Stones in the landscape

Wednesday, January 8th., Waterloo Road, Burslem.

These doldrum days after Christmas were enlivened yesterday by a trip into the Derbyshire Peak District. Callear had told me that he was developing an interest in archaeology and was in contact with a certain H. St George Gray who is engaged in excavating a prehistoric monument near Buxton. The weather being dry and quite mild at the moment he suggested that we make a visit. And we did.

Gray is acquiring a name in archaeology it seems and has learned his craft from the well-known investigator of burial mounds Augustus Pitt-Rivers. Fortuitously Gray was at the site, known as Arbor Low, when we arrived and gave us a tour. More impressive, and much more interesting than I had expected. It is high on the moorlands with commanding views all round. Stiffish cold wind from the north-west. The monument consists of a circular bank of earth, perhaps 100 yards in diameter and with two 'entrances'. Inside the bank is a ditch, and inside the ditch is a circle of stones, now recumbent. Some are very large. All very weathered. Hay says they would originally have been upright but were probably toppled in the Middle Ages for superstitious reasons. There are a few large stones also in the centre. Hay speculates that some sort of ceremony took place here, perhaps several times a year, with people gathering from the surrounding area. Perhaps they entered one way and left by the other, or perhaps two different groups (men and women, tribes?) entered separately and met in the middle. Gray has found some skeletal remains, flint scrapers, bone and antler tools. He thinks that circles like this were at one time commonplace but that most have been flattened by farming, so they only survive in isolated areas.

Nearby is a burial mound called Gib Hill which was excavated fifty years ago. The excavation was not up to Gray's standards and he regrets its having been attempted. There was evidence of a cremation and some pottery. Callear and I walked about and speculated freely about the lives of the people who built these monuments. Were they farmers or hunters? What did the stones represent for them? What sort of ceremonials were involved? All fascinating. I can see why this can become a consuming passion for some people.

Last night here tonight and I shall not be sorry to get back to the metropolis. It is good to be part of a family but it is possible to have too much of a good thing.