New Views over Megalithia

[Boreades]

Yes, agreed, the map needs to be more user-friendly. It needs some proper professional software person, not the sodding useless amateur who produced version 1.0

I've checked the petty cash. £0.87, and a few old Tizer bottles worth thruppence each.

At the cheap-end of the going rate for proper professional software work (c.£30 per hour), that will get us a few seconds of dev time. Just long enough for a sharp sucking through the teeth, and remarks like "they don't make that kind of software any more".

I have tried selling a few more TME books to raise some more petty cash, but it's the quiet time of year for passing trade.

[Boreades]

As Mrs Boreades and I are vaguely connected to the Wiltshire Tourism industry, we get sent stuff.

Today, English Heritage wanted to tell us all about Stonehenge.

Nearly 4,000 years ago, a woman was buried in one of the barrows that cluster on the ridges surrounding Stonehenge. Placed alongside her were pendants and beads of amber, jet, shale, gold and fossils. Groups can now see these items on display at Stonehenge for the first time alongside other Bronze Age barrow 'grave goods.' They include amber earrings - the earliest items found in Britain to show signs of being worked with a lathe - conical objects, which may have been pendants or toggle buttons used to fasten a cloak and a mysterious oblong pendant, with a fragment of bone so significant that it was encased in gold. The special Wish You Were Here exhibition of Stonehenge souvenirs, guidebooks, postcards and photographs spanning two centuries can also be enjoyed throughout the season.

Looking around the exhibitions, the Neolithic 'village' just outside the visitor centre and of course taking the shuttle to the marvel at the Stones themselves, is bound to make group members peckish! An ice-cream van is now on site for the season's warmer days and in the café a new range of gluten-free fresh cakes has just been introduced - featuring slices of Victoria sponge, chocolate brownies, vegan nut bar, cappuccino cake and carrot cake.

Visit the Stonehenge Group Visits page to find out more about bringing a group here.

How times have changed(?). My children's cousins regularly attend another of the South West's great attractions, the Glastonbury Festival. At which you can stay in a new-age "Neolithic" village, and buy pendants and beads made of amber, jet, etc.

THOBR-type folk might just say this is proof the British are obstinately loyal to their habits which persist for millennia.

Or something else?

[TisILeclerc]

Surely they've forgotten the woad and heads lopped off the shoulders of enemies?

Nice to see the English Heritage industry plc getting in on the act. I suppose they'll be employing locals dressed up in animal skins next selling bead by the side of the road. It's what the American Indians were reduced to when their livelihoods were destroyed by the government. Although at least they were given land to live on. Most of us can barely afford a house or even a room.

'Step Into England's Story' indeed.

I feel like starting a Brigante rebellion and popping down to London to have a word with them. Other tribes welcome to join in.

[Boreades]

A Brigante rebellion sounds timely. A new twist on the "Brexit" campaign?
"Brigit"?

Presumably, you can bring some amber beads from Whitby?
If you sell the beads, I'll sell the mead.

Perhaps you could also bring some tribes of unemployed steel workers from Scunthorpe, Newcastle and Sunderland?
"Rustic art" made from recycled steel (or "rusty tat" as Mrs. Boreades likes to call it) is all the rage at Country Fayres darn sarf.

For bonus points, they can knock the heads off some Leicester, Watford, Tottenham and Arsenal supporters on their way down the A1.

Not forgetting the Notting Hill Carnival, where the genteel local intelligencia and authors like to be entertained by quaint ethnic folk.

[TisILeclerc]

Brigit and Brexit. Like Castor and Pollux.

There's a rusty bit of old tat up at Gateshead known locally as the Gateshead Flasher. We could bring that down.

And some Whitby jet and kippers would go down a treat I'm sure.

[Boreades]

Sounds good. If you can dredge up some winkles and jellied eels as well as the kippers, cor blimey, the pearly kings and queens will welcome you with open arms.



Any resemblance to Mick & Hattie is entirely coincidental.

[Boreades]

Some might have noticed that the English Heritage organisation is rearranging Tintagel in Cornwall to make it more of a theme park, and even less historically accurate than it already was.

Thanks to Tisi, some breaking evidence that Stonehenge is in the fake heritage business as well, and has been for years.

Scroll down here...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/trave ... mages.html

... to find a view of a trilithon being erected during StoneHenge's reconstruction in 1919 and 1920.
Some say some of the "stones" were pre-cast using cement from the Lafarge Cement Works.
Conveniently situated just 23 miles away in Westbury, on the eastern side of Wiltshire.
Mixed into an aggregate along with local chalk and flint to give it an "authentic" look.

Of course, if you use a polymer concrete mix, you end up with something the archeos cannot distinguish from "real" stone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_concrete

[Boreades]

Today's email from English Heritage:

Tintagel Castle

Groups will enjoy an even more legendary day out at Tintagel Castle when imaginative new outdoor interpretation opens this spring at the romantic and rugged island ruin on the north Cornish coast. Featuring sculptural elements alongside creative new panels visitors will be taken on a journey through the history and legends associated with the site. There's also a recently completed exhibition to enjoy, which explores Tintagel's rich and varied past from Dark Age settlement, to thriving trading port, as well as the origins of its links to the legends of King Arthur. Artefacts from the site are on display, there are book sculptures illustrating the castle's literary links and an innovative 3D model of Tintagel Island. A new bridge makes the recently refurbished Beach Café fully accessible, so that everyone can enjoy the stunning views as well as a taste of Cornish cooking.

Visit the Tintagel Castle Group Visits page to find out more about bringing a group here.

Note: "imaginative new outdoor interpretation" = inventing history.

[Boreades]

A date for the TME team diary, and a chance for another Works Outing.

Saturday May 28th

Vounder Gogglas: an ancient traders' track

A guided walk with Cheryl Straffon & Lana Jarvis following part of a long-distance trading route from Sancreed Beacon to Caer Bran and Chapel Euny wells.

Organised by CASPN
http://cornishancientsites.com/aboutus.htm

Sancreed Beacon is here

Chapel Euny is here

[Mick Harper]

I don't know if anyone else is having the same problem but I cannot go to Borry's maps (or much else) by clicking on the URL. Only by using my vast powers to go into his post and accessing the URL from the edit can I do so. Also, Borry, did it not occur to you that possibly putting both on one map might be rather more user-friendly?