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tjj

3606 posts

Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort

Apr 13, 2011, 21:38

Was out walking at the beginning of the week around the village of Brimpsfield in Gloucestershire; at the end of the walk I suggested we have a quick look at the village church which was set apart from the village and accessed only by a field path. Walking up to the church there was on the left something that looked very similar to a hillfort - earthworks surrounded by a deep ditch. It was in fact the remains of Brimpsfield Castle which was built in the 12/13th century and later destroyed. Set alongside the church (also Norman) both were on an escarpment overlooking the surrounding countryside. A wind picked up as we walked towards the church and there was a sense of a 'time-shift' - I couldn't lose the hillfort image but can find nothing to suggest either church or castle were built on a more ancient site.

History is a continuation of pre-history when all is said and done and I wondered if the model for medieval castles, encircled by a defensive moat was based on the hillfort principle. Just musing, sorry if I've wandered off topic.

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Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort (tiompan)

Resonox

604 posts

Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort

Apr 14, 2011, 05:58

tiompan wrote:

Sanctuary wrote:

I've always believed that Neolithic man believed in the Afterlife George and that water played a huge part of that belief, hence many monuments were built near to it. Water cleansed the body and by definition purified it and the soul prior to beginning its journey into the next world. It represented the border between this world and the next!

Sorry should have been a bit clearer about the water /henge connection . It is just that even when not close to water courses henge ditches show signs of having being silted and even today are seen to hold water .

Proximity to water...whether natural or "created"/collected is a necessity for day to day existence...and as a sustainer of life it isn't surprising or unfeasible that it would have significance bordering on reverence.

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Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort (tiompan)

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Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort (tiompan)

tiompan

5758 posts

Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort

Apr 14, 2011, 07:59

Resonox wrote:

tiompan wrote:

Sanctuary wrote:

True , but siting of some possibly "ceremonial " or at least not obviously utilitarian monuments in relation to water courses has been noted sometimes speciously from the phenomenologists but portal tombs are commonly aligned on the route of a small water courses with the portal aimed towards the source . Conversely Stonehenge is sited in a desert .

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Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort (Resonox)

danielspaniel

90 posts

Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort

Apr 14, 2011, 10:03

I've always been led to believe this is a dew pond, not 'natural'.

Apparently there is another temporary pool within the enclosure in one of the many 19th Century open cast flint mining pits atop the hill - it only appears when it is very wet!

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Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort (Resonox)

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Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort (danielspaniel)

danielspaniel

90 posts

Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort

Apr 14, 2011, 10:04

There are fairies in the dew pond apparently: http://sussexrambler.blogspot.com/2010/04/cowslips-on-wolstonbury-hill.html

;-)

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Re: Wolstonbury: henge or hillfort (danielspaniel)

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