I took a walk through the museum gardens to seek out a cup and ring stone that is thought to have come from somewhere around Ravenscar. The gardens also have a nice collection of Shap granite erratic boulders.
Heading up towards the Minster I stopped to admire the 1967 Theatre Royal vaulted pavillion by Patrick Gwynne.
After visiting the Minster and I decided to head out of town to take a walk around the University Campus. I stopped by a few places along my way. This is the lovely Romanesqsue porch of St. Denys.
Wandering over to Stonebow. The 1960’s concrete arcade of shops and an office block did not get much love from the people of York. In 2018 the buildings were redeveloped, the office block was turned into 17 luxury apartments with 4 penthouses. Stonebow has been transformed from a ‘notorious concrete eyesore’ into a place where you will need very deep pockets if you want to live there.
Out beyond the city walls I took a walk around the churchyard of St Lawrence. All that remains of the early building is the tower which stands apart from the Victorian church.
I’ve never visited the York University campus and was keen to have a look at the Central Hall. The Hall is by Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall & Partners and was built in 1967. I wasn’t disappointed.
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Untitled (1967) Austin Wright
I had a train to catch so only had a limited time to explore the wonderful architecture and sculpture of the campus. I will definitely be back.
Standing on a gentle hillside and unfortunately incarcerated in a modern drystone wall, this is a beautiful site to visit. Its prehistoric builders had pleasing polychromatic tastes.
A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland & Brittany. Aubrey Burl. 1995
Etymology – The name derives from Gaelic and has been interpreted as ‘field of prayer’ (from ‘auch’ or ‘achd’ meaning ‘field’, and ‘ortha’ meaning ‘prayer’) or ‘field of pillar stone’ (‘achadh choirthe’).
Last week I drove up to Aberdeenshire. I broke my journey by visiting the early Medieval round tower at Brechin and the roadside Pictish symbol stones at Aberlemno.
O
The round tower at Brechin pre-dates the cathedral to which it is now attached. It was built as a free-standing structure, the spire is a later addition. The tower at Brechin is one of only three examples of an Irish round tower to be found outside of the island of Ireland.
In Ireland the towers are known as Cloigthithe (bell-house) and were built between the 9th-12th centuries. There were up to one hundered and twenty towers in Ireland and could be found in all but four of the thirty two counties. One theory regarding the origins of the round tower is that they were inspired by the minarets and round towers of Eastern Europe and North Africa.
When I saw the flyer for the Fellfoot Sounds event I jumped at it, I knew my friend Martyn would also be keen to attend. Who wouldn’t enjoy the prospect of spending a couple of days in this lovely corner of Cumbria in the company of a group of sound artists and musicians? It turned out, Martyn knew many of the people who were working at the festival.
Martyn and I arrived at the lovely Into the Woods site, ticket sales were limited to 150 so the place had a nice relaxed, family-friendly atmosphere. The campsite is set-up around a large field with a bar, stage, kitchen, clubhouse and various other facilities on site.
We went along to a couple of workshops, Field Recording and Sampling with Jayne Dent and Folk Voices with Jennifer Reid, both of which were excellent.
On the evening the artist’s performances were held in the lovely nearby church of St. Michael and the Angels. The little red sandstone church was the perfect venue. Jorge Boehringer filled the church with the sound of his droning distorted viola, I’m currently listening to this as I write. Jayne Dent followed with a piece built around sound samples and field recordings collected during the earlier workshop. Jayne performs as Me Lost Me, her latest album, RPG is currently getting lots of play in our house. Ore concluded the performance with an improvised piece played and tuba, trombone and a pair of resonant gong speakers which I found mesmerising. You can find their work here, I can now add Doom Tuba to my list of favourite musical genres.
The sound artist performances combined with the setting left me feeling calm, slightly entranced and ready for the wander to the stone circle. The procession was led by the gold foil bedecked Noize Choir. We walked along an ancient holloway dodging deep muddy puddles and the entrances to a large badger sett, it was a joyful chaotic affair.
