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Beyond the Henge: Exploring Avebury's World Heritage Site
The Neolithic henge and stone circle at Avebury are well-known to many people. But few visitors explore the other prehistoric sites nearby in the World Heritage Site. This book is a guide to four different walks of between one and six miles which take in all the significant surviving archaeological sites.
146 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2012
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October 29, 2014
I had the pleasure of meeting author Bob Trubshaw on a recent trip to Avebury. He’s an expert on this area, having studied and led walks in it for many years. He was kind enough to not only help me find my way from the henge “avenue” to the nearby long barrow, but to lead me up a hill to better get my bearings. After hearing much about the area from him, of course I bought this book when I ran into him later at the pub.
At that time, Bob warned me that the book's format is a bit strange. Information about the Avebury historical sites is presented as a conversation between Bob and a fictional friend named Simon, as they take four distinct walks of between ½ and 6 miles. While I found the conversational aspect refreshing, I sometimes lost sight of who was speaking, since there were no “I said, he said, Simon said” cues. No matter, really, since the main idea is to understand the history of the area.
What was more problematic is that this book is “intended to be used in conjunction with Ordnance Survey Explorer Map sheet 157,” which I do not have. Each walk does have a small map for reference, and the first walk’s map is lettered A through H to indicate areas of interest, most of which are illustrated with black and white photos. This helped me orient myself and understand the walks from my armchair back in the US. Unfortunately, the other maps lack such references, making the second and third walks difficult to understand and therefore not as interesting. The fourth walk is very short and pretty easy to comprehend without a map. The fact that the first map is annotated makes the other maps seem incomplete.
My favorite part of the book was reading about the structure and ancient history of Silbury Hill and the West Kennett long barrow. My least favorite part was navigating the poor editing, misspellings, and repeated words. Another proofreading would definitely have helped! Nonetheless, I look forward to reading another Bob Trubshaw book because I learned quite a bit from this one.
At that time, Bob warned me that the book's format is a bit strange. Information about the Avebury historical sites is presented as a conversation between Bob and a fictional friend named Simon, as they take four distinct walks of between ½ and 6 miles. While I found the conversational aspect refreshing, I sometimes lost sight of who was speaking, since there were no “I said, he said, Simon said” cues. No matter, really, since the main idea is to understand the history of the area.
What was more problematic is that this book is “intended to be used in conjunction with Ordnance Survey Explorer Map sheet 157,” which I do not have. Each walk does have a small map for reference, and the first walk’s map is lettered A through H to indicate areas of interest, most of which are illustrated with black and white photos. This helped me orient myself and understand the walks from my armchair back in the US. Unfortunately, the other maps lack such references, making the second and third walks difficult to understand and therefore not as interesting. The fourth walk is very short and pretty easy to comprehend without a map. The fact that the first map is annotated makes the other maps seem incomplete.
My favorite part of the book was reading about the structure and ancient history of Silbury Hill and the West Kennett long barrow. My least favorite part was navigating the poor editing, misspellings, and repeated words. Another proofreading would definitely have helped! Nonetheless, I look forward to reading another Bob Trubshaw book because I learned quite a bit from this one.
Displaying 1 of 1 review