Henge and Hawks

Last weekend we went out West for the day.

Even at first sight, Stonehenge seems a contested space. After a journey down the (far too fast) A303, and parking up, this is what the typical visitor sees as they head for the entrance to the site.

Much of this reverberates with cod-history, mythology and romantic wish-fulfilment. It seems to me to have little to do with the ancient site and its uses. The bulldog seemed a typical icon, fuzzily-used and not clearly understood.
However, although having little support from what I can gather are the known facts of history and prehistory, it could be argued that they have as much right to believe their beliefs, and to use the site in their own (non-destructive) ways as any other visitors.

And this is what some of the latter look like:

This site was ancient when the Romans first encountered it.

The really difficult imaginative leap for me is to understand how much it has decayed, and been tumbled around, and how close (or not) the remains are to the intentions of the (various waves of) builders.


As Frances Pryor writes (in Britain BC), Stonehenge is set in a much larger and in some ways more complex landscape of barrows, ditches, causeways and other henges (the remains of woodhenge is not far away). One notion is that a broad ancient concourse lead to Stonehenge, with high banked sides so that it could not be seen until a corner was turned - after which suddenly it leapt out at the traveller, and dominated the skyline ahead.

Other books speak of how the stones are set so as to appear tapered, and taller than they really are from that angle of approach. It certainly seems to have been intended to dominate the area for many miles around.

Here one of the ditches or moats that still surround the stones can be seen.

The view above shows how the heel stone can be seen through one of the archways, with the so-called "altar stone" lying flat in front.

The key point is that the sun, rising, shines over the key stone, through the archway and on to the altar stone (and onwards to where the photograph was taken from) only on Midsummer's day.

There certainly seems to be something in the idea that the stones were laid out with due regard for the cycles of the sky and sun.

(The '4' in the picture just indicates the point in the audio tour where this view is explained. Which is why I can write about it now!)

The other way in which this World Heritage site is contested, I suppose, is by the car. The A303 stops being a dual carriageway as it approaches the site, but it is still very busy.
The guidebook still speaks of the plan to move the road underground, away from the landscape. All very well, I guess, but isn't that an aesthetic move rather than one that properly seeks to conserve the site? Personally, I think a better solution might be to route the whole main road away, and have a small carefully-routed visitor approach road.
The other thing that surprised me, given how inexpensive the tickets to the site seemed, was the number of people such as those above who decided to look at the stones from the chain link fence, much further away.

After the ancient stones, we moved a few miles back down the road to the Hawk Conservancy Centre. We arrived late in the day, and only had the chance to see a few birds flying.

This owl (apparently a Big Grey Owl) is seemingly renowned for having the flattest face of any owl, which makes it ideal as a receptor for sonar apparently.

It was extremely hard to catch the birds in flight in a reasonable photograph. This was one of the better attempts.
And this wasn't!
When the handler brought out four vultures to feed, this one parked himself just above our heads. A dangerous place to sit for those below!
There are also traditional aviaries, holding a really interesting range of birds.

The largest flighted bird.

Personally, I preferred the hunting birds displayed in the mews, such as this American Eagle.

... Frodo...
... and this sharp, stripped-down looking Harris Hawk
As something of a sideshow, the Centre also has a ferret run - these were great fun to watch.

At the end of the day they also staged a 'ferret race' (really, I suppose, just the ferrets' feeding time).

We didn't really have enough time to do the Centre justice. One day, we may go back.

I'll ask my secretary to remind me...

Spain Tour 2: En Route

Having left Portland, we travelled on to Plymouth to catch the ferry.
The English countryside looked at its beautiful, uncluttered best.

Admittedly there were a few lowering clouds, but for a moment I honestly couldn't recall why we were going abroad for our summer holidays.

Beautiful and uncluttered? Who was I kidding?

In any case, we were fairly quickly on board the ferry to Santander (Brittany Ferries Pont Aven, probably the largest boat we have ever sailed on). England was rapidly falling far behind us.

The ferry was full of middle-aged bikers from the West Country. Whether they were really Hell's Angels or just hairy, leather-clad men (and a few women) was beside the point. There were a lot of them (and each one of them was also quite large in their own right).

Actually, so far as I could work out, they were reasonably well behaved. And they certianly improved the takings at the bar...

The journey time is just over aday (our cabin was super). I never did get my sea legs, despite the fact that the Bay of Biscay was astonishingly calm and unruffled.

I'm afraid as a result I hid below, and didn't even try to spot whales or dolphins.

I did see this lighthouse early on. though. It seemed very lonely.

Bluebell Railway

This was our first visit to the Bluebell Railway for some time - maybe 5-6 years? In part it felt wholly unchanged - the route, carriages and trains, etc. But there were differences, and of course we had changed.

It was a wholly wet day, towards the end of last week - so we spent more time on the trains and less on the platforms. Hence lots of shots from inside the compartment.
Arriving at Sheffield Park we jumped on a train went through Horsted Keynes (as featured in this month's Railway Modeller) to Kingscote.

I remember a rather nice OO gauge model railway being housed at the latter, but that seems to have disappeared now.

It was a traditional corridor carriage, and I have to say that as only a day or so previously we had been to see Harry Potter 6, it felt rather like the teenagers' scenes on the Hogwarts Express.

I thought the film was poor. Given the huge size of the book, a lot had of course to be edited out for the film. I just think they removed exactly the wrong elements of the book.

The Railway also runs past the Ashdown Forest, where a few months ago our eldest had a Duke of Edinburgh Expedition. And they took pictures of Bluebell Railway engines while they were hiking.

So some of these pictures were obligatory shots of the route they followed.

And of course, it should be DofE Expotition given that the Ashdown Forest was also apparently the original for The Hundred-Acre Wood.
As the photo above shows, the Bluebell is a real, working railway with the obligatory level of crud.

As you can see, it was a very wet day. These photos are of Horsted Keynes.

The way the Bluebell has preserved so much of the old station paraphernalia is impressive...
...as are the conserved seats in the carriages.


(Preserved railway workers?)





There is one major tunnel on the route.

Taking photos of the inside was a challenge. It was impossible to see what the image would be like, as it was pretty much pitch black until the camera flash triggered (apart from the carriage lights).

Back at Horsted Keynes on the return journey.

There is a lot of good-looking stained glass in all of the station buildings. I don't know how original it is.


The Bluebell Railway, of course, has a star. Just one star. He is based at Sheffiled Park. And this is his number (James times Oliver).
Those who know, know who this is....


Actually, while standing beside Stepney, we also spotted Fenchurch. Another Terrier, just like Stepney, and another star, in my book (no photos though).

In passing, someone who at the time appeared to know their stuff said that Fenchurch had worked on London Underground for a while (ie on one of the very early cut and cover lines). However there is no mention of that in any references I can find.