Recently my daughter came for a visit. Kate loves to explore places that are off the beaten path so one day we headed south west to see the Uffington White Horse Hill and to explore the unique complex of Iron Age sites that are found at the White Horse Hill and in the surrounding area.
Our first stop was the Blowing Stone, a perforated sarsen stone that apparently makes a booming sound when anyone with the required skill blows into one of the perforations in a particular way. According to legend, this was how King Alfred summoned his Saxon troops for the Battle of Ashdown, against the Vikings. Also, according to legend, a person who is capable of making the blowing stone sound a note that is audible atop Uffington White Horse Hill will be a future King of England.
The Blowing Stone wasn't easy to find. Best to go the Blowing Stone Pub and ask for direction.
Next stop was the White Horse which is created from long curving lines made of trenches dug in the hillside, then filled with chalk, each up to ten feet wide and about 365 feet long. The horse dates back to 1200 to 800 BC . Why it was created and what it's purpose was remains a mystery.
From White Horse Hill you
can see Dragon Hill, a small roundish hill with a flat top. This is said to be the site where St George,
England's patron saint, slew the dragon. You can also see for miles in each direction. On a clear day you can see to six different counties from the top of this hill.
This small valley is called the Manger and has steep rippled sides that were created during the last Ice Age. The ripples are known as the Giant’s Steps and were possibly used in the earliest form of terraced farming in England during the bronze age.
On the top of this hill is a Iron Age hilltop fort known as Uffington Castle. It forms the highest point in Oxfordshire at 860 feet above sea level.
About a mile away, as the crow flies, is Wayland Smithy's Cave, a large chambered long barrow neolithic burial site. The site originally started out as a wooden mortuary structure with a stone floor surrounded by sarsen boulders and chalk.
Human remains found on the site indicate that 14 people were interred in the earlier burial structure between 3590 and 3550 BC. Between 3460 and 3400 BC a second far larger barrow was constructed on top. This burial ground is older than the most famous pyramids of Egypt! The cave entrance is, of course, sealed off.
There are four large sarsen stones at the entrance to the chamber; there were originally six, three on either side of the entrance. The four remaining stones were found lying in front of the monument and restored in 1962.
On the way back to Oxford we came across the Great Coxwell Barn -- a large 13th-century tithe barn on the northern edge of the village of Great Coxwell.
The barn is built of Cotswold stone, with rubble walls and ashlar corner stones for buttresses and window and door openings. The entire building is topped by huge slate roof of Cotswold stone.
The 13th century tithe barn was built by the monks of Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire. At that time the abbey held a monastic grange at Coxwell (a grange being a farm worked for the abbey's benefit). The grange was operated by a combination of hired servants and lay brothers, and this barn would have been just one of numerous farm buildings need to operate the grange. It's the only surviving building from the grange.
When Henry VIII dissolved the Beaulieu Abbey in 1538 he appropriated their estates. Two years later in 1540, he sold Great and Little Coxwell to the bailiff of the Faringdon estate, one Thomas Moore. In the 18th century it became part of the Coleshill estate, and large doors were added in the gable ends of the barn, to admit large farm wagons. The tie beams were reinforced in the 19th century, and rafters replaced. The barn was gifted to the National Trust in 1956.
The barn is 144 feet long and 38 feet wide, with an internal area of 5,502 square feet. There is what appears to be a dovecot above the east door.
William Morris, the father of the Arts and Craft movement in England, called the barn the most impressive building in England, and 'as beautiful as a cathedral'. He often brought guests here to marvel at this impressive medieval building. I can see why. I also can't imagine that we build anything today, especially any kind of barn, that will last 700 years and look this incredible.
