VISITING MEGALITHIC SITES IN SOUTH OXFORDSHIRE, Saturday 22 July 2000

It was a pleasant warm day when more than a dozen enthusiasts assembled at Stanton Harcourt (by the Hanson gravel pits) to visit the remains of the huge-diameter henge and stone circle known as the Devil's Quoits. Celia Haddon had organised the visit with representatives of Hanson Waste and had also arranged for three members of the Oxford Archaeological Trust (including Alistair Barclay and Gill Hey) to serve as guides. Alistair is the archaeologist who authored the chapter on "The affinities and design of the monument" in the latest published excavation report. Among those present were Celia Haddon, Terence Meaden, Pete Glastonbury, Kieran Glastonbury, Andy and Ruth Burnham, Chris Tweed, (Prof) Radhakrishnan Singh, Tom Wilson, Sarah Seymour and David, and Mark White (on this occasion Mark's wife Jane was absent, since when she has had a baby boy, George, born 7 August).

(1) THE DEVIL'S QUOITS, Stanton Harcourt (SP 409 056) .

The very badly damaged monument consists of (1) an outer henge bank of average diameter ca 150 m and circular ditch, (2) a stone circle diameter 79- to 74-metres, and (3) a central post setting. Several sections of the ditch, where excavated some 12 years ago and left open, could be studied. There were two very broad entrances through the earthwork aligned roughly ESE-WNW. Few of the over-30 original megaliths are to be seen (none standing) but we were able to photograph some of the fallen ones. One is a fine triangular-shaped stone. Average stone spacing is about 6.5 metres. In addition, a nearby outlier used to stand at the SSE. The stones appear to have been extracted from the underlying subsoil rock. Only a small quantity of artefacts and animal bone were found during the excavations, suggesting repeated cleaning by the Ancient British users. Elsewhere not far off, many bones of mammoth and other extinct or huge animals indicated the presence of numerous wild creatures in the area some 30 000 years ago. Some of the big bones were on display in a museum-shed.

Hanson Waste Company intend saving what is left of this badly-wrecked monument and hope to restore part of the henge and circle within the next two or three years. Refer to the artists's impression of the site as it may have been in Neolithic times.

John Aubrey. Monumenta Britannica. pp. 106-107 of the John Fowles and Rodney Legg edition.

Margaret Gray. The Devil's Quoits, Stanton Harcourt, Oxon. Oxoniensa, vol. 39, 96-97 (1974).

W.F. Grimes. Excavations at stanton Harcourt, Oxon, 1940. Oxoniensia, vol. 8-9, 19-35, (1943-44).

XXXXXX Devil's Quoits, Stanton Harcourt. Excavations of 1972-74 and 1988.

Next LUNCH was taken at the Strickland Arms in the village of Ducklington (SP 358 075) after which Tom Wilson led the convoy north to the next megaliths.

(2) THE HAWK STONE, Spelsbury and Dean (SP 3492 2354)

This splendid standing stone, riddled with pits and holes and having a prominent V-slot at the top, reaches higher than 2 metres (about 7 ft) above ground level. This fine stone is just a few metres from a footpath crossing the middle of a field between Lidstone and Chadlington. The Hawk Stone is in a field of rape which was brown with seed. The megalith was much admired and discussed, and we spent over 20 minutes at it.

Chadlington camp which is the other side of the village towards the A 361 was not visited.
This is a rectangular enclosure with three entrances on one side ­ possibly a mortuary enclosure, definitely prehistoric and not the Danish camp which local histories suggest.

(3) THE THOR STONE, at Taston (SP 3595 2209)
This fine long stone about 2 metres high stands in a hedge in the centre of the tiny village just opposite an old high (but broken) stone cross, which looked like evidence of sacrilege of the old religion by the newer . A little way down the hill is a spring with pond in front, the water passing through a unique highly-decorated Victorian stone monument.

(4) HOAR STONE CHAMBERED BARROW at Enstone (SP 3778 2372).
Six megaliths, three standing, remain of the east-facing cell of this ruined Neolithic long barrow. The tallest stone is almost 3 metres high (ca 9 feet) above ground level. Sometimes, depending on lighting conditions, a left-facing human head may possibly be discerned in profile on the tallest stone.

Being on the roadside-edge of an old plantation where the B4022 meets the Enstone to Ditchley road (SP 3778 2372), the stones are heavily overshadowed by mature trees. .

For some excursionists this was the last site of the day, but for those going south additional sites in South Oxfordshire were visited, as summarised below, the leader now being Terence Meaden.

(5) BLOWING STONE at Kingston Lisle (SU 3245 8709).

