way and they are referred to in the survey maps as castles although they are not castles in the way we think of them. At the time they would have been the castles of the day whereby a tribe would lay claim to the surrounding land, have crops and also animals which they wished to protect. Battles were common and so they built these immense earth mounds with ditches around them to give them the advantage over their enemies. Barbary was an amazing fort, it was quite large, listed as covering 11 acres it did not look that big from inside to me but it may have been with the addition of lookout towers and such. It was still very big. What was even more impressive were the views it commanded in all directions. The region has been used for many purposes and there is no evidence to suggest it was used as a Roman Settlement. After the Romans departed the Angles and Saxons invaded Britain. A battle took place here in 556 Ad where the Saxons overcame the Britons and named the site Berambagh after their king Bera.
Regardless of the races of people who have been here, the enormity of the earthworks is awe inspiring when you consider they had no JCB's, all this earth was shaped and moved by hand. The ditches are quite deep, some over 36 feet in places, the inner ring of Barbury is higher than the outer ring and although they would have used the natural height and shape of the original hill there is still shaping and mounding within the inner ring which would have taken many man hours to achieve I guess if all your "stuff" is at stake you would take certain steps to protect it from raiders.
Now here is something to blow your socks off, as a drove around a corner there was a huge standing stone right there in front of me. I had heard that Avebury was special in terms of ancient spiritual practices but didn’t expect this. I walked the large stone circle at my leisure, dodging sheep poo and other tourists and slipped around a on the chalky wet ground as it rained down upon me. It struck me that this ancient site was similar to the one we saw at Tulsk in Ireland inasmuch as it had a huge main circle, two inner circles, an avenue of standing stones which lead to The Sanctuary and some burial mounds on the hill. There is less legend in England about such sites, one does here stories and legends but in Ireland their history seems to have survived moreso than In England. Most likely this is because Ireland is famous for the seanchai (shanakey) or story teller, as story telling has been part of Ireland’s culture for a very long time and it carries with it the stories of the old kings and deities, where they lived, their deeds and where they are buried. We know that the Tulsk area was an important ritual place in Ireland for queen Mabh and kings too so the legends go with the locality. When one area of obvious importance is linked to an area of obvious burial by an avenue it is natural to assume that the areas have similar significance even if we are not entirely sure what their beliefs and practices were. I enjoyed this area immensely despite the horrible English weather. I drove to Overton Hill and walked around the burial mounds, The Sanctuary is now little more than a re-creation of the original stones, no standing stones are there any more, simply smaller stones left to mark where the originals may have been. A farmer cleared these monuments many years back which is a pity.
Another pity is that someone thought it was a good idea to build a village in the middle of the stone circle so it is dissected by roads and even has farm buildings built into the side of the outer ring. How very odd these people were, to build the village but leave the stones standing. Over the years some have fallen down and been taken away but it is still a very impressive site. The National Trust has it now, they have a car park (yes you have to pay to park) but you can wander around the stones for free. There is also a centre in the village, as well as a gift shop and tea rooms. Part of the overall site includes Avebury Manor but it wasn’t open to the public the day I went.
Around the corner and up the road a bit is an avenue of stones (West Kennett Avenue) standing straight and pointing towards Overton Hill where there are some burial mounds and also a site called he Sanctuary which I have already mentioned. The road has been built across the avenue of stones so some are right next to the road and continue on in the field to the right. One expects to see such an important ceremonial site to be intact in a field somewhere, not intersected by roads and certainly not having building built within them. Oh well, you can still see that it was impressive and can only assume it had great significance. I am sure if you Google Avebury you will find out more information but if you are traveling UK it is a place worth going. Also up the road is the West Kennett Long barrow which is supposed to the finest example of a long barrow but the day I was there it was raining hard and I had had enough of tramping around in the rain, the site was up a hill so was a fair old walk and I sat in the car park area (no charge here) and watched others walking over the brow of the hill.
Between Avebury and Overton Hill there is a hill called Silbsury which is a very large man made mound but no one has been able to identify its purpose or the reason for its creation. It has been analysed and investigated and appears not to be a burial mound. Here is an old roman road in this area which runs around this hill which indicates the hill is older than roman occupation. Amazing stuff, so ancient, some over 5,000 years old and still here for us to ponder. I still wonder what the future archaeologists will make of the magic roundabouts at Swindon.
The intrepid walkers finished there walk and we went into the Red Lion in Avebury for a celebration drink.
As well as looking at ancient sites I also headed into towns which were close to the Ridgeway walk where Martha and Adam were. One day I got an idea I might like to go to the Cinema so I drove into the nearest big town which was Swindon. I only have the map to go by which is an atlas of the whole of Great Britain so not much detail when it comes to townships. My advice for anyone thinking of going to Swindon is – don’t. What a bun fight it was getting in and when I finally picked between the old town and the town centre I parked and had a look around. There was a shopping mall there but no sign of any information so I could get a town map, apparently that was about another five minutes walk in a totally other direction. Horrible place, didn’t like it, did some shopping, had a cup of tea and then asked how to get out of town as one way system just kept sending me around in circles. This lady in the café tried her best to explain directions and seemed very proud of Swindon's magic roundabout which turned out to be a series of 8 roundabouts all stuck together. I can't help wondering what future archeologists will make of this roundabout in years to come, they might excavate and find it and think "mmm what complicated people they were". I did survive Swindon but it was not a pleasant experience, I didn't see any Movies either. Oh well
Next week I am in Cardiff
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