Back in 1983 when Mom and I made our first real trip together to London, we had booked a couple of day trips as part of the package. The first one was to Stonehenge & Bath.
We were picked up at our hotel by the tour company taking us on the coach trip. This was when we discovered the phenomena of married couples from the US not wanting to deal with a pair of women. That sort of thing has gotten better over the years, but I can still come across it when dealing with US couples of the same rough age as me. Back then, it was Mom’s age group that snubbed us.
Most couples from other English-speaking countries (Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) don’t seem to care if you are another couple, two women, or a single woman. More women travel these days without being one half of a couple. So I usually have several choices for people to sit with at lunch or dinner. On this day trip, there was a very nice fellow from Vancouver, British Columbia who joined us for lunch.
In preparation for the upcoming summer solstice, at Stonehenge, there were several caravans (called campers in the US) parked on a nearby field. There were also tall chain-link fences around the site to keep folks out of it. So all of my photos from that trip were from a distance. I have included just one of them here. It was a quite beautiful day with lots of fluffy clouds.
Back in those days, there wasn’t a visitor center as of yet or much in the way of fencing normally. People could get pretty up close and personal with the stones. The stones could also be seen from the motorway. But things have changed over the years, including re-routing the motorway.
Now the henge and its stones cannot be seen until tickets have been purchase and collected and you are taken by tram to the site from the visitor center. It is possible to get closer than I did back in 1983 on just a regular visit (as I did in 2016). However, if you are willing to pay a bit more and take a tour there in the middle of the night (the one I had planned to do in 2020 meant leaving London at around 5:30am to get there by the time the sun would be rising), it is possible to actually walk among the stones. Still and all, I was absolutely thrilled to be able to see Stonehenge.
From there, we headed off to Bath. Originally called Aquae Sulis (“the waters of Sulis”), Bath was built c. 60 AD when the Romans decided to build baths and temples there. The hot springs were known to the ancient Britons long before. Bath Abbey was built in the 7th century and enlarged many times since.
We were dropped off in the center of town and led to first Bath Abbey and then the baths themselves. As my first real trip anywhere, I have never seen Roman baths or Roman ruins of any kind before and was absolutely fascinated. Mom and I ventured underground to see the remains of the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House, and a museum containing artifacts from when Bath had been Aquae Sulis.
I remember there was a head from a statue of the the goddess Minerva in the museum. Unfortunately my photos from underground were not at all good. But then very few interior photos that I took on this trip came out at all decent. So nice now to have digital cameras that can take great photos in low-light situations without flash.
We had lunch at the Pump Room and then walked around a bit in that part of town and near the River Avon. Some of Jane Austin’s novels were either set in Bath or had some scenes there.
I had taken architectural design and drafting as an elective in school. We had studied Bath’s architecture, especially the Royal Crescent. That was our last stop before heading back to London. I was just as thrilled to see that as I had been to see Stonehenge and the Roman Baths.
Next time — a day trip to Oxford and Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Stonehenge is the most famous henge in the UK, but not the oldest or the largest. It was believed to have been built from 3000 to 2000 BC. But nobody is entirely certain of its purpose.
A henge is a circular or oval earthwork with a ditch inside. It may or may not have a stone circle involved. Pretty much all of the stone circles are inside of henges, but not all henges have stone circles. The UK has several of each. I have been to about six of them. Expedition Unknown did a very interesting program on them, including a search for the origins of the henge concept.
When there in 1983, Mom and I were unable to get very close to Stonehenge at all. We needed to take our photos from quite a distance and were restricted from circling the monument. The first photo I have included with this post is from about the same distance we were in 1984. This time I could get closer, but still not get into the circle of stones itself. I have since discovered that there are special tours that do allow small groups of people to get into the circle and touch the stones. I had one booked for later in 2020 as part of a London visit, but ended up having to cancel the trip.
Another change from 1984 to 2016 was that there were a couple of roads that went fairly close and a carpark from which people could walk to the site. The roads no longer get close and the carpark is gone. There is a visitor center some distance away with trams that take people to the site.
I was with another small group tour of just five. We were dropped off at the visitor center and told what time to be back to our little coach. I jumped on the tram and immediately went out to Stonehenge itself. I would check out the visitor center when I came back.
I took my time circling the henge, photographing and filming from every angle. As I circled, I was able to move in closer in parts until I got back to where I started. At one point I was able to cross into the henge, though not among the stones.
Upon returning to the visitor center, I explored the exhibits there and the gift shop. It is interesting what the various hypothesis’ have been as to the purpose of the henge and the stones. There have been human remains discovered within the henge. Was it a graveyard? Was it a site for ancestor worship? Was it a healing site? Was it for ritual sacrifice? Did people live there? They aren’t really sure who even built it. Whoever did left no records.
