Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Avebury

On Saturday of Week 8, I went with Canadian Kate to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Avebury.


Stonehenge:
Stonehenge was our first stop in the morning, and it was about a 1.5 hour bus ride from Oxford. You get an audio guide to listen to as you make your way around the path that surrounds Stonehenge. This took about 40 minutes. Some parts of the path were fairly close to the stone circle, while others were pretty far away. There are special times when people can enter the stone circle, but general visitors must stay away in order to protect the stones and the grounds (since there may be important archaeological things underneath).

Stonehenge is thought to have been built around 2000-3000 BC. Some of the stones come from as far away as Wales. The most amazing thing is that apparently 1/3 of each stone is underground. The way Stonehenge was built shows that the builders had knowledge of wood-working, as they carved knobs and openings into stones in order to connect them together (though the weight of the stones would have held them together just fine). The sun comes through the circle at different points depending on the season. Researchers still do not know what Stonehenge was used for. In modern times, Druids treat Stonehenge as a religious site.

The heel stone lies outside of the circle. I thought the stone resembled some funny-looking creature:

Stonehenge is in the middle of the countryside, and the area is full of ancient burial mounds:

We saw a guy protesting by the parking lot of the Stonehenge visitor center who wanted all archaeological pieces taken from the Stonehenge site returned to their place. Apparently he is an old Druid who is there all the time.

Salisbury
After Stonehenge, we went to Salisbury, a small city about half an hour from Stonehenge. The "u" is not pronounced when the English end a word with "bury," so it sounds like 'Salisbrie.' The city is known for its beautiful Anglican cathedral built in the 13th century. Though visiting the cathedral is technically free, the entrance is Met style where you have to go through a ticket desk to enter and are asked for the suggested donation. Having a sign that says it costs 4 million pounds a year to keep the cathedral running is a pretty good strategy to get people to pay to enter.

The cathedral has the tallest (and extremely heavy) church spire in the UK and the oldest (from the 14th century) working clock in the world (though I would have no idea how to tell time with it).

Salisbury Cathedral is massive, and the interior is a mishmash of designs from different periods. I saw some elements that were dated as from the 1970s.

We found the Oxford and Cambridge seals on something towards the front of the cathedral. The Oxford seal had the more prominent position, while the Cambridge one faced the wall. Cambridge is also much farther away from Salisbury than Oxford is.

The cathedral also has a room with one of the original copies of the Magna Carta, and Kate caused a little scene when we were looking at it and she gently touched a wooden barrier that came falling down (and was obviously an issue before she touched it). Apparently our resulting laughter caused the security guard to think we were school kids.

We then went to walk around the city centre. We passed a restaurant called the Boston Tea Party and a strip of stores of Claire's, The Body Shop, and a store called Times Square (America row?). We explored the flea/farmer's market, and the weather was warm enough for us to eat lunch outside. We then took a walk along the river, saw a lot of swans, and got some ice cream from an ice cream truck in a park along the river.

Avebury:
Our last stop of the day was Avebury, which was about an hour from Salisbury. Avebury is home to the largest stone circle in Europe and was built around 2600 BC. There is one big stone circle with two smaller circles around it, and a small village has now popped up in the middle and around the circle.

real thatched roofs

We were told a story about how a man ended up underneath a stone. In the 14th century, residents of Avebury wanted to bury the pagan stones. While one man was digging under one side of the stone, it fell on him and crushed him.

The circle is a henge monument, meaning it is surrounded by a giant circular ditch.

Visitors are allowed to touch the rocks, and Druids still use the Avebury stone circles as a religious site.

We also went into the Church of England parish church, which was built in the 11th century.

We then had an hour long journey back to Oxford.