April 20th

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In fact it is the largest Neolithic henge in Europe.  It is far bigger than Stonehenge � the area inside the henge itself covers 28 acres.  For those of you not in the know, the henge is not actually the stone circle but the mound and ditch which surround the stones.  Avebury is quite complex in that there is a large circle of stones, which contains two smaller stone circles and also half of the village of Avebury!  Yes there is a church, manor house, farm, village shop etc etc all within the henge.    The Avebury ring dates back to 2600 BC and is therefore 500 older than Stonehenge.  It is an incredible place.  Some of the stones are absolutely huge, some of them up to 60 tons!  Unlike Stonehenge the stones are unworked, they are not formally shaped, however some are diamond shaped and some are columnar.    As we were wandering along the chalk path on the top of the henge we passed several people going the other way, everyone was very friendly and passed the time of day with us, however we met one lady who stopped to chat because we asked her for directions to Silbury Hill.  Her name was Lizzie and she lives nearby and visits the henge often.   We had a good long chat with her and set the world to rights!  She told us that she was seriously thinking of moving to Yorkshire!  We wholeheartedly approved, after all it is God�s own country!  We wish her well.   We continued on our trek around the henge and then decided to have our picnic as it was noon by now.  Whilst we were scoffing we noticed some activity around the stones opposite us and realised after some scrutiny through the telescope that it was a film crew!    We have no idea what the filming was about, but they did several takes of a crowd of people walking towards one of the stones � Clive thought they were witches at one point (I think he has a witch fixation!) � oh well we may never know, still it was interesting! After our picnic we headed off to the museum and got in free with our National Trust cards � yippee!  The museum was housed in a wonderful old 16th century threshing barn � it was fantastic and even has its own resident colony of bats!  It was all very interesting and gave us quite a lot of insight into the history and archaeology of the site.  This area is dotted with Neolithic remains and one of the most famous of these is Silbury Hill, which we really wanted to see, so we headed off following the instructions that Lizzie had given us in the morning. After leaving the village we followed a line of stones which formed an �avenue� and half way along there was a track up a hill and through a field of young maize.  We finally made it to the top and there was a fantastic view of Silbury Hill.  Clive is pretty sure that this is the largest manmade hill in Britain and is nearly 5000 years old.  This is Britain�s answer to the pyramids but in fact predates them by more than 400 years!  There is a school of thought which believes that the Egyptians got the idea for the construction of their pyramids from us and not the other way around!  However it really is quite a sight to see this strange, conical mound rising up from the fields. To this day nobody knows exactly what it was for, archaologists have drilled a couple of shafts into it, one from the side and one vertically from the summit but nothing has been found!  Well whatever it was for it is still here and quite amazing to see.  Whilst we were admiring Silbury Hill, we caught a glimpse of something in the field we were in, peeping over the young maize crop � again the trusty telescope confirmed a couple of female Roe Deer.   I managed to get a few pictures before they disappeared, here's one of them.  Then we heard a familiar sound, which neither of us had heard for about 30 years � a Skylark!  It flew over us on its way home, it was absolutely amazing to see and hear one after all this time.  They are now getting very rare in the British Isles so it was a real treat.   We headed off back to the village and guess what, we found a pub!  Its called the Red Lion and has obviously been around for quite some time! It also doubles up as the bus stop � how convenient!  So after a pint for him and a half of cider for me, the bus arrived and we were soon back in Devizes (though not as quickly this time!!!).   So, now we have had a few days of R and R, tomorrow we hit the Caen Hill Flight � I hope I survive!