Stanton Drew Teachers Kit

8/11/2019 Stanton Drew Teachers Kit

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-drew-teachers-kit 1/4

PARKINGLimited parking at

The Cove and short-term at farm gate.

PREHISTORYENGLISH HERITAGE TEACHERS KIT

Stanton Drew Stone CirclesSummary

A complex of three stone circles, two avenues, a cove and a standing stone

From the Late Neolithic period 3000-2500BC The largest stone circle in Britain after Avebury in Wiltshire The Cove is open to the public with free admission The landowner charges £1 for admission to the stone circles

The circles are on a working farm with livestock, so no dogs are allowed

There are three stone circles at Stanton Drew. The Great Circle, at 113metres (370 feet) in diameter, is the second largest in the country. It has 26surviving upright stones, although there may once have been up to 30.

Plan of Stanton Drew

showing The Cove, The

Great Circle, two Avenuest he South West Circle and

the North East Circle.

The South-West Circle and the North-East Circle, are smaller. Both the Great

Circle and the north-east circle were approached from the north-east by short

Avenues of standing stones, most of which have fallen.

In the garden of the village pub is a group of three large stones called The Cove,and to the north, across the River Chew, is the site of a standing stone known asHautville’s Quoit (no public access). Their closeness to each other, and thealignments between some of them, indicate that together these stones formed asingle complex.

PAGE 1 1 4

BOOKING AND SITE INFORMATION W www.english-heritage.org.uk/onlinebooking E [email protected] The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EH T 0870 333 0606 F 01793 414926

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/onlinebooking


mailto:[email protected]?subject=Education-Booking









Stanton Drew Stone Circles

In 1997 English Heritage initiated a geophysical survey of the large field that

contains the Great Circle and North-East Circle. The survey used magnetometry,

a non-invasive technique which picks up magnetic anomalies in the ground, toindicate the presence of buried features such as pits, ditches and hearths.

The survey results were astonishing. At a stroke, they demonstrated that theremains at Stanton Drew are just the ruin of a much more elaborate andimportant site than had previously been imagined.

Lying under the pasture within the Great Circle are the remains of a complexpattern of buried pits, arranged in nine concentric rings within the stone circle,and further pits at the centre. It is difficult to make out individual features, but the

pits seem to be about a metre or more across and spaced about a metre apartaround the outer circle.

PAGE 3 1 4

Geophysical survey reveals nine circles of pits inside Great Circle

A geophysical survey of the

Great Circle and NE Circle at

Stanton Drew carried out by

the English Heritage Ancient

Monuments Laboratory 1997.








Stanton Drew Stone Circles

Just as remarkable was the discovery that the Great Circle is itself encircled by avery large ditch, about 135m (440 ft) in diameter. This is about 7m (23 ft) widewith a broad gap or entrance facing north-east. Such enclosures, or henges, are awell-known feature of later Neolithic Britain, and are assumed to have beencentres of ritual activity.

There are several stone circles enclosed by henges and some feature rings of pits.

Sites that most resemble the patterns at Stanton Drew include

Woodhenge and Durrington Walls in Wiltshire: at these and other sites the pits

are known to have held timber uprights, although it is not clear whether these

were part of roofed or open structures. It seems likely that at least some of the

pit circles at Stanton Drew once held massive posts.

The geophysical survey of the north-east stone circle found at its centre a square

of four pits aligned with the opposing pairs of the eight stones that comprise the

circle. These may be ritual pits, or might perhaps be the holes for stones that

have since been removed.

The pit-circles are the largest and most numerous yet recorded at any site and

surely indicate the investment of immense effort and enterprise in the service of

prehistoric beliefs.

PAGE 4 1 4

Geophysical survey reveals massive henge ditch around the Great Circle The survey also shows pits for posts or stones in the North-East Circle

An illustration showing how

the Great Circle may haveoriginally looked, with nine

timber rings enclosed by

the stones and great ditch.

Image c ourtesy of Michael

Bott and Rupert Soskin.



http://www.pastscape.org.uk/



Documents

Stanton Drew Teachers Kit