Some prehistoric sites in Oxfordshire

The chalk downlands of southern England have been occupied by humans for thousands of years, and evidence of their presence is still there to be seen and wondered at today. Everybody knows about Stonehenge (on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire), but there are many more examples that are worth a visit.

  

The sites mentioned here are all in the county of Oxfordshire, which includes part of the Cotswold Hills to the north and part of the Lambourn Downs to the south.

(Follow this link for some other places of interest in Oxfordshire that are more recent in date)

The Rollright Stones

Maybe less impressive than Stonehenge, but certainly more accessible, these mysterious arrangements of stones have been the stuff of legend for many centuries. They lie close to the minor road that connects the A3400 near Long Compton to the A44 between Salford and Little Compton. The road in question marks the border between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.

The stones are in three groups which date from different times.

The main circle of “The King’s Men” (see picture) comprises many stones of various sizes that have been weathered into strange shapes. Just across the road is a single large stone, protected by iron railings, that is named “The King Stone”.

The myth is that the stones represent a king and his courtiers who were turned to stone by a witch, but a more likely explanation is that they were set up as funerary monuments or for ceremonial purposes. The circle dates from around 2500 to 2000 BC but the King Stone is somewhat younger, having been erected at some time between 1800 and 1500 BC.

A short walk away are “The Whispering Knights”, a Neolithic burial chamber that is much older than the other Rollrights, having been placed there at around 4000 to 3500 BC. Several of the stones stand on end and lean towards each other as if whispering secrets that are still being told some 6,000 years after they started!

The Rollrights can be visited at any reasonable time. They are on privately-owned farmland and a fee of one pound is requested.

Wayland’s Smithy

This is a Neolithic chambered burial mound, surrounded by beech trees, on the Ridgeway to the west of Wantage, on the southern edge of the county. It was probably built in two phases, at around 3700 and 3400 BC. What you can see today are the internal stones that formed the chambers of the barrow, originally covered by a mound of chalk. Several skeletons were discovered when the mound was first excavated.

A certain amount of restoration work was done in the 1960s, but this stopped short of trying to rebuild the barrow to its original state. It is therefore possible to get a close look at the structure of the barrow and appreciate its development.

The name comes from a Saxon legend of a smith who made invincible armour. Local legend has it that if your horse has thrown a shoe and you leave it there overnight, together with sufficient silver as payment, Wayland will take your money and shoe your horse!

Wayland’s Smithy is free to visit, but access is on foot along the Ridgeway path.

Uffington White Horse and Castle

Not far from Wayland’s Smithy, and also on the Ridgeway, is the oldest “white horse” in Great Britain, dating from around 1000 BC, although it could be 400 years either older or younger. It is very “modern” in its depiction of a running horse, indeed almost abstract in design. However, as with all such chalk figures, it is best seen from a distance and this can be done from many vantage points in the valley below. At 374 feet in length, the horse is hard to miss.

Uffington Castle is an Iron Age hillfort close to the White Horse, and there is also a natural mound called “Dragon Hill” that is part of the English Heritage site.

On a fine day the views from the downs in this area are magnificent. It is well worth the effort to leave the car at one of several small car parks and walk along a downland track for a couple of miles to commune with nature at its best!

© John Welford