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<< Our Photo Pages >> Woodhenge (Wiltshire) - Henge in England in Wiltshire

Submitted by sem on Friday, 13 November 2015  Page Views: 61904

StonehengeSite Name: Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Country: England County: Wiltshire Type: Henge
Nearest Town: Salisbury  Nearest Village: Durrington
Map Ref: SU15054338  Landranger Map Number: 184
Latitude: 51.189449N  Longitude: 1.786029W
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
 2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 2 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.
 5 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
 5

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I have visited· I would like to visit

Elaria whese001 would like to visit

cliffrich visited on 31st Jan 2020 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Totally disappeared but wood post holes marked by concrete posts. Good ambience. A walk finds a long barrow and the Cuckoo Stone. A cairn in the middle of the circles signifies a grave of a child.

Jansold visited on 24th May 2016 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 3 Access: 5

XIII visited on 13th Aug 2015 - their rating: Cond: 1 Amb: 3 Access: 4

Richard13 visited on 1st Jan 2014 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 3 Access: 4

Estrela visited on 5th Sep 2013 This was well-signed from the road, unlike Durrington Walls. Having found a link here for Durrington Walls an information board is shown which appears to be just where we looked for information unsuccessfully. Local walkers and villagers in Durrington also seemed to have no idea where it was! Woodhenge has concrete markers distinguishing between different sized posts, which I find useful. The cairn marks the spot where a skeleton of a 3 year old child with split skull was found, taken to London for investigation but lost during the Blitz. Was this henge roofed? We will probably never know. The idea of up to 4,000 people being here, in the huge Durrington enclosure for festivals is staggering.

johnstone visited on 29th Jun 2010 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 3 Access: 5

markj99 visited on 17th Aug 2009 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 3 Access: 5 I was disappointed with the unimaginative use of concrete posts substituted for timber posts. Not worth a visit.

Ogham visited on 1st Aug 2009 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 3 Access: 5

Magentawrites visited on 1st Apr 2009 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 5 So glad this was the first place we visited in Wilts, spent a good deal of time in quiet here, enjoyed every minute. The site is well cared for and easy to access.

ForestDaughter visited on 23rd Sep 2008 - their rating: Access: 5

Woode visited on 20th Dec 2007 - their rating: Cond: 1 Amb: 2 Access: 5

graemefield visited on 1st Jan 1995 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 3 Access: 5

SteveC visited - their rating: Amb: 2 Access: 5

elad13 FrothNinja sem DrewParsons Bladup mark_a moor2moor AngieLake TimPrevett hamish sirius_b myf AnnabelleStar mdensham have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 2.1 Ambience: 3 Access: 4.75

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by sem : Woodhenge -The Model One picture taken of a 3D model conceived during a wet weekend. Projects like this can reveal previously unseen features. I would point out that the henge itself is now thought to have been built after the timbers decayed. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Woodhenge is a Neolithic Class I henge and timber circle monument located to the North of Amesbury in Wiltshire, England - it is closer to Amesbury than is Stonehenge.

Before seeing Woodhenge, visitors to the area sometimes anticipate that it might partly resemble Stonehenge. But there is actually little of the original structure easily apparent. Indeed, the site was not identified until 1922, after an aerial archaeology survey undertaken by Alexander Keiller and OGS Crawford.

Maud Cunnington excavated the site between 1926 and 1929.

Pottery from the excavation was identified as being consistent with the Grooved ware style of the middle Neolithic, although later Beaker sherds were also found.

The site was understood by Cunnington to consist of a central burial, surrounded first by six concentric rings of postholes, then by a single ditch and finally an outer bank, around 85m wide. The burial was of a child which Cunnington interpreted as a dedicatory sacrifice (now disputed, see comment below - Ed) although it was destroyed in The Blitz and re-examination has not been possible. Cunnington also found a skeleton of a teenager in one of the ditch sections she dug.

Most of the 168 post holes held wooden posts, though there is evidence of a pair of standing stones having been placed between the second and third post hole rings. The deepest holes measured up to 2m and the height of the posts they held has been estimated at up to 7.5m above the ground. This sort of timber would have weighed around 5 tonnes and prompted similar logistical problems as the erection of the bluestones at Stonehenge.

Further comparisons with Stonehenge were quickly noticed by Cunnington; both have entrances oriented approximately on the midsummer sunrise and the diameters of the timber circles at Woodhenge and the stone circles at Stonehenge are similar making the reasons for the name more understandable.

