How do Hob?
Don't know why I didn't spot your post to the site a long time ago.
you posted:
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'During the great storm of 1987, when trees all over England were toppled by sudden great winds (the storm the Met Office didn't predict), many of the trees surrounding Wayland's Smithy were uprooted. However, none of them fell inwards, thus protecting the barrow from damage. Is this true? and if so, is there a nice tidy rational explanation, possibly to do with air pressure or soil density, that doesn't require the invocation of protective tree spirits?'
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To quote Max Boyce 'I know, cos I was there'!
Myself and a group of friends went up there some days afterwards (one of us had a car at the time - we lived in Didcot). There were trees down, and some had fallen inwards. I don't remember any actually falling on the barrow (certainly none on the stones). I remember a large trunk towards the left end of the barrow (if you're standing at the front looking into the chamber). Maybe some branches may have landed on the barrow but not a trunk. Plenty came down from the sides (look at the big gap and lack of trees on the left hand side). There was also some down on the right hand side. Not so many at the front or the back (from memory - lots of beer has been drunk since and killed a lot of grey matter).
I guess it was just a 'random gusty windy chancey thingy' that dictated the direction of falling - that's as close to a tidy rational explaination as I can get. But, who knows; stranger things have happened...
I don't remember if any came down in the 1990 storms.
All the best
WF x
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