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We cross the rolling Marlborough Downs, with their dramatic, wooded
heights to reach Marlborough, a town noted for having one of the widest
main streets in the country. The broad, sloping High Street of splendid
Georgian buildings and colonnaded shops obscures many fascinating back
alleys with quaint, medieval, half-timbered cottages.
A few miles west of the town takes us to our first stop. From the leafy
approaches hummocky green embankments suddenly startle the eye, and
ancient grey stones loom up like ghostly sentinels. Avebury, a very
English village of thatch and brick is necklaced with the largest
prehistoric stone circle in the world. The stones, each of them
weighing 40 tons, were hauled from the Marlborough Downs in the late
Stone Age and set up at least 200 years before Stonehenge. That much is
known, but the purpose of the stones has eluded archaeologists down the
centuries: a site for pagan rituals perhaps, or a temple to the sun?
After exploring the site, we’ll check out the finds in the museum, just
outside the earthwork rampart; a model shows how the great blocks were
erected, whilst other exhibits include Stone Age hammers, antler picks
and pottery.
The Avebury area is strewn with important prehistoric sites and our
next stop is a visit to one of the most impressive and well-preserved
burial chambers in Europe. West Kennet Long Barrow stretches for 100
metres in an East - West orientation. The tomb is thought to have been
constructed around 3500BC, and was in use for a thousand years, when
the tomb was sealed with chalk rubble, and the gigantic boulders that
now guard the entrance. During excavation it was revealed that almost
50 people - of varied age groups - were buried within the tomb.
Our tour continues west, passing the huge, circular, flat-topped cone
of Silbury Hill, built like an enormous sandcastle. It was built around
1600BC but the mystery of its purpose still remains. We travel through
some of the loveliest countryside in southern England to the
picturesque village of Lacock, with its many charming stone and
half-timbered houses. The village is entirely owned by the National
Trust. It has featured in various TV and film costume dramas, in
particular Pride and Prejudice, Moll Flanders and Emma. Its popularity
with the makers of costume dramas is easy to understand. None of the
shops show any sign of belonging to the 20th century, let alone the
21st! Residents and businesses are forbidden to display any form of
advertising, so a visit to Lacock really is like a journey into the
past. No building in Lacock is later than the 18th century. Every
corner turned brings some fresh delight, such as the pretty Sign of the
Angel hotel with its overhanging upper storey and the 14th tithe barn.
We’ll conclude our visit to this delightful village with a tour of the
13th-century Lacock Abbey. Now a historic manor house, Lacock Abbey
retains its medieval cloisters as well as later Tudor features. It was
the home of William Fox-Talbot, one of the inventors of photography.
The Abbey's cloisters and side rooms were transformed into the
classrooms for Harry Potter’s Hogwarts School while the location was
also used for Harry's discovery of the Mirror of Erised.
On this tour we have an amazing choice of fabulous country pubs for
lunch. Just let me know if you would like a picture perfect thatched
pub, straight out of Charles Dickens; or one of most haunted pubs in
the country – and it’s 400 years old; or perhaps a quintessential
English Inn - there are log fires and oak panelling, low beams and
squeaky floor boards.
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