Avebury

These are two of the Sarsen stones which make up The Cove, part of the magnificent Avebury Henge. We briefly dropped in en route to our B & B this afternoon but we intend planning a walking route around all of the ancient sites in this part of the world. There are certainly plenty to see and early tomorrow we drive south to take a look at Stonehenge.

The building of Avebury began about 2600 BC and the Wessex farmers would have used antlers as picks and the shoulder blades of cattle as shovels. Apparently there were originally 247 standing stones within the henge. The heaviest remaining one weighs about 65 tonnes! It is believed that the stones originally lay on the surface of the surrounding hills and it is thought that wooden rollers were used to transport them to the site. Sockets were dug and then ropes, wooden props and levers were used to raise the stones vertically into the sockets. They then rammed chalk, flints and small sarsens into the bases to hold them firm. The Swindon Stone had spent 4000 years balanced on one corner with most of its bulk above ground. How's that for engineering?!

More stone blips here!