White Horse Hill and The Ridgeway - August 2010

Almost as an afterthought I decided to dash off to the Oxfordshire countryside for a few days. The main purpose of the visit was to visit my buddie Tyna, but as she has two dogs of her own, staying at her house with Jasper was not a sensible option.

And so Jasper got to experience his first camping trip!

Firstly, I had to find somewhere which would accommodate my four legged friend, and this was quickly accomplished with the help of good old Google. My holiday destination was confirmed as Britchcombe Farm, Uffington

Having read the description of the site I realise that I know exactly where it is. Goodness knows how many times I must have travelled up to White Horse Hill in my life, but the indication that you are practically there has always been the "cream teas" sign on the road side. Turns out that this is the very place that does the cream teas! Great, mental note to try that out while I'm there.

Drove down to Oxfordshire via a whistle stop in Lincoln, having made a visit to Pa's and calling in on cousin Emily to see her new pad, as she has recently moved from Sherbrooke Street. Jasper was completely nuts about meeting Rolo and spent most of the time, if not all of it, jumping on Rolo and showing his affection for him. :-{

Arriving at Britchcombe Farm mid afternoon, I was shown to a large field just below the White Horse. There was only one other small tent in the field so I selected a spot at the opposite end and let Jasper out for a run around while I put up the tent. Despite my concerns that he may not settle in the tent and would be a bit scared of it, I couldn't have been more wrong. He seemed to see it as his own personal kennel and it was difficult to get him out of it!


On the Friday morning, we woke early, due to a wood pigeon who lived in the tree nearest to us. Bloody thing. For future reference, Wood Pigeons tend to wake up about 6am. I speak from bleary eyed experience. Hmmph.

Anyway, as we were up, and the weather looked reasonable, I decided to go for a walk on the Ridgeway. The forecast was for rain, so I figured it was best to make the most of it while it was clear.

From the campsite, it was probably 400 yards to the Ridgeway, but of course it was straight up! It was okay though cos Jasper pulled me and we were soon on the famous pathway.

As this is the area I where I was brought up, features such as the Ridgeway and the White Horse, and many others, are just part of where you live, and it is only as we get older that we come to appreciate just how special they are. Having a camping holiday in the area was a great opportunity for me to visit some of these sites as a tourist, rather than just walk or  drive past them as on so many other occasions.

At around 5000 years old, it is the oldest road in Britain and is 87 miles long, following the ridge of the Chalk downs - hence the name. Originally the road would have extended from coast to coast, but it is impressive that so much of it still survives. 

Of course, because it is a ridge walk, it's not hilly once you get up there, so I am hopeful that I have persuaded Tyna to undertake a walk of the entire Ridgeway path in the not too distant future! 

From the campsite, heading West the first landmark we encountered was the earthworks known as Uffington Castle. This is the site of an Iron Age hill fort, but it is built over the top of an earlier Bronze Age fort. The site is the highest point in the County and as such it commands impressive views across the arable landscape. The view is sadly spoiled by the imposition of Watchfield Wind Turbines to the North West. 

Below Uffington Castle is the White Horse, but I left a visit to this for another day and carried on along the Ridgeway to Waylands Smithy. This is an ancient burial site. There are a number of long barrows in the area, but this one is a bit special. When we were kids, you could actually go right inside the mound, but today it is closed off.  It's a shame that we have to do this, but I must say that my memory of this place was one of litter, beer cans and the smell more familiar in the corner of phone boxes! Today, however, the site is filled with the air of calm and peacefulness that it so much more deserves.
 
Waylands Smithy is surrounded in mystery and misconception, and of course, we cannot hope to ever understand exactly how it came about so long ago. 


 






When it was first discovered it was not recognised as a burial mound, but was thought to be a cave which had been home to Weyland, a mythical Blacksmith. The story goes that if you left your horse tethered and placed a coin in the smithy, you could return in the morning to find him reshoed.


In the sixties, however, excavations took place and it was discovered that this was a burial mound built over the top of a previous one. There were 14 folk buried here, 11 men, 2 women and a child, and there is some intrigue over the circumstances of their deaths. I couldn't capture it on a photo, but the mound extends over quite an area and is line by smaller upright stones making it rather grand in appearance as it sits in this small tree lined enclosure. It is unclear why it is so grand. We will never know I suppose, but it is certainly impressive.