The positions of the postholes are currently marked with modern concrete posts which are either a simple and informative method of displaying the site or a travesty of visitor interpretation and visual amenity.

There are various theories about possible timber structures that might have stood on the site, and about how the axes, etc, of the rings might have aligned with positions of the Sun on the horizon. But opportunities remain for further work in this respect.

The above text is covered by the GNU Free Documentation License.

Note: Sem's 3D model of Woodhenge to try out
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Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by h_fenton : Woodhenge, viewed from the west. Kite Aerial Photograph 19 June 2012 @ 6.02am (2 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by vicky : The Site of Woodhenge near Amesbury at GR: SU150434 (3 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by hamish : Older than its neighbour Stone Henge.I come here a lot and try to visualize what it would have looked like. (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by TimPrevett : Had a tinker with some filters on an earlier submission. I think I like this! (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by JJ : Aerial Photo by JJ Evendon and Pete Glastonbury (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by TimPrevett : Winter Solstice 2010 - in the dark and light pollution! (6 comments)

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by moor2moor : A cold & misty solstice morning at Woodhenge.

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by simcon : The Site of Woodhenge near Amesbury at GR: SU150434

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by Horatio : Woodhenge from balancing on a rotten fence holding a selfie stick as high above my head as possible with "hurry up will you" on repeat. (1 comment)

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by cliffrich : Stone-Age Infant Grave

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by h_fenton : Woodhenge, viewed from the northeast. People wandering around the monument give a good impression of scale. Kite Aerial Photograph 2 June 2013

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by Bladup : Woodhenge at the winter solstice.

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by AngieLake : Looking towards Woodhenge's centre from the two posts beside the NE causeway.

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by ForestDaughter : View of the centre and the tiny grave mound.

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by Horatio : Woodhenge early morning drone shot (2 comments)

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by Horatio : Woodhenge which would've been a magnificent in its time. The site was discovered by aerial photography in 1925, when rings of dark spots were spotted in a crop of wheat.

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by sem : The model from another angle making the posts easier to see. (1 comment)

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by sem : This is my model of Woodhenge created in 2015 and laid over the plan linked by davidmorgan to the pits recently discovered around Durrington Walls. The correlation between the pits (marked in yellow on the map) is too obvious to be chance. (2 comments)

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by Flickr : Winter Solstice at Woodhenge. Woodhenge was a wooden structure very similar to stonehenge, but was made from wood. And is situated about a 2 miles from Stonehenge as the crow flies. Image copyright: Angus McVicar, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by AngieLake : Woodhenge. Plan showing patterns of deposition and movement within the timber circles. (Human bone, worked chalk, major concentrations of artefacts and bone. Postulated pattern of access and movement.) Found in Joshua Pollard's 'Neolithic Britain', Shire Archaeology series, 2002 edition.

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by Bladup : Woodhenge at midwinter.

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by Bladup : Woodhenge in summer.

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by AngieLake : Looking approx NE from the cairn/grave in the centre of Woodhenge.

Woodhenge (Wiltshire)
Woodhenge (Wiltshire) submitted by ForestDaughter : Overall view of the circle from the entrance. (2 comments)

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The Complete Stonehenge by Emily Mace
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 94m SSE 148° Durrington 68 Timber Circle (SU151433)
 279m NNE 21° Durrington Walls South Circle* Timber Circle (SU1515043641)
 372m N 354° Durrington Walls* Henge (SU15014375)
 386m W 266° Cuckoo Stone (Wiltshire)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (SU1466443353)
 1.3km ESE 104° Watergate Long Barrow* Long Barrow (SU1635643051)
 1.4km W 263° Amesbury Cursus (E)* Cursus (SU137432)
 1.4km S 188° Blick Mead* Ancient Village or Settlement (SU1487242013)
 1.4km NW 317° Larkhill Causewayed Enclosure* Causewayed Enclosure (SU14084440)
 1.6km WSW 248° Old King Barrows* Barrow Cemetery (SU13604280)
 1.6km SSE 152° Ratfyn Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU15834194)
 1.7km SSW 196° Vespasian's Camp* Hillfort (SU14594173)
 1.7km SW 231° The King Barrows Ridge* Barrow Cemetery (SU137423)
 1.7km SSW 213° Amesbury 38 Bowl Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU14114192)
 1.9km S 174° Amesbury History Centre* Museum (SU1526841462)
 2.0km SW 234° New King Barrows* Barrow Cemetery (SU13454222)
 2.2km SSW 203° Bluestonehenge* Stone Circle (SU14204137)
 2.3km E 95° Bulford Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (SU17364318)
 2.3km SW 235° Amesbury 39 Bowl Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU13154204)
 2.4km SW 223° Coneybury Henge* Henge (SU134416)
 2.5km WSW 252° The Avenue* Ancient Trackway (SU12694262)
 2.5km SW 217° King Barrow (Amesbury)* Barrow Cemetery (SU13554137)
 2.8km WNW 291° Long Barrow alongside The Packway, Larkhill* Long Barrow (SU12474438)
 2.9km WSW 245° Stonehenge Bowl Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU12424217)
 3.0km WSW 248° Heel Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (SU1229142244)
 3.0km NW 311° Knighton Down Long Barrow (SU12784535)
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"Woodhenge (Wiltshire)" | Login/Create an Account | 10 News and Comments
  
