Tuesday was a day spent in fine weather, following my own advice for focus week. Having already visited the three other long barrows in Kent (see post before this one), I spent the day visiting the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum.
It was not as informative on traditional woodland management practices as I had hoped, although it seemed that there were special days when singular skills and traditional practices were taught by historians and demonstrated, but you had to be there for each of those individual events (@ £8.00 a pop!) and as luck would have it, I wasn't.
Still ,the visit was worthwhile on a number of levels: For one, I was able to see the much talked of Downland Gridshell. This fabulous sinewy building is in effect a shell, which is formed of many pieces of overlapping timber bound into a shape that exists under constant compression and tension. This makes for not only a fabulous shaped piece of architecture, but also a self enforcing structure of extreme strength and longevity. Further to this, timber, unlike other materials, has a natural ability to weather with its surroundings meaning that it is already seamlessly a part of the landscape. And yet it retains on the interior, the beauty and warmth that timber is renowned for. It really is an engineering achievement, but it is not this that you appreciate when you first see it, but rather the sheer scale of the thing. It has to be the largest timber structure that I have ever layed eyes on and this is emphasised by there being no compartmentalisation within the building, leaving a vast open space flooded with natural light, filtered by the beech trees which surround it. It all makes for a wonderful workshop, where it is hoped, Britain's foremost research and restoration of timber buildings will be able to take place.
Overall I hoped more of the place than it was able to offer, but this is not a bad reflection on the museum, as they do not pertain to offer what I sought. Rather it is an observation, that alongside their work on the preservation of ancient timber structures, they could also preserve and teach the traditional wodland crafts that provided and supported the industry of building during the historic periods in which the buildings were erected. To go a step beyond their current practice, an increase in the times available for vistors to observe and/or take part in these traditions would be only to their credit, and when these events are not taking place, some literature available from the shop and some information plaques around the site with visual examples akin to what they have for the buildings, would all be worthy additions.
Beyond this experience, it was a great family afternoon, and I picked up a fantastic bargain on a beautiful Eco homes book. Oh, and Ash got a toy tractor :)
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Experiencing Kent's Neolithic long Barrows
A couple of weeks ago I was re-visiting Shrub's Wood Barrow (the site of our ongoing AONB project for university), and I took the opportunity to also visit the other three long barrows of Kent: The Countless Stones near Kit's Cotty, Coldrum Long Barrow, and Addington Long Barrow (this last one does not have a photograph here as it requires payment to be visited and is unimpressive, existing in a restricted site with a road running through it's middle).
The visits proved well worth my while, and helped largely to inform me of the attitude taken by the relevant authorities towards the celebration and upkeep of these ancient and internationally important monuments.
Addington had a road put through it by the local council in the fifties to discourage pagan worship rituals and is really just a mess split behind two fences with sheep grazing it.
The Countless Stones were unimpressive in themselves. Simply a jumble of large sarson stones with slight remnants of neolithic markings on their faces. But a lot had been done to take care of them, and the owners of the land along with English Heritage have placed a black wrought iron palisade fence around the outside to mark it out and protect it. There is also evidence that the grass within the fenceline is regularly mown, and a small information board sits at the entrance. It is, however, obvious that the location of the stones, and the neighbouring Dolmen Kit's Cotty were in accordance with most of these sites and were placed in a dominant position over the landscape, at a high point and commanding good views. Interestingly not far from the Countless Stones, perhaps 200m, there were three more large stones that appeared to be sarsons, being used as boundary markers to a junction of three fields, so perhaps they too were once part of the group of stones that it was said of that 'no two men could count them and achieve the same result'.
Finally, Coldrum Long Barrow was by far the grandest of the sites to visit. Commanding a spectacular view across a long vale, it stood at about thirty feet high with a grand entrance framed by three giant sarsons. This site is owned by the National Trust, and it is obvious that they have invested some thought in how to commemorate the site. It has a very modest but locally accurate split pail beech fence running around it with simple steps cut into the embankment from whence to gain the summit, and a beautiful beech hedge fronting it onto the adjacent farm lane. It also has two very detailed plaques with a great deal of illustrated information and an artists impression of the barrow in it's former glory.
We arrived first thing in the morning with a feint distant mist and the sun peaking in perfect alignment with the barrow's head stones. It was at this moment that I really felt the full significance of the alignment of these monuments and appreciated the spectacle all the better for my positioning (also in alignment and facing the east). I really felt that this experience helped justify in my mind my proposals for Shrub's Wood Barrow, which also runs in east - west alignment but is currently obscured from the sun until around 10 or 11am when it crests the dense woodland that surrounds the barrow.
The visits proved well worth my while, and helped largely to inform me of the attitude taken by the relevant authorities towards the celebration and upkeep of these ancient and internationally important monuments.
Addington had a road put through it by the local council in the fifties to discourage pagan worship rituals and is really just a mess split behind two fences with sheep grazing it.
The Countless Stones were unimpressive in themselves. Simply a jumble of large sarson stones with slight remnants of neolithic markings on their faces. But a lot had been done to take care of them, and the owners of the land along with English Heritage have placed a black wrought iron palisade fence around the outside to mark it out and protect it. There is also evidence that the grass within the fenceline is regularly mown, and a small information board sits at the entrance. It is, however, obvious that the location of the stones, and the neighbouring Dolmen Kit's Cotty were in accordance with most of these sites and were placed in a dominant position over the landscape, at a high point and commanding good views. Interestingly not far from the Countless Stones, perhaps 200m, there were three more large stones that appeared to be sarsons, being used as boundary markers to a junction of three fields, so perhaps they too were once part of the group of stones that it was said of that 'no two men could count them and achieve the same result'.
Finally, Coldrum Long Barrow was by far the grandest of the sites to visit. Commanding a spectacular view across a long vale, it stood at about thirty feet high with a grand entrance framed by three giant sarsons. This site is owned by the National Trust, and it is obvious that they have invested some thought in how to commemorate the site. It has a very modest but locally accurate split pail beech fence running around it with simple steps cut into the embankment from whence to gain the summit, and a beautiful beech hedge fronting it onto the adjacent farm lane. It also has two very detailed plaques with a great deal of illustrated information and an artists impression of the barrow in it's former glory.
We arrived first thing in the morning with a feint distant mist and the sun peaking in perfect alignment with the barrow's head stones. It was at this moment that I really felt the full significance of the alignment of these monuments and appreciated the spectacle all the better for my positioning (also in alignment and facing the east). I really felt that this experience helped justify in my mind my proposals for Shrub's Wood Barrow, which also runs in east - west alignment but is currently obscured from the sun until around 10 or 11am when it crests the dense woodland that surrounds the barrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