At Glastonbury, we visited the Abbey first. Of Anglo Saxon origins, Glastonbury Abbey was founded in the 7th century and enlarged in the 10th century. The Abbey has been connected to the Arthurian legend since the 12th century when the monks claimed that it was Avalon and that Arthur was buried there. Joseph of Arimathea has also been associated with the abbey and was said to have visited and been the actual founder in the 1st century.
There is no archaeological evidence of any visit by Joseph. He was said to have brought the Holy Grail with him and to have thrust his staff into the ground, which then turned into a thorn tree that miraculously bloomed twice a year. The tree has had a rough time through the centuries. The tree I photographed while there was from a cutting from earlier trees that were in turn from cuttings that were said to go all the way back to the original.
Then there is the Holy Grail. At Glastonbury is the Chalice Garden. It is said that the grail is buried under Glastonbury Tor and that makes the water flow red through the garden. Not that I want to put a damper on the beliefs of others, but when looking closely, it seems to me that the reddish color is on the rocks over which the water flows. The water itself appears to be quite normal in color. There is a high iron content in the water, however, that is said to be responsible for the rusty color of the rocks.
The Abbey has strong Arthurian connections. After an enormous fire in 1184, during a major rebuilding campaign, the graves of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere were reportedly discovered at Glastonbury Abbey. The location of those graves (which were moved to near the high altar) has since been lost. The monks claimed that Glastonbury was Avalon and pilgrimages to the Abbey increased as did the money to refurbish the buildings.
After the Abbey was ruined again in the early 18th century, the kitchen was the only building left intact. It is also been referred to as the most intact medieval kitchen in existence.
We had the opportunity to climb Glastonbury Tor before heading into town for lunch. The Tor was once an island in the fens, which are a type of wetland, back in prehistoric times. There is evidence of an Iron Age settlement and of Dark Age occupation. The terracing of the hill hasn’t fully been explained although it is thought to be natural and not man made.
There was a wooden church built on the Tor which was destroyed in an earthquake in 1275. A new church, also dedicated to St Michael, was built in the 14th century. Only the tower of that church remains since the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century.
Although not the location of the graves that the monks of Glastonbury Abbey found and claimed as Arthur’s, it is the Tor that is mainly thought to be Avalon, the mystical island of King Arthur. The ancient Britons (the Celts who predated the Romans) supposedly called the Tor Ynys yr Afalon (meaning “The Isle of Avalon”). This was long before the legend of King Arthur existed. So was Arthur’s Avalon named after the Celts’ Afalon?
After a very good lunch in the town of Glastonbury, we set off for Avebury. On the way, we encountered a chalk horse on a hill and several burial mounds. One mound in particular was quite large. It is called Silbury Hill (roughly 2700 – 2340 BC) and is considered to be the largest prehistoric man made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world.
There are loads of burial mounds (or barrows) throughout the UK with a very large number of them located in and around Wiltshire. These are called the Wessex Barrows.
The chalk horse was called the Westbury White Horse. It was created in the late 1600s (so not prehistoric like most of the other chalk figures in the area) supposedly to commemorate King Alfred’s victory in 878 AD at the Battle of Eoandun, which was fought there. The horse is just below the site of the Bratton Camp Iron Age hillfort.
A Neolithic henge, constructed in the third millennium BC, Avebury is an incredible site, although it is difficult to comprehend while on the ground in the midst of it. This is partially because of its size and partially because there is a village running through the middle of it. It is an enormous henge containing one huge outer stone circle (considered the largest in the world) and two smaller inner stone circles.
The henge was pretty much ignored for centuries until a village began just outside of it that eventually spread inside in the later medieval period. In the 14th century some of the villagers decided that the stones should be pulled down and buried as the monument had been built by non-Christians.
One of the men involved ended up being crushed under a toppling 13 ton stone and was left where he was as the stone was too heavy for the others to get it off of him. In the 1930s, when the stone was being excavated to stand it back up again, the man’s skeleton was found. He had objects in his pockets that identified him as a barber/surgeon, so the stone was named The Barber’s Stone.
The stones were left alone for a few centuries after that until the rise of Puritanism in the area in the late 17th century and early 18th. This time, the emphasis was on completely destroying the stones. They would set them on fire and then pour cold water over them to create weaknesses in the stones that would allow them to break them apart with sledgehammers. Just makes you want to cry, doesn’t it?
Stonehenge is the only stone circle that I have been to where I could not walk amongst the stones and touch them. It is also the most famous and most visited of the sites, so they do what they do to protect it.
We had a fair amount of time at Avebury to explore the henge and the circles, say “hi” to the sheep, and even get a pint in the Red Lion Pub. Then we headed back to London. I needed to get ready to fly home the next day.
Next time – the start of another trip to the UK where I went on my own again and had some great adventures.