After our 9 mile walk (there and back to see how far it is) I took Jasper to meet Tyna & Phoebe, and the dogs   - Angel & Mins. Mins is a Newfoundland/Collie cross and is the same age as Jasper, ie 18 months, and boy did they have fun. I think it is fair to say that they wore us all out completely constantly running around after each other, and Jasper just would not leave her alone. So we slunk off and had an early night. The wood pigeon had ensured that we were pretty sleepy anyway!


On the Saturday, Jasper and I went for a run along the Ridgeway, much the same route that we walked before, and then in the afternoon Tyna & Phoebe drove up to the farm and we all went for a walk into Uffington. Well, we planned to go to Woolstone, but we were so busy gassing that we went wrong and ended up in the wrong village. Doh. Never mind, there was a pub, so we had a beer in the garden before trekking off to the correct place! Namely, another pub, this one being The White Horse in Woolstone.

We got a good soaking on our travels as the weather was gloriously sunny one minute and the next thundery deluges! Tyna made an executive decision that we should return to the farm and try one of their famous cream teas! I had never had one despite all those years of seeing the signpost. So we availed ourselves of the facilities and it wasn't 'alf bad!!

Sunday lunchtime I had arrange to meet an old schoolfriend, Sandra at the pub at noon, so once again, making use of the resident wood pigeon as an alarm clock, we were able to get out early for a good run. Jasper developed a fear of hens which he will probably never get over on the return leg. We were passing someone's garden where they had a variety of chooks, and it was surrounded with electric fencing. The click-click indicated that the signs were not  bluffing so I firmly instructed Jasper to 'leave it' when he showed more than a passing interest. He is normally very reliable with that particular command but before I could react he has poked his nose a tad too far and boy! Did he yelp!! Poor ol' buddie! It took me a few minutes to persuade him that it was safe to move again, and he is fine, of course, but at least I think it taught him a lesson.

Zoomed down to the pub to just a couple of fashionable minutes late to find Sandra waiting out the front of the boozer for us. I think she was quite looking forward to meeting Jasper!  After some consideration we concluded that we had last seen one another in 1987, so, just the other day really then. Isn't it funny how we imagine that we change but actually we don't change at all (apart from the hair colour perhaps??!)


Really lovely to meet an old friend again, Sandra was always a little bit special if only cos she shared my initials (SR). I wonder if she remembered that model toothpaste tube we made for open evening at school. Obviously we chose to make it SR toothpaste... don't think they make it any more do they?

After the pub we went together to Tyna's so that they could meet up as well, as they have also not seen each other for ages. Jasper of course was pleased to meet up with Mins again and pursued her with renewed ardour. Sigh. Maybe I should get him de-conkered?!

And so to Monday, my last day in Oxfordshire. The weather was expected to be wet but our tree dwelling friend woke us to glorious sunshine and it was pretty warm too. Straight out of bed and got the breakfast cooking. I decided to stick with the prehistoric remains and nip across to Avebury.

Avebury is at the start of the Ridgeway, about 20 miles to the West of Uffington and is in a league of its own. Whilst I have spent the past few days in landscapes of National importance, Avebury is designated a World Heritage Site. It is the site of the largest stone circle in Europe.

Sadly, many of the stones are no longer visible, having been plundered over the years as building material, or simply removed because they were in the way. 

During the last century there was a lot of restoration work undertaken and where the original stones were absent a concrete pillar was put in place, to show the how the formation would have looked. I like the way this was done as it allows you to appreciate the shape of the overall construction without faking it in anyway, what I mean by that is that it is obvious the pillars are merely markers, rather than pretending to be the 'real thing'.

There was a large stone circle with two inner circles. It is suggested that one of the inner circles was constructed to align with solar events (dawn, sunset and solstices) and the other for equivalent lunar events. Surrounded by a high chalk bank, he main outer circle had four entrances, North, South, East and West and each of these was approached by a stone lined avenue. Most of the avenue stones are long gone, but two approaches are still visible, particularly the West Kennet approach.

The circle is cut through by the road and the village pub, and it is no surprise to hear reports that the pub is haunted. Well, most publicans claim this to be so, and this one is smack bang at one of the most mystical sites in the world, so it's bound to be, isn't it.


Spent a few hours wandering around the stones before heading back. Stopping off at one of the oddest things I've ever come across, and I have never been able to understand this one at all. Silbury Hill. 

