Amesbury

My third day out courtesy of South West Trains.

This time I got the train to Salisbury.   The original idea was to get the bus to Tisbury, said to be the oldest continuously inhabited town in England, and reasonably close to Wardour, where my friends Michael and Veronica Hodges had been involved in restoring the chapel.   However, the internet proved rather unreliable for checking out bus times,and I discovered that not only had the bus station, where I was going to pick up the bus, closed, but the bus times had changed.    So I made a quick change of plans and got a bus to Amesbury, which I had never heard of before, but which proved a very wise choice.

Amesbury itself is quite small, with a population of little more than 10,000.    There is a small high street, with a limited number of shops, and a number of new housing estates; and if that had been all, I would probably have spent half an hour their and moved on.

But in the last few years Amesbury has become a very important archaeological site, and a museum has recently been set up in the former church hall.   There was a notice saying "Museum open" and I expected it would be the usual small affair with a few rather boring artifacts, the sort that can be found in almost any small town museum - worth a visit, but not somewhere you would spend a great deal of time.

Instead, it was fascinating.    As the only visitor, I had a personal guided tour of the museum, and although they could not show any of the valuable pieces discovered for security reasons, there was enough there to make me want to find out more.

Amesbury, it would seem, has been continuously inhabited since 8,000 BC, and thousands of artifacts from that time onward have been found in just one small site on the edge of the town.   Who knows what will be discovered when further sites are excavated.   But what has been done so far shows that it was an important site even before Stonehenge was built, possibly being a winter camp for the nomadic tribes who lived just south of the ice sheet, as it has warm springs which never freeze.  In fact, it is thought that the people who built Stonehenge possibly lived there.

One of the most famous discoveries in the area was the Amesbury archer, lived about 2300 BC and who was unearthed in 2002 when a new housing estate was being built; tests showed that he probably originated in the Alps, while a relative who was also discovered grew up locally.

After a very interesting and lengthy visit to the museum, where I also sampled their tea and cakes, I wandered up past the church of St. Mary and St. Melor, which is very old - dating back to the tenth century at least - but was firmly shut for some reason.   I can't think they get many burglaries in Amesbury, or that there is anything particularly valuable there anyway, but one never knows.   So I just took some photos of the outside, before going on to look at the River Avon, which I presume is normally just a small stream.   Today it was a huge, fast flowing river, spreading out over the fields on either side.   Luckily the town itself is on slightly higher ground than the fields.

Amesbury, far from being just a sleepy little town with nothing much of interest, is definitely worth another visit but preferably on a day which isn't quite so wet and windy.  

Back in Salisbury, I wandered round the town, looking at all the interesting buildings, like the Church of St. Edmund & St. Thomas, before going on to Salisbury Cathedral, by which time it had started to rain quite heavily again..   I've been there before, but it's worth more than one or two visits.   Their refectory is nice, but rather expensive; I tried one of their rich cakes and a pot of tea as it was that time of day, before going into the cathedral itself, which is huge.  

Afterwards I went to do some shopping before coming back for Evensong at 5.30 p.m. - I only just made it in time, and I'm not sure they allow latecomers into the choir stalls.   There was a large choir, nearly all little girls with just  a few men.    I wasn't terribly impressed the singing, but I think the children may have been quite new to it, as not all of them had the correct outfits.   But they were all impeccably behaved and very solemn during the service and when they processed in and out.

By the end of Evensong it was completely dark, and you realise just how well London is lit at night.   No lamps lighting up the path from the Cathedral to the street there, and  not the best of lighting in the streets.

When I got to the station I found my train was delayed, due to trees on the Line (again!), but it was only just over half an hour late, so I was home at a very reasonable time.