pumpkinstrokemarrow

So going back a couple of steps, having a couple of hours to while away a month or so back while heading west down the A303 we thought to follow up a brown sign saying 'Iron Age Museum'. The entirely satisfactory chain - not something which is always the case - of further brown signs led us right up to the Andover town museum, possibly recently rebranded as an iron age museum.

Not terribly big, but not a bad place at all. It was also free. Interesting mix of mock-ups and models, display panels and artefacts. All very educational. I learned, for example, the current view on how the gates to iron age forts worked and that slings were an important part of the armoury. Obvious once you have been told; the things don't require anything expensive like metal. I wonder how long you had to practise before you could reliably hit a bod at say 50 yards? Surely not the 10,000 hours touted by Mr. Bounce (see July 15th). On the other hand there was a very large cauldron hanging from the roof of a hut, without comment as far as I recall, while I do recall thinking that such a cauldron must have been a very expensive item at the time. Not something your average slinger could run to. And I also recall that cauldrons and the tripods to sit them on were gifts for heroes a few centuries earlier in the eastern Mediterranean.

All this set us up very well for the few days following when we managed to visit a number of hill forts, or at least sites of hill forts. Huts at the very least. Although not the Danebury hill fort which was the focus of the museum.

Started off with a distant view of Stonehenge, which we did not visit on this occasion as it was some sort of cemetery or ossuary rather than a fort.

Trundled on west until we saw a large hill on our left, topped with an obelisk. On a whim, having noticed the thing before, decided to see if one could get at it, and it turned out that one could. The Ham Hill Historical Nature Reserve or some such. Started life as a large hill fort, then whacked by II Augusta, and then a quarry, during which time it supplied building stone for much of the surrounding country. Now a nature reserve. Complete with a circle of upright stones erected to mark the turn of the millennium. All most impressive with super views. The obelisk turned out to be the local war memorial.

We got lost on the way down but were pleased to come across a field full of broad beans. Someone is still growing the things, although you would hardly think so given how rarely they turn up in Epsom.

Next stop was Maiden Castle, which according to Wikipedia was whacked by the same II Augusta on their way to Ham Hill. We have visited the place before, but it was made much more impressive on this occasion by having been given a bit of life by the Iron Age museum.

On the way up we passed through the rather deserted Royal Grocer Town (aka Poundbury). Rather a cold and dead sort of place. On the way down we were entertained by the spectacle of a herd of sheep playing high speed follow-my-leader rounded a clump of trees. They clearly are reasonably dim animals.

Last stop on the iron age trail was Golden Cap where there was no fort in sight but there were the scars left by the local archaeologists so there must have been something there. Obvious site for a fort. There were also smaller versions of the very fancy field gates previously noticed at Polseden Lacey (see June 16th).