On arriving at the stones half of the group walked around the circle in a clockwise manner around the stones, the other half went anticlockwise, the air was full of laughter, chanting and children shouting. There were a number of people visiting the stones when we arrived, I’m not sure what they made of our rag-tag group but I’m pretty sure that our arrival will have created a lasting memory of their visit.
Returning to the campsite, a large fire was burning, people were eating and drinking and generally having a good time. Folk artist Jennifer Reid topped off the night with a brilliant performance of chat and songs. Jennifer’s energy, humour and positivity is completely infectious, she’s wonderful.
The following morning, after a great recovery breakfast from the kitchen, we headed over to the stone circle for Paul Frodsham’s walk and talk around the stones. Paul is a professional archaeologist who has worked throughout northern England. He told us that he has had a lifelong interest in the Long Meg circle since first visiting it as a student. He an led an excavation at the circle in 2015.
Paul started at the Long Meg standing stone and talked about his theory that the carvings on standing stone may have been made prior to the stone being transported from the banks of the river Eden to its current location. He then moved onto the stone circle describing the structure of the circle and its alignment to the winter solstice. He also explained how there had been a large enclosure around the area now that is now occupied by the farm buildings. This enclosure predated the circle and is the reason that one edge of the circle is flattened.
Paul also expressed his frustration at how little investigative archaeology, compared to other large British prehistoric monuments, has been done at what is essentially one of the oldest and largest stone circles in our Islands. Paul is trying to redress this issue but to do so requires resources and funding. He is also working with others to set up a Friends of Long Meg group to promote the and hopefully attract resources for further investigations.
All in all I think everyone who attended this little family-friendly festival had a very positive experience. The site was lovely and organisation of the event was first rate. Well done to everyone involved, I look forward to future events.
I’ve spent many years travelling across northern Britain seeking out examples of Prehistoric Rock Art, it’s a mild obsession. I’ve recently been looking through some of my old photographs and reflecting on the many places that I’ve visited and some of the people that I’ve met.
Despite having visited many dozens of sites across our island, no two sites are the same. The more carvings I see, the further away I seem to move from reaching any genuine understanding of their meaning or purpose.
since we cannot know the creator’s point of view, we have to use the visitor’s – confronted by a pleasing assortment of images, we humans have a wondrous ability to find meaning in them and to gain pleasure from them Art, after all, is only as important as its audience
In 2004 Graeme Chappell and I were fortunate enough to visit the ongoing excavation on Fylingdales Moor.
It was in what was thought to be an early Bronze Age ring cairn that a late Neolithic intricately carved stone was found. This has become the best known discovery on the moor made in the aftermath of the fire. A further stone bore grooves and cup-marks similar to those found on the nearby earthfast rocks. The stones have been placed in a ring as the end point of what may have been a long period of ritual significance.
I currently having a bit of a clear-out. I found a few CDs that I used to backed-up my photos back in the early 2000’s. Quite a few of the images are corrupted, some beyond recognition. The images are of prehistoric sites in Northumberland, Cumbria, Yorkshire and Derbyshire.
I was thinking about how these corrupted images and their subjects perhaps evoke notions of the time, the illusion of permanence and the ephemeral nature of recording such places.
Looking through the images brought to mind The Disintegration Loops by William Basinski. The images are about 2 decades old, the same amount of time it took for Basinski’s audio tapes to degraded before he used them in his composition.
Currently in the grounds of the Bowes Museum, this stone was found at Greta Bridge, during improvement work to the A66. The stone was used to cover a Roman burial and was close to the site of a Roman fort. The carvings on the slab are prehistoric, it has been suggested that it originally covered a prehistoric cist burial, the stone was later re-used by the Romans. Another prehistoric carved stone The Gainford Stone is on display inside the museum. This stone was also used to cover a prehistoric cist burial.
The Smell of Water 