Even if you read up on it, you're not really any wiser. The blurb says it is believed to be the largest man made mound in the world. Yeah, but... what's it for?!! Several excavations have been conducted to try to discover the purpose of the hill, and all we have learned is that it is not a burial chamber.

Apparently the hill has been built up over time, until eventually what we see today, and it is estimated that it would have taken 14 million man hours to construct it. It is mainly built of chalk and is equivalent in size to the pyramids, if that helps you at all. The hill forms part of the World Heritage Site along with Avebury. But it really is just kind of wierd, sitting there in a relatively flat landscape. Very odd indeed.




The warm sunshine continued and so in the afternoon Tyna & Phoebe once again joined me and we took the inevitable trip up White Horse Hill. To be camping on the edge of the hill and not having visiting the horse yet was quite something, but it was always my intention to make it the last thing I visited here.


It's difficult to explain, but there is a deep affection for this horse. When I was looking at books in the National Trust shop in Avebury a bloke came over and pointed out a book about the eight white horses in the area, so I informed him that I wasn't interested in the others, only the Uffington one. He looked a little taken aback, but in fact, there is a shedload of difference between this one and all the others.

The Uffington White Horse

The Uffington White Horse is somewhere in the region of 3000 years old, and is quite different in appearance to the other horses in the area. These others (there are eight in Wiltshire) are a more typical horse design as opposed to the symbolic appearance of the Uffington one, and are mostly less than 300 years in age. Whippersnappers really!

The best view you can get from the ground

Another striking difference is the positioning of the design on the hillside. Most chalk figures are visible on the approach to the hill, being cut into the side, but Uffington's horse is on the top and barely visible from the ground. It is only with an aerial viewpoint that you can see it all. Which surely poses the question, who was meant to see it? 


King Alfred the Great was born just down the road from here in a small market town called Wantage (that's where I come from) and I remember when I was young that it was suggested that the locals cut the horse into the hill as a memorial to his great victory which thwarted the invasion by the Danes way back in the 9th century, but later archaeological studies have shown the horse to be much much older than this. Perhaps the Danes were scared off by the horse, and not by Alfred and his army after all!

The eye and Dragon Mound below

Currently the horse is managed by The National Trust, and it is a great pleasure to see the horse no longer surrounded by shabby fencing, but open for all to see and walk right up to. There is a request that you don't walk on the horse itself, but tradition goes that if you turn around three times whilst standing on the eye, your wish will be granted. Sorry National Trust, but I confess, I did do this during my visit, but then, you have filled the eye in with something hardwearing to allow for people like me, haven't you!


I always thought that chalk cuttings were exactly that, but apparently they are made by cutting trenches which form the shape and then filling it with blocks cut from the chalk. I am told the horse has been scoured in the last ten years, and I am happy to confirm that it is looking pretty darn good. Trust me, it is well worth a visit, there is such a warm and friendly feeling about the place, and I'm not really an airy-fairy type, but it exists here for sure.

The Manger and Giants Staircase

Immediately below the horse is a strangely shaped little valley called The Manger. Legend has it that the horse feeds from here when no-one is looking. The western side of the manger has these strange ripples which I always thought were barrows (probably just because there are so many around these parts) but they are, like the valley itself, a glacial feature. Locally, these are known as the Giants Staircase, for obvious reasons.

And in case this isn't all impressive enough, also just below the horse, is Dragon Mound. Strangely The National Trust seem to think it is called Dragon Hill. Is it 'eck as like. Oh yes, it means THE dragon. St George killed the creature upon this very hill. To this day there is a patch on the flat topped mound which never grows grass on it  - this is where the poisonous blood from the dragon was spilled, and a small amount is said to have trickled down the side and rendered that equally barren. 

Dragons Mound

Ah so, much to see, so many legends to ponder, and all on one hillside. Y'see, it's nothing like the other  White Horse Hills.

Of course, once you have taken all this in, only one thing remains and that is to get your kite out. Oh yes, this is kite-flying territory extraordinaire. Fortunately, Tyna had one of those wee pocket kites in the car, so we got that out and Tyna did her Kate Bush impersonation.

Any Kate Bush fans out there will surely know that the video for 'Cloudbusting' was filmed on White Horse Hill. How the heck she got up there with her film crew and Donald Sutherland and we didn't know about it until we saw it on the television for the first time, we will never know. 

Yet another mystery in an area full of em.