The journey down would be around 230 miles and could be done in about five hours from my home if the road and traffic conditions were favourable, which unfortunately they rarely are nowadays. We travelled down on a Friday and could enter the cottage any time after 3pm, so I decided to turn it into another full day by going early and taking things fairly easy by stopping off en-route to stretch my legs and give Annie a comfort break. I should say at this point that the ‘we’ refers to myself, little Annie and my friend who I have known for some years and who also knew my late wife and by chance we met up late last year and have since started to shared each others company as we are both now singletons.
My friend is a big fan of Downton Abbey which as you may know is filmed at the home of Lord Canarvon’s family seat of High Clere Castle. I had two possible routes to take to our destination, one was to take the M6 motorway South then connect with the M6 toll road and onto the M42 & M40 then eventually onto the A34 which would take me past High Clere Castle. I had intended to do this route as a treat for my friend and while I took Annie for a stroll around the parklands she could take a tour of the house. Unfortunately as it is still a private residence it is not open to the public for as often as you may have thought and to make matters worse if the house is not open to the public then the grounds are also closed, so you cannot even park up and view the exterior, unlike say Chatesworth house in Derbyshire where you can still enter the parkland even if the house is closed for visiting.
The route described above is mostly motorway and often fraught with delays and as I had no real reason to take that option after finding High Clere closed so I decide on the alternative of taking the M6 South and then joining the M5 which if delays do not occur is a relatively easy drive, usually it is the return leg of the M5 joining the M6 that is a real pain in the bum with huge delays being typical at this intersection. I could have gone quite far down on the M5 before crossing towards the South Coast and my destination, but I left the motorway well before so that I could head towards the town of Salisbury. The reason being that I could call in and visit the world famous ‘Stonehenge Circle’ ancient monument as my friend had never seen it before, so it made an ideal detour and rest stop on the way down.
Stonehenge is an ancient Neolithic site of worship and was built around 2500 BC. So is older than the Egyptian Pyramids. At one time a road (the A303) used to pass right next to the monument and it was easily visible from the road, however after pressure from various bodies such as ‘English Heritage’ the road was closed and the public were barred from the actual site other than on the Summer Solstice when they are allowed in to witness the sun rising between the huge ‘Sarsen’ stones. A new visitors centre was built nearby and it is proposed that all of the surrounding chalk downs will eventually be returned to their natural state existing at the time of it’s construction. We arrived at the new visitor centre and it looks quite impressive from the outside with lots of free parking, it is a fair distance away from stone circle and it is not even visible at this point. Unfortunately whereas it used to be free to visit, since it came under the control of English Heritage you now have to pay an exorbitant entrance fee and you are bussed in from the visitor centre and then are only allowed to view the stones at a safe distance by walking around them at about 100 feet away. There is an outside replica of a Sarsen stone being transported on a wooden sledge and a small group of thatched ‘Wattle and Daub’ round houses typical of the period when the monument was built. We were both amused when a little old lady from Vietnam kept gesturing with her camera towards one of the huts and I thought that she wated her picture taken beside one of them, but no, she wanted both of us and Annie to pose outside of one! We duly obliged and laughingly stood outside the door as she took her picture, no doubt our mug shot is now gracing the mantelpiece of her home in Vietnam as an example of how the poor British have to live in mud huts. (unfortunately I took no pictures here)
I was about to get our entrance tickets when an attendant told me that Annie would not be allowed on the shuttle bus and also not allowed to accompany us around the monument. Now as around 50% of people in the UK own a dog and most would take them on holiday where possible and as we are only talking of a pile of stones in a field, it did seem a bit extreme not allowing dogs on a lead. To me this promotes people leaving dogs inside locked vehicles while visiting such places and that is not something I was prepared to do. So consulting the map I discovered an unmade public road not far away that actually cut across some fields with an excellent views of the stone circle.
Views taken from the unmarked road, note how the top of the upright stones have a locating node on the tops to locate the cap stones
I continued along this road and it arrived at the exact same place as the shuttle bus discharged the visitors in order to enter the site proper. I parked nearby and walked to a guy who was selling Strawberries and purchased a punnet from him and because my car was loaded up to the gunnels and therefore an easy target for opportunist thieves, I asked him to keep an eye on it while I walked to the site entrance to try for some better pictures. He said he would watch the car and then pointed to a field gate just a few yards down from where we were standing, “go through there and follow the fence, it is public land” he said. I followed his advice and within minutes we were right opposite the monument and no more than 50 feet from the paying visitors and best of all Annie was with us and not left in a hot car, plus it was free, so it was their loss and our gain.
Seen here is how the public have to walk a set route around the monument
Close ups of the stones
The Poppies, wild wheat and grasses were in full flower.
This shows the distance from the visitor centre, it is beyond the gap in the tree line on the horizon
After half an hour or so and short refreshment break for us and Annie we set off in high hopes for our cottage about another 70 miles away, the sun had broken through and the weather forecast was good for the coming week, so far so good.
For anyone wanting further information about Stonehenge this site is useful:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visi ... e/history/
Lovely photos, by the way, although I feel that Stonehenge is over-rated.
Oh dear MD 