Stanton Drew

76. The ground plan of Prehistoric Stanton Drew, six miles south of Bristol.

Stanton Drew's three circles of stone and a Cove were carefully placed to bring the sun, moon, stars, water, and spring water together in one place.

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Present day. It was the evening of the 18th of June 2016, and the forecast promised a cloudless sky in the Bristol area in what was an otherwise overcast Britain. This clearing presented a photographic opportunity too good to miss. So, I made a packed lunch, brewed a flask of tea and with cameras packed away in the car's boot, I set off to spend the night at Stanton Drew.

The village of Stanton Drew has only one public house - the excellent and highly recommended Druid’s Inn. This inn has a spacious car park from where I planned to conduct operations and where I could get some overnight shuteye. The car park is on two levels, and the upper level leads to a prominence upon which prehistoric folk chose to build a stone Cove.

Apart from its prominent position, there are two main reasons why the Cove was built where it is. First, the mid-June sun rises out of the distant Publow Hill yearly, or it did before St Mary's church; a dividing wall and some farm buildings blocked the view. The second reason is that the Cove opened south to receive the southernmost rising moon and the star, Gamma Crucis, which finally disappeared beneath the southern horizon.

Starting from the South Circle or the SW Circle to archaeologists, join me on a short walk so I can show you what Stanton Drew was all about.

77. Sunrise on the 19th of June 2016. This picture was taken from a little to one side of the South Circle and from where the mid-June sun was seen to exit the 123-metre-high Publow Hill without interruption from offending hedges.

From the Southern Circle to Publow Hill, the altitude is three-quarters of one degree, so we look uphill at the sun. Also, we know that the sun does not rise vertically but slopes, and for every degree of increase in altitude, the sun shifts south by a similar amount.

Having photographed the sunrise from the South Circle and given some thought to its effects, let's make our way down to Stony Close, where the other two circles lay.

Sorry but the moon's path at Major Standstill is way out in this picture. It's a very much flatter trajectory!

78. Sunrise looking northeast along Alignment A on the 19th of June 2016.

Having quickly walked downhill from the South Circle to the Great Circle, we were amazed to see the sunrise for the second time that morning. We also note that the sun is too far north for alignment A when seen from the Great Circle. Furthermore, the sun was even further north when the circles and Cove were built. Neolithic folk needed to find a way of shifting the sun south by at least three degrees. And that meant increasing the altitude of the horizon to around four degrees without having to build a mountain!

79.

Key:

A. The position and relative height of the Cove.

B. The Great Circle.

C. The North Circle. (John Woods Lunar Temple).

D. River Chew ravine.

E. An un-named creek that occasionally feeds into the Chew.

F. Viewpoint of winter solstice sunset over the Cove.

G. A rise upon which stands the Blackmore and Langdon nursery.

H. An un-named rivulet.

J. Publow Hill.

Assuming tree-less horizons in Neolithic times, the peak of Publow Hill was visible from the Cove but nowhere else along Alignment A.

From River Chew bank at D, to rise at G - altitude 1.5-degree. From E to F - altitude 2.3-degrees.

These horizons foretold the comings of the summer solstice, with first appearance over Publow Hill as seen from the Cove, then from D to rise G, and then from E over F, with the sun rising further south at each stage.

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Bringing the sun down for a drink.

Since the Stone Age, few people have seen Stanton Drew’s most outstanding display, and it is dangerous to do so for any length of time, anyway.

The north-eastern bank of the ravine prevents the sun from casting its reflection into the river until well into the sky. When it does, the sun's reflection is shifted several degrees south, easily aligning with Alignment A.

82. Looking back along Alignment A as seen from the centre of the North Circle.

From here - the centre of the Northern Circle (John Woods Lunar Temple) - Alignment A passes through the centre of the Great Circle and ends at the Cove hidden behind the church. The centre of the Great Circle is conveniently marked by a group of visitors who are there to pay their respects.

This photo proves that the sun is too far south to be aligned on the winter solstice when seen from the North Circle, but one wonders what it would look like if viewed from the top of position "F." shown in image 69. Alignment A would undoubtedly be more accurate from 'F.' Was a standing stone similar to Hautvilles Quoit placed at 'F' for the purpose?

83. A view looking down on Stony Close from the South Circle.

This picture shows how the henge of the Great Circle appeared four-thousand-five-hundred-years-ago, unfortunately, with most of its stones missing. But this is not how the Great Circle started. It started as a massive 300-foot diameter bonfire that replicated the sun.

Also seen in this picture is the more complete North Circle, conveniently framed by the causeway through the Great Circle's bank and ditch. John Wood called the North Circle a "Lunar Temple" because he thought a line between it and the South Circle points at the southernmost setting moon. If anything, this line pointed at a low traversing star, such as the slowly disappearing Gamma Crucis. This star and others of the Southern Cross disappeared below the southern horizon around 5,000 years ago due to the precession of the earth's axis. Imagine how the inhabitants of Stanton Drew felt having to watch those stars slowly disappear!

86. No doubt encouraged by archaeologists who cast doubt on the Tyning Stones having anything to do with Stanton Drew's stone circles and Close -- even though the Tyning Stones marked the equinox and the position of a fresh-water spring. This derogatory attitude no doubt encouraged a farmer to pluck them out of the ground and carry them off to build a bridge over the Chew upstream of the Close. This photo shows how the Tyning stones ended up. One has been broken into handy sizes as support for the other to sit on.

The original position of the Tyning's is still marked on OS maps, which proves them to have been aligned with the Equinox when viewed from the centre of the North Circle. This alignment is extensive, ending some seven miles away at the high plateau on which Bristol Airport is built.

87. Stanton Drew's Cove.

Archaeologists believe that the Cove may once have been the portal of a long barrow whose mound disappeared long ago. They also say that a long barrow would make the Cove 1,000 years older than the circles of stone. I don't believe that the Cove was once part of a long barrow, but either way, I would still date it to around 3500 BC.

The side slabs of the Cove are not parallel but splay out towards the south.

To find out precisely what the Cove points at, it was necessary to measure the amount of splay and decide, as closely as possible, what each slab aims at.

To this end, a contraption of wood was made along the lines of a parallelogram. This device helped to show that the side slabs have a splay of about nine degrees. Determining what each slab points at was another problem. Especially as you can see from the above, the view south (or southeast) is often blocked in summer by bushes that spoil the view. Fortunately, I already have some photos on file, which were taken in wintertime.