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)
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.
