The Stonehenge Avenue Alignment and the significance of Sidbury Hill

8 miles northeast of Stonehenge is an Iron Age hillfort called Sidbury Hill that stands on the Summer Solstice Sunrise line.

Stonehenge to Sidbury Hill along the Avenue Alignment on Sir Norman Lockyer's Azimuth of 49° 34' 18"

The Sarsens of the West Woods

West Woods is an area of Forestry Commission woodland about 3km x 2km in size, located about 2.5km southwest of Marlborough. The Wansdyke runs through it and there is an enormous long barrow in the south east quadrant.

It's criss-crossed by a number of tracks and trails with two main valleys that divide the plateau into four pieces. This plateau is the usual chalk bedrock, with a clay-with-flints covering and - crucially - parts of it had a sarsen covering.

A curious similarity of shapes

Immediately southwest of Stonehenge, exactly on the Winter Solstice Sunset alignment, lies a small wood called Normanton Gorse.

It's just to the west of the main part of a barrow cemetery called the Normanton Down group - a magnificent assembly of at least 26 Bronze Age burial mounds, plus a small long barrow.

The "LV Question Mark" on Stone 156

Of all the carvings at Stonehenge - and there are a great many of them - perhaps one of the most mysterious is on lintel 156.

19th Century Restoration Work

The very first documented intervention to prevent stone collapse at Stonehenge happened in 1881 and consisted of a wooden scaffold erected to support lintel 107 which was precariously balanced on stones 6 and 7 on the east side of the sarsen circle. Stone 6 was leaning outwards and 7 was leaning inwards so lintel 107 was twisted. If not for the mortise and tenon joints this part of the circle would probably have long since collapsed.

A different view

It's only when you get out into the wider landscape that you come to appreciate one of the oddnesses of Stonehenge - it looks bigger the further away you are.

Army Basing Programme - Larkhill

(NB: This post originally appeared on my old Blog. I have reproduced it here as the original website is no longer available - SGB 2025)

The attached PDF comprises my personal comments which I have submitted to the consultation process.

The document analyses the impact of using two of the potential Larkhill development sites on the Summer Solstice Sunrise alignment as seen from Stonehenge.

It provides the historical background for the Larkhill "Sun Gap", shows the current situation and urges the MoD to remove these two particular sites from consideration and instead restore the "Sun Gap" sightline.

Also included are the contact details if you would like to submit your own comments on the MoD proposals before the 1st April 2014.

Since the print media seems to have a slight issue with understanding which sites are involved and what the summer solstice sunrise direction exactly is, I though it worth creating a diagram for them to base any further illustrations upon.

Shown here full size for clarity.

Sunrise Alignment and Larkhill Basing Plan - diagram of solstice direction and problem sites