Ancient Landscapes Through the Lens - 23rd May

Ancient Landscapes Through the Lens

A guided photographic walk to Breamore

with David Walker and Peter Norton

Tuesday 23 May 10am

Meet at St Mary’s Church, Breamore. (Car parking near to the countryside museum)

www.google.co.uk/maps/place/St+Mary's+Church,+Breamore/@50.969276,-1.7830881,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x76c5811ecf4c28e2!8m2!3d50.969276!4d-1.7830881

Contact on the day David Walker 07840 326302

Kit List Please bring stout shoes, clothing suitable for all weathers, photographic equipment, and any drinks and snacks you may require. This walk is not suitable for those with walking difficulties.

Background   Breamore Church is 9 miles from Salisbury. The walk will pass through the grounds of Breamore House, up to the Mizmaze and then on to the Giants Grave returning by the same route covering approximately 3.4 miles.

Details  The large Saxon church of St Mary’s is thought to date from 980, and could have been a minster on a royal estate although no ruins for such a place have ever been found. An Augustinian Priory was built about a mile away in 1130, and excavations of the priory site in the late 19th century revealed some stone coffins of which three were removed and placed close to the old yew tree to preserve them from damage.

 

A large ancient female yew grows close to the southwest porch and for reasons unknown the yew is thought to have been cut down in the early 1800’s. In 1896 JC Lowe reported that “For by 1888 there were “8 or 10 young trunks a foot or more in diameter growing within the old trunk”.

From the churchyard, we will follow the footpath through the grounds of Breamore House, head up to Breamore Down and around one mile (from the church) and reach the turf Mizmaze which is enclosed by a yew grove.

 

A Christian cross cuts through the Cretan design of the mediaeval turf Mizmaze. This is not the sort of maze with dead ends, but a labyrinth where all paths eventually lead to the little mound in the centre. Paths of turf, made by cutting down to the bare chalk between them, curve in a symmetrical pattern.

The Mizmaze is thought to have been originally used on holy days in Pagan times, according to tradition, monks used the maze for their penances, painfully traversing it on their knees. With prayers said at fixed points along the path.

Just to the west of the Mizmaze (300m) is an ancient Neolithic long barrow recorded as Giants Grave, thought to date from around 3,700 BCE and orientated NE-SW with the NE end facing uphill.

Long barrows represent the burial places of Britain's early farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, long barrows appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the human remains having been selected for interment.

This whole area of downland is thought to be associated with a great battle in 519 when Cerdic and his son Cynric defeated the Britons at Cerdics ford now known as Charford. Cerdic went on to be the first King of Saxon Wessex reigning between 519 - 534.