This is west of Wantage along the B 4507 and very close to Dragon Hill and Uffington White Horse (see next). At the sign that indicates Kingston Lisle to the north turn south instead and within 50 metres the megalith is by the roadside on the left. This important sarsen stone used to be on the stoneless downs above Uffington and is likely to be prehistoric (i.e. moved there in Megalithic Times). A book reference says "There is a hole in the stone
some 18 inches long, and when it is blown in the correct way, a loud siren-like note is produced which can be heard for two or three miles on a suitable day. There is good reason for thinking that the stone originally stood on White Horse Hill and was removed to its present position about 1750".

An undated poem (before 1859) The Ballad of the Scouring of the White Horse includes these lines

The Bleawin Stwun in days gone by

Wur King Alferd's bugle harn,

And the tharnin tree you med plainly see

As is called King Alferd's tharn.

In the Transactions of the Linnaean Society , vol. 10, 1813, page 405 is the following description:

'The Blowing-Stone is placed near the foot of a little public house, to which it gives its name. It is an unwrought sandstone, about three feet high, three feet wide, and nearly eighteen inches in thicknesse, having natural perforations . . .' The stone is mentioned in chapter 1 of Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's School Days (1857). Alas the pub has gone. In 1930 H.C. Brentnall described the stone thus: 'A block of brown sarsen perforated by many of those cavities which are left by vanished roots, and by one in particular from which expert lips may extract a gloomy, booming note. Doubtless it once stood on the down above There is certainly a tradition to that effect.' (Report of the Marlborough College Natural History Society, no 79, for 1930 (1931). The blowing hole is on the top. Apparently, the secret is 'simply to close the hole completely with the mouth and then blow. No special knack is necessary'.

Isn't it? Terry got no sound of it, and the others did not try.

Most of these notes come from a pamphlet by Leslie Grinsell which you may purchase at the site for 10 pence.

6) DRAGON HILL, Uffington (SU 300 870).

This huge knoll has an artificially flat top, probably done in Neolithic times, to create what may have served as a 'Silbury Hill' (?harvest hill?) for the Uffington locals. Suggestions were made that the hill is an artificial earthwork as at Silbury, partly because of the wide berm all around it except for the ramp on the south-east side. Maybe the ramp is artificial, but Terence infers that Dragon Hill is a natural knoll which has been scalped.

There is a reasonable view from here of the Bronze Age White Horse close by to the south-east.

(7) UFFINGTON WHITE HORSE (SU 301 867).

Known to date from Late Bronze Age following thermo-luminescnce tests on samples taken from silt-infills, this beautiful creation is the result of cutting turf from the north-facing hillside to expose the chalk beneath. 3000 years old, it has survived (while possibly others have disappeared) because of the vigilance and interest of the villagers from nearby Uffington.

Below the White Horse is a longitudinal valley or combe or as the Welsh would say cwm. (Welsh Gaelic was the language of rural Wessex until long after the Saxons, Angles and Normans invaded Britain). Terry Meaden and Professor Radhakrishnan Singh inspected it closely. The narrow combe is arguably womb-like, and reaches right up to the Horse. The effect is intriguingly feminine. Possibly the Britons were aware of this, in which case the position of the valley could explain the choice of site for the White Horse. The springs that rise lower down in the combe may have risen higher up in antiquity. The consequences of this research will be detailed later.

(8) WAYLAND'S SMITHY CHAMBERED BARROW, Uffington ( SU 281 854).

There are well-published excavations about this famous Neolithic monument which includes sarsen chamber, sarsen frontal stones, and sarsen peristalith. Orientated on midwinter sunrise. The site, which is not far west of the White Horse and Uffington Castle, more properly belongs to the Avebury/Stonehenge traditions of the chalk downs. It can be reached by following the ancient Ridgeway track for 20 miles north-eastwards from Avebury. But of course the shortest way for present-day visitors is by car to the National Trust car park (well sign-posted half-a-mile from the B 4000 Ashbury-to-Lambourn road) and then walking another three-quarters of a mile. This property is owned and managed by the National Trust.

The barrow is 55 metres or 180 feet long, and tapers in width from 15 metres (48 ft) to 6 metres (20 ft). The mound is held in place by a kerb of small sarsens, some of which are paired stones of selected shape reminiscent of Avebury, i.e. identifiable as male and female on the basis of Alexander Keiller's definition (see the Avebury pages of www.stonehenge-avebury.net). At the south-eastern end of the long mound stood six huge sarsens of which five remain. Their average height is 3 metres or 10 feet. Behind is a short gallery to a stone-lined chamber adjoining which are two side chambers.