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Concrete Prehistories: Making Modern Megaliths - Helen Wickstead and Martyn Barber by Andy B on Thursday, 20 December 2018
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Concrete Prehistories: Making Modern Megaliths. In Journal for Contemporary Archaeology - Helen Wickstead (Kingston University) Martyn Barber (English Heritage)

After water, concrete is the most consumed substance on earth. Every year enough cement is produced to manufacture around six billion cubic metres of concrete. This paper investigates how concrete has been built into the construction of modern prehistories. We present an archaeology of concrete in the prehistoric landscapes of Stonehenge and Avebury, where concrete is a major component of megalithic sites restored between 1901 and 1964.

We explore how concreting changed between 1901 and the Second World War, and the implications of this for constructions of prehistory. We discuss the role of concrete in debates surrounding restoration, analyze the semiotics of concrete equivalents for the megaliths, and investigate the significance of concreting to interpretations of prehistoric building. A technology that mixes ancient and modern, concrete helped build the modern archaeological imagination.

(Draft version)
https://www.academia.edu/11807667/Concrete_Prehistories_Making_Modern_Megaliths._In_Journal_for_Contemporary_Archaeology_v3_DRAFT_ARTICLE
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Re: Woodhenge (Wiltshire) by frogcottage42 on Sunday, 15 November 2015
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I have never seen any good reason why this could not be simply an enormous round house with a roof. If they could erect such massive supports it seems a roof is not much of a stretch?
I still wonder what Stonehenge itself would have looked like with a roof, after all the tenoned lintels are exactly the way the wooden structures are thought to have been built.
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3D model of Woodhenge by Andy B on Friday, 13 November 2015
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Sem's model of Woodhenge is below, and read more about it in our forum:



Woodhenge
by Sem
on Sketchfab

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Re: Woodhenge (Wiltshire) by neolithique02 on Tuesday, 08 September 2015
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Stonehenge researchers 'may have found largest Neolithic site'

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-34156673

Stone monoliths found buried near Stonehenge could have been part of the largest Neolithic monument built in Britain, archaeologists believe.

The 4,500-year-old stones, some measuring 15ft (4.5m) in length, were discovered under 3ft of earth at Durrington Walls "superhenge".

The monument was on "an extraordinary scale" and unique, researchers said.
The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes team has been creating an underground map of the area in a five-year project.

Remote sensing and geophysical imaging technology has been used to reveal evidence of nearly 100 stones without the need for excavation.
The monument is just under two miles (3km) from Stonehenge, Wiltshire, and is thought to have been a Neolithic ritual site.

Experts think it may have surrounded traces of springs and a dry valley leading into the River Avon.

Although no stones have been excavated they are believed to be fashioned from sarsen blocks found locally.

Sarsen stones are sandstone blocks found mainly on Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire.

A unique sarsen standing stone, The Cuckoo Stone, remains in the field next to Durrington Walls.

The stones are believed to have been deliberately toppled over the south-eastern edge of the bank of the circular enclosure before being incorporated into it.
Lead researcher Vince Gaffney, of the University of Bradford, said: "We don't think there's anything quite like this anywhere else in the world.
"This is completely new and the scale is extraordinary."

Archaeologist Nick Snashall said: "The presence of what appear to be stones, surrounding the site of one of the largest Neolithic settlements in Europe adds a whole new chapter to the Stonehenge story."

