Old Sarum

Old Sarum is an Iron Age hillfort just north of Salisbury, later adapted into a Norman motte and bailey castle which contained Salisbury’s first cathedral. Salisbury, only a few miles from Stonehenge, has long been considered one of Britain’s most special spiritual places and this stretches back far into prehistory.

The outer bank of the fort.

The fort is on a natural hill which has commanding views over the Avon valley and surrounding area, and draws the eye from miles around. It was an ideal spot for an Iron Age statement of command and power.

The Iron Age ditch and two banks, which enclose an area around 400m diameter, were cleared and redug in Norman times, the reason for their incredible preservation. A visit is recommended just to see how the vast ditches of places such as Avebury and many other hillforts would have looked before thousands of years of erosion and infilling. Standing on the bank and looking into the thirty-metre deep ditch is a vertigo-inducing experience to say the least. It was about more than simple defence. It was a statement of power.

Old Sarum’s ditch. The very small sheep gives an indication of scale. 

Ironically, little more is known of the early site. The Norman reconstruction which preserved the ditches removed everything else. The fort was first built around 400BC, and occupation continued into the Roman period, where it became known as Sorviodunum. Five Roman roads converge at Salisbury which illustrates the site’s importance. Some of these roads were in use long before the Romans arrived, and may even date back to the Neolithic period, which marks the earliest occupation of the site.

The view east from the bank. The Roman road leading towards London is visible.

Salisbury marks the confluence of five rivers, the Avon, Nadder, Bourne, Ebble and Wylye, which would make it a hugely important place in the time when rivers were the main mode of transport and also the most important landmarks when travelling across a land devoid of manmade features. This is likely a big factor in Sarum’s continuing practical and spiritual importance.

The confluence of the Avon and the Nadder.

Sarum was captured from the British by the Saxons and then abandoned until invading Vikings forced its reoccupation. Saxon mercenaries who guarded the junction of the Roman roads lived and were buried nearby, and other rich Saxon burials were found close to the foot of the fort, including that of a sixth-century woman who was buried with elaborate grave goods including a purse ring made of elephant ivory, blue glass beads and a copper brooch. This high-status woman, who had trade links stretching as far as Africa, illustrates the continuing importance of this district, two thousand years after Wessex had become the richest land in Britain.

It is from this period that the name derives. Sarum is an adaptation of Seresberie, a late Saxon-period burgh and Royal Mint. This later evolved into Salisbury. The prefix Sar or Sear is probably a pre-Saxon personal name.

The Medieval castle, cathedral and town.

The fortified town of Old Sarum and its cathedral were later moved south to New Sarum, or Salisbury town, and the ancient site was abandoned to the wilderness.

The view south towards Salisbury. The new cathedral is visible.

The Thornborough Henges

The southeast entrance of the central henge.

The Thornborough Henges, just north of Ripon in Yorkshire, are thought to be a part of a ritual landscape once as important as Stonehenge.

The three large henges, each 240m in diameter, were built as a single concept around 2800BC. They form a slightly offset line which has been suggested to represent the stars of Orion’s Belt. This feature has also been proposed for the three stone circles in Orkney and the three pyramids of Giza.

The three henges, showing their arrangement akin to Orion’s Belt. (Tony Newbould, Wikicommons).

The southern henge is now almost entirely destroyed. The central henge comprises an outer bank, surviving to three metres high in places, then a wide berm and an inner ditch with two causeways, now barely visible. The inner area, which has the feel of an inner sanctum and was perhaps screened with timber, comprises around half the area of the henge. The two entrances align with the midwinter sunrise and the midsummer sunset.

The ditch and causeway of the northern henge.

The northern henge, which is now covered with trees, is the best preserved. Like the other henges, it comprises an outer bank with an inner berm around 15 metres in diameter, then a ditch surviving to around four metres deep. This ditch is perfectly dry, even in the wettest periods, so presumably was never intended to contain water. Perhaps these ditches were a statement of partition, segregating the innermost area of the henge where only a select few were permitted, from the outer area where all people could congregate.

The entrances of this henge again align with the midwinter sunrise and the midsummer sunset, and the central henge lies in their direct view. The northern entrance opens out onto the gentle slope of the hillside which soon disappears from view. This seems to emphasise that this is the end of the monument.

The bank and inner berm of the northern henge.

Thornborough was important long before the henges were built. Two cursuses, a little-understood type of monument of which the most famous is at Stonehenge, lie nearby and predate the henges by perhaps a thousand years. One passes by the north henge, and the second passes beneath the central henge and continues towards the river. It is suggested they are a commemoration of an ancient processional way.

The central henge, looking towards the northern henge in the distant trees.

The henges are on a fairly flat hilltop where they would have been prominent from a wide area. They are a few hundred metres from the River Ure, one of two important rivers in Yorkshire which were a focus for ritual monuments, on slightly higher ground so as to be safe from flood risk. On the horizon to the east is the scarp of the North Yorkshire Moors, and the henges, once coated in brilliant white gypsum, would have been clearly visible from this high ground. And it is from this point that their arrangement, reflecting Orion’s Belt, would have been noticeable.

The River Ure near Thornborough

Thornborough is on one of the major ancient routeways from the Midlands to the North, and also to the East to the Vale of Pickering. This is the point where the land changes from the vast flat plain of York to the hills of the Yorkshire Dales. Another reason for choosing this site is the band of underlying gypsum in the area, especially prone to forming huge sinkholes without warning which can on occasion swallow houses. This dangerous and unpredictable phenomenon, perhaps associated with openings to the chthonic otherworld, is likely a reason for the henges’ location.

A sinkhole in a limestone area. (Peter Dean, Wikicommons).