Featured: Friendly specialist tours to ancient, mystical and historical sites in the UK and beyond

Friendly specialist tours to ancient, mystical and historical sites in the UK and beyond

Random Image


Llynnau Cregennen Cairns

Singing Up the Country: The Songlines of Avebury and Beyond

Singing Up the Country: The Songlines of Avebury and Beyond

Who's Online

There are currently, 396 guests and 4 members online.

You are a guest. To join in, please register for free by clicking here

Sponsors

More Choices

Contribute to our running costs
Webrings
News Feeds
Megalithic Mysteries
Our Online Shop

<< Our Photo Pages >> Northmoor Linear Ditches - Barrow Cemetery in England in Oxfordshire

Submitted by Andy B on Tuesday, 20 February 2007  Page Views: 9722

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Northmoor Linear Ditches
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 1.971 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Oxfordshire Type: Barrow Cemetery
Nearest Town: Abingdon  Nearest Village: Kingston Bagpuize
Map Ref: SP40390142
Latitude: 51.710067N  Longitude: 1.416842W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4
Be the first person to rate this site - see the 'Contribute!' box in the right hand menu.

Internal Links:
External Links:

Northmoor Linear Ditches
Northmoor Linear Ditches submitted by Andy B : Map of the Northwood area, click on the link to the left for more information (Vote or comment on this photo)
An archaeologist surveying Northmoor in Oxfordshire has accidentally discovered a sacred landscape' created in the Bronze Age. Robin Brunner-Ellis was amazed when he stumbled upon a pattern of features in the landscape made by ancient people, possibly to communicate with their gods.

He is now hoping to launch a sacred landscape heritage trail to enable people and walkers to discover how and why the landscape was formed.

He said: "From near the Rose Revived pub across the meadows and across the river up to Cumnor Hill there are a series of ditches people in the Bronze Age dug as a form of ritual to communicate with the gods."

"These ditches were laid out to capture burial mounds in which their own ancestors had buried their dead 1,000 years before the ditch builders."

"The ditches connect those ancestral remains with natural elements in the landscape in such a way that they could draw down the sacred power of the rising full moon that occurred only once every 18 years. The rivers were equally important for prehistoric people as living forces running through their landscape."

"So the ditches are aligned with the River Windrush where it meets the Thames at Newbridge, cuts across a long loop of the Thames before crossing it and heading over Hurst and Cumnor Hills. It ends up at the point where the River Cherwell meets the Thames on Christchurch Meadows."

He also found stone preaching crosses from Medieval times.

On October 6, Mr Brunner-Ellis visited the site with his eight-year-old son Tom to see the Autumn equinox moon at its fullest and its closest to Earth in 18 years.

He said: "What we saw was amazing. It took my breath away. The huge pale disk of the harvest moon rose between Hurst Hill and Cumnor Hill on the eastern horizon exactly in line with the orientation of the Northmoor linear ditches."

"And at precisely the same moment as the moons appearance, the autumn sun disappeared over the western horizon exactly over the point where the Windrush and Thames rivers meet at the opposite end of the Northmoor linear ditches."

"It was astonishing. We got an extraordinary insight into the ingenuity of people we imagine were quite primitive."

Zetica, a Witney based research company, is to carry out a geophysical survey of the whole parish and Mr Brunner-Ellis hopes the astronomy department at Oxford University will also get involved in the research.

He also hopes a leaflet about the heritage trail will be produced. For details see their web site, still rather under construction. <>.

Also more in the Oxford Mail.

Note: Newly discovered sacred landscape under threat of destruction, see comment. Action required by this Friday
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.


Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
SP4001 : Willows at Newbridge by Des Blenkinsopp
by Des Blenkinsopp
©2023(licence)
SP4001 : The Rose Revived pub, from the bridge, Newbridge by Ruth Sharville
by Ruth Sharville
©2019(licence)
SP4001 : The 'Rose Revived' by Roger Templeman
by Roger Templeman
©2016(licence)
SP4001 : The Rose Revived, Newbridge by Des Blenkinsopp
by Des Blenkinsopp
©2017(licence)
SP4001 : The Rose Revived by Jonathan Billinger
by Jonathan Billinger
©2007(licence)

The above images may not be of the site on this page, they are loaded from Geograph.
Please Submit an Image of this site or go out and take one for us!


Click here to see more info for this site

Nearby sites

Click here to view sites on an interactive OS map

Key: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed

Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)

To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.


Turn off the page maps and other distractions

Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 3.2km E 89° Badger's Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SP4360201485)
 3.4km NNE 13° Devils Quoits* Stone Circle (SP41120476)
 3.9km NNW 328° Standlake 20 Timber Circle (SP383047)
 4.0km N 1° Gravelly Guy Timber Circle (SP404054)
 4.4km NNE 17° Stanton Harcourt Church Cross* Ancient Cross (SP4164305666)
 4.8km NE 52° Physic Well (Cumnor)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SP4412604375)
 5.9km SSW 211° Cherbury Camp* Hillfort (SU374963)
 6.4km SE 145° Iron Age and Roman Complex at Frilford Ancient Village or Settlement (SU441962)
 6.8km NNE 17° Deadman's Burial 1 Misc. Earthwork (SP42350795)
 7.0km NNE 19° Deadman's Burial 2 Henge (SP42610807)
 7.5km NNE 17° Eynsham Timber Circle Timber Circle (SP425086)
 10.0km N 354° Eynsham Park Camp Hillfort (SP393114)
 10.2km ESE 119° Abingdon Cursus Cursus (SU494965)
 10.5km NE 52° St Margaret's Well (Binsey)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SP486080)
 10.9km SE 127° Drayton North Cursus Cursus (SU492950)
 11.2km SE 131° Drayton South Cursus Cursus (SU489941)
 11.3km SE 131° Drayton North Cursus Cursus (SU490941)
 11.4km SE 135° Drayton South Cursus Cursus (SU486935)
 11.7km ENE 60° Walton Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SP5047907312)
 11.8km ESE 106° Barrow Hills Radley I Timber Circle (SU518983)
 11.8km ENE 65° Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology* Museum (SP511065)
 11.8km ENE 67° Museum of Oxford* Museum (SP513061)
 11.9km NNW 326° Churchill Plain Chambered Tomb (SP33711129)
 12.0km ENE 62° Radcliffe Infirmary prehistoric monumental landscape Round Barrow(s) (SP5103607101)
 12.1km ENE 63° Kendrew Quadrangle* Henge (SP51200695)
View more nearby sites and additional images

<< Ek Balam

Gamla stans runsten >>

Please add your thoughts on this site

Contribute!

· NEW: I have visited
· I would like to visit
· Submit an Image
· Add a description
· Give accurate position
· Add a comment or news about this site

The Old Straight Track, Alfred Watkins

The Old Straight Track, Alfred Watkins

Sponsors

Auto-Translation (Google)

Translate from English into:

"Northmoor Linear Ditches" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Newly discovered sacred landscape threatened with destruction by JoshS on Friday, 23 February 2007
(User Info | Send a Message)
The recently discovered Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age monumental landscape discovered between 2000-06 is now under threat from gravel extraction. In January 2007 Hanson plc submitted a planning application to extract gravel and sand from Stonehenge Farm.

Should the County Council accept this application, all of the SW end of this rare and important prehistoric landscape will be lost forever and the valley countryside that attracted prehistoric people to create such ceremonial feats of ingenuity will be blighted by water-filled gravel pits.

Since the news release (November 2006) on the discovery of this extraordinary ritual arena -- spanning 2,000 of archaeology, more field investigation have been carried out. They reveal:

1. a third coaxial ditch system, this time focused between The Devil's Quoits and the ancient (Stone Age) crossing of the Thames at Bablockhythe.

