Stonehenge Circle Visit & Photography Exhibition

Experience Stonehenge close up with our exclusive Members Event.

English Heritage archaeologist Susan Greaney will take a small group of SCC Members into the stone circle at dawn for a guided tour of the monument. On return to the visitor centre, you will enjoy a private view of Your Stonehenge – 150 Years of Personal Photos – the new special exhibition at Stonehenge. Created entirely from photos sent in by visitors, this exhibition offers a fascinating glimpse of the recent social history of Stonehenge. These snapshots from family albums as early as 1875, chart the changing of fashions, poses, photography and the way that the monument itself has altered.

Wednesday 4 March 2020.

7am – 9am

Members must provide their own transport to and from Stonehenge

Also this English Heritage site is worth more than a cursory look.

Participants should park in the visitor car park on the right hand side as you go through the gate and then walk the short distance to the visitor centre where I will meet them. We will take a bus from the visitor centre to the stones. The key thing is for people to dress warmly and wear sensible shoes. It’s cold and damp at the monument at that time in the morning. We’ll go ahead regardless of the weather so waterproofs and umbrellas are a good idea if it’s forecast to be raining. If anyone has any access requirements it would be good to be aware of them but we are an accessible site so it shouldn’t present any difficulty to accommodate them.

I will be there on behalf of Stonehenge as well as my colleagues Susan and Mel who are giving the tour.

Jane Thomas

ISSUU

Even though I belong to the RPS until Monday evening I had not heard of ISSUU. Paul Cox the Regional Organiser for the RPS Southern Region [from Bognor Regis to Lyme Regis] talked about the Society and what he is hoping for in the near future.
He is planning a bumper year for events in 2019. He went through some of the happenings such as Camera to Print workshop in January. Help throughout the process of taking to printing is promised.
Our own Paul Rigg is on the Regional Committee and he is involved in Photo Walks such a 2 on Portland [7th October and next year].
I have had a look at ISSUU and found some fascinating magazines that you look at in great detail. For instance have a look at the Travel Groups newsletter. Or check the RPS Benelux Chapter magazine for a different insight into photography.
There are loads more photo mags to look at. An endless supply it would appear. Outside of the RPS there are more publications to see.
I will post more events as and when later.

Photowalk - Harnham Water Meadows 30th Sept

Coming this Sunday camera club member Paul Rigg LRPS is conducting for the RPS a walk on the Water Meadows from 4pm until 7pm.
More details from Peter Read or RPS Journal page 667. Paul's Tel 07805671853
Email: paulrigg@outlook.com

Ancient Landscapes Through the Lens: A guided photographic walk to Fyfield Down

Tuesday, June 20, 2017 - 11.00 to 13.00

Join David Walker and Peter Norton, as they lead a walk through this ancient landscape, and along the way, providing some invaluable advice on how best to photograph it.
For full details of the walk and where to meet, please follow this link:

http://www.salisburymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/events/ancient-landscapes-through-lens-guided-photographic-walk-fyfield-down

Meet at the car park off the A4, 1.5 miles from Marlborough on the Manton Estate.

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.

Duration  An 4 mile circular walk taking in far ranging views, rock formations and a reconstructed Dolmen.

Details  After a 1.5 mile walk an extraordinary shallow valley opens up, littered with massive grey stones – 1,000’s of them. This is Fyfield Down and the stones are what are left of a massive sheet of rock that broke up during the last Ice Age. From a distance, the sarsens have often been mistaken for flocks of sheep, hence their name Grey Wethers (Old English term for sheep). This stone was used to build famous monuments like Avebury Stone circle and Stonehenge

Once the entire area used to be covered with sarsen stones and you apparently you could walk for 2 miles stepping from stone to stone, but now there are very few left. The last order of sarsen stones from this area was in 1938 and four cart loads where taken to repair Windsor Castle.

  

This is one of the country’s oldest National Nature Reserves, created in 1955. The site is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) because of the landforms it contains and the wildlife it supports. The whole site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and its historical importance was recognized when it was made part of Avebury World Heritage Site.

   

The structure was rescued from imminent collapse in 1921 by archaeologists. Restoration work was undertaken to shore up the dolmen by incorporating a concrete support to one side which was engraved with the year of its salvation - 1921.

After 3 miles the Devil’s Den dolmen stands alone in a field at Clatford Bottom. The word 'dolmen', is thought to be a derivative of ‘dillion’, meaning boundary mound.

The Devil's Den is a Neolithic burial chamber first recorded in 1723 by the antiquarian – William Stukeley, who's illustrations show a long barrow of considerable length with several large sarsen stones which have all but disappeared now. Today the structure comprises of just three massive sarsens arranged similar to that of a Welsh ‘Cromlech’.

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.