Just before I went to University my parents moved out of the city to Chew Magna, a small village to the south. During the summer I spent kicking my heels waiting for my exam results, one of the places I liked to hang out were the Stone Circles at Stanton Drew. I visited them again for the first time in 45 years this past weekend. Nothing much has changed except that there were more people than I remember walking through the fields and around the stones, and there was even a family picnicking besides them. Yes, despite the bitter March wind.
It is third largest standing stone complex in England after Stonehenge and Avebury and hardly anyone has ever heard of it. Stanton Drew is a tiny village in the Chew Valley, but it's well worth a detour if all things Neolithic are your bag.
The Stone Circles cost a mere £1 to visit - coins in the honesty box. They date from 3000-2000 BCE. Many are still standing, some are flat out. They are lichen encrusted and pitted by rainwater erosion. They are lovely things to behold, touch with your palm and wonder about their purpose and the civilisation that put them there. Impressive and mysterious, both. There are some farcical local legends concerning them, which you can safely scoff at. I do.
And there's more - an even older (by another thousand years) group of three enormous dolomite conglomerate stones called The Cove can be found in the garden of the Druid's Arms pub in the village - an excellent spot for refreshments too.
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