2. that these ritual ditch systems are aligned on the principal hilltops visible from Northmoor:

= Wytham Hill (N+S tops),

= Cumnor Hurst (a twin hill-top with springs rising between them),

= Besselsleigh rise,

= White Horse Hill, Uffington (Yes, you can see it from central Northmoor),

= Harrowdown Hill, Longworth

= Folly Hill, Faringdon.

See map attached to main Portal entry on the Northmoor landscapes.

Every part of this vast arena of monuments is interrelated with each other; river channels, islands and springs, as well as ancestral barrows were carefully tied into the later linear ditches by sightlines through them to the hill tops on the horizon.

If ever there were a place to see how prehistoric people joined earth to the heavens, connecting their daily lifes with the natural world and the cosmos, it was in Northmoor.

However, at its very moment of discovery -- bringing remarkable insights into the belief systems of our ancestors -- modern industry is making a serious and very real bid to destroy key parts of this sacred landscape for ever.

In the last two weeks, both Northmoor Parish Council and West Oxfordshire District Council have recorded their outright refusal to accept this destructive application. It is now left to the County Council to make the final decision.

All objections must reach Oxfordshire County Council:

If you wish to register your objection to the destruction of this unique landscape, please email your objection to:
mary.thompson@oxfordshire.gov.uk


Author: Josh Steers
[ Reply to This ]

Newly discovered sacred landscape under threat of destruction by Anonymous on Tuesday, 20 February 2007
The recently discovered Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age monumental
landscape discovered between 2000-06 is now under threat from gravel
extraction. In January 2007 Hanson plc submitted a planning application to
extract gravel and sand from Stonehenge Farm.

Should the County Council accept this application, all of the SW end of
this rare and important prehistoric landscape will be lost forever and the
valley countryside that attracted prehistoric people to create such
ceremonial feats of ingenuity will be blighted by water-filled gravel pits.

Since the news release (November 2006) on the discovery of this
extraordinary ritual arena -- spanning 2,000 of archaeology, more field
investigation have been carried out. They reveal:

1. a third coaxial ditch system, this time focused between The Devil's
Quoits and the ancient (Stone Age) crossing of the Thames at Bablockhythe.

2. that these ritual ditch systems are aligned on the principal hilltops
visible from Northmoor:

= Wytham Hill (N+S tops),

= Cumnor Hurst (a twin hill-top with springs rising between them),

= Besselsleigh rise,

= White Horse Hill, Uffington (Yes, you can see it from central Northmoor),

= Harrowdown Hill, Longworth

= Folly Hill, Faringdon.

See the map on this page

Every part of this vast arena of monuments is interrelated with each other;
river channels, islands and springs, as well as ancestral barrows were
carefully tied into the later linear ditches by sightlines through them to
the hill tops on the horizon.

If ever there were a place to see how prehistoric people joined earth to the
heavens, connecting their daily lifes with the natural world and the cosmos,
it was in Northmoor.

However, at its very moment of discovery -- bringing remarkable insights
into the belief systems of our ancestors -- modern industry is making a
serious and very real bid to destroy key parts of this sacred landscape for
ever.

In the last two weeks, both Northmoor Parish Council and West Oxfordshire
District Council have recorded their outright refusal to accept this
destructive application. It is now left to the County Council to make the
final decision.

All objections must reach Oxfordshire County Council before 23 February
2007.

If you wish to register your objection to the destruction of this unique
landscape, please email your objection to:

mary.thompson@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Josh Steers
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Newly discovered sacred landscape under threat of destruction by nicoladidsbury on Tuesday, 20 February 2007
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    Josh - thanks for the info. I've emailed my objections, and forwarded my email to all my friends.

    Lets hope this doesn't turn into another Thornborough, Tara, Trefignath type council approved destruction of an ancient ritual landscape.
    [ Reply to This ]

Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>
We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.