The earthwork enclosure at Durrington Walls was built about a century after the Stonehenge sarsen circle, but archaeologists believe the newly discovered stone row could have been put in place at the same time or even earlier.
Andy Rhind-Tutt, Heritage Trust founder, described the findings as "an incredible discovery".

He and University of Buckingham researchers have been involved in another nearby site, Blick Mead, thought to be at least 9,500 years old.

Mr Rhind-Tutt fears this and other sites could be damaged or lost to a planned A303 road tunnel past Stonehenge.
"It's a big concern to all of us, especially as we are at the tip of the iceberg with this particular discovery, and it would be horrible to destroy one of the most significant sites in the world," he said.
"The hidden treasure trove of the Stonehenge landscape just begs the question about why are all these incredible structures here?"

David Jacques, from the University of Buckingham, who is Blick Mead project manager, described the find as "absolutely brilliant "and a "game changer".
"All the monuments have a relationship with each other," he said.
"So rather than just 'atomising' them and looking at them as individual entities there are deliberate lines of sight or knowledge that things are just over the hill.
"When you put that together in the late Neolithic - there's something vibrant, exciting and dynamic [about the find]."

The findings were being announced on the first day of the British Science Festival being held at the University of Bradford.
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Re: Woodhenge by Estrela on Saturday, 07 September 2013
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Woodhenge was easily accessed and well marked from the A345. We went early in the day and had the place to ourselves. There is a small cairn over the grave where a 3 year old's remains were buried. People leave flowers here at times. The small carpark is just opposite the henge, which has the positions of the postholes marked with concrete posts, with estimated diameters of the posts they represent. There were concentric rings of differing sized posts. From the grassed picnic area opposite, and next to the parking area, you can look north and see what we concluded was the huge rough grass bank that was Durrington Walls' outer bank. The area is on private or MOD land, and is not marked or signed that we could find, despite enquiries and searching. Standing on the picnic table gave a good view of the bank. This continues in a curve on the far side of the A345. The site is about two or three miles north of Amesbury.
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Street View by coldrum on Wednesday, 17 March 2010
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Re: More from the Stonehenge Riverside Project by Andy B on Monday, 11 September 2006
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We have more on the Stonehenge Riverside project here:
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146412603
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More from the Stonehenge Riverside Project by Andy B on Friday, 01 September 2006
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Archaeologists have been digging ancient sites around Stonehenge to find clues about when they were first built.

The dig, being conducted by archaeologists from several universities, is part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which is investigating Woodhenge, Stonehenge Cursus and Durrington Walls, to learn more about their connection to the famous stone monument.

Joshua Pollard, senior lecturer in Archaeology in Bristol University, who is in charge of the dig at Woodhenge, where a timber circle once stood, said: "The timber is associated with the living and may have been used for feasting or linked with the solstice whereas stone is connected with the ancestors.

"The people in the Neolithic era often felt their day to day lives were just transitory but they put more effort into sacred monuments for their ancestors. The stone may be a version of the timber monuments."
continued...

The area at Woodhenge was last excavated in 1926 and concrete posts were put in the places where the timber used to stand, but the team has discovered other possible timber holes and also stone holes.

More: This is Wiltshire, and more on the project as a whole here.
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Re: Woodhenge by angelwakes on Friday, 30 April 2004
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I visited this site in July 2003.
Access to the site was a through a garden gate set in a waist high fence. There were no restrictions, I could, and did, walk around the site as much as I wanted.
There was a small plaque describing the layout of the stone markers replacing the long gone wooden posts. There was also a mound near the centre of the site.
My first reaction from viewing the site from outside the fence was: "Is this it? Not much to look at."
Upon entering I felt very odd, the only way I can describe it is that I told my father "It gave me the creeps." Not very mystical but an accurate summation of my feelings whilst within the site.
The part that made me leave very quickly was when I approached the mound. It was July, just a few weeks after the Summer Solstice, a fact I had forgotten until I reached the mound.
From the side I first viewed the mound it looked just like a pile of stones covered with earth and grass. On the otherside however it was a little different. There was a small figure made of grasses laying on the stones but the thing which made me feel uneasy was the river if hardened wax running down the side of the mound.
I didn't feel unwelcome, just that this wasn't a place I shouldn't be. I can't explain why. I cannot find the words to express how I felt.
I do know that it was an experience I won't forget.

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    Re: Woodhenge by Anonymous on Monday, 18 October 2004
    I went there to it's creepy!!!!
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