Back to the Neolithic near Bredwardine

Ragged Robin will already know what I'm about to write about, and I hope will enjoy revisiting a very special place.

I could see the weather coming in across the Golden Valley so nipped out of the car quickly to take a few photos of Arthur's Stone, above the Golden Valley.  There was a holidaying couple there (from East Anglia) with their two dogs.  They were staying in Dorstone and doing a circular walk, and were surprised there was more to Arthur's Stone than a single menhir.  They quickly donned waterproofs but I should imagine they got pretty wet walking back as it rained heavily and steadily between there and Hay-on-Wye.

Arthur's Stone is an outlying example of the Severn-Cotswold type of Neolithic burial chamber, with a passage approaching from the rear and a South-facing forecourt at the other end.   It is aligned north-south and would originally have extended some 25 metres but a small lane now dissects the burial mound - which would have originally been covered in soil. 

There has been a rarely-allowed Archaeological Dig here this summer, with Prof. Julian Thomas of Manchester University in charge.  You can just see one of the trenches now covered over with membrane to let the grass return.  HERE is a link to what they discovered, quite exciting too, as this was part of a larger ritual landscape and in a nearby field to the south is an earlier phase in the construction of this monument, making it a lot more substantial. There has been no evidence of burials at this site although human remains have been found at other similar burial chambers, but that said, this has never been excavated beneath the capstones and inside the actual burial chamber.

Along this ridge, flint scatters (19 of them), two hand axes, a standing stone and two long barrows have been found along this area, showing how much it was used in the Neolithic period. Doubtless there is much more which has yet to be discovered.

the waymarking.com site gives ley line information: "Several ley lines go through Arthur's Stone,  Eardisley castle moat to Snodhill castle, The Knapp to Dorstone church, Newton tump to Bodcott barn.  Red lay to Cefn Hill (50deg. E of true North) is a midsummers day sunrise ley.  Each line has several marking points, old buildings, other mounds etc."  Make of this what you will but Paul Devereaux puts them in a more modern context.

The capstone is calculated to weigh more than 25 tons.

The position of this monument in the landscape was so that it would be seen by not just the people whose ancestors were in all probability buried here (it has never been excavated internally), and who brought their flocks up from the valley bottom for transhumance grazing, but also by any strangers who might pass by. "Folk from Off" as Phil Rickman is wont to call them.  By burying your dead here, you are staking claim to the land.

        We had intended just to have lunch here and then go on to Rowlstone Church near Pontrilas, but it is just as well we returned when we did as even this relatively short journey had made Keith very stiff and finding movement and balance difficult.  The medication only works to a degree and the "intensive physiotherapy" needed (as mentioned by the Herefordshire consultant we also saw) is just the occasional exercise to carry out each time we see the Physio. I have found lots more on line, which we are doing.

    I am feeling down tonight, what with the worry over Keith's progress and Theo not being back to his old self.  Though he is eating better, we don't yet have the old Theo chirrups to show that he is back to normal. Let's hope a night's sleep settles my pessimism.