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Stonehenge & Salisbury Weekend

maximus otter

Recovering policeman
Joined
Aug 9, 2001
Messages
13,848
Most FTMB readers won't have noticed that I took very little part in proceedings over the last weekend-ish (*sniff, sob*). This was because the memsahib & I spent a few days in and around Salisbury, Wiltshire. We took the opportunity to visit Stonehenge (third (?) time for me); also - for the first time - HMS Victory and the Mary Rose at Portsmouth.

Before leaving home I had to sharpen my penknife, obviously. Equally obviously, I had to cut my little finger. While stuck in a traffic jam on the way down, I noted with amusement that the Elastoplast I had applied looked vaguely catlike in silhouette. I drew my wife's attention to it. Out came her pen...

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Stonehenge was a revelation for me in that the whole arrangement has changed: You now park at a whizzy Visitor Centre about a mile from the stones, and you're conveyed there in a fleet of shuttle buses. We got the first bus at 0930, so had a brief interlude of relative peace and quiet before hundreds of oriental tourists descended, all of them taking fifty selfies, then pantomiming pushing over the stones for their mates to take pictures of them. What a thigh-slapper the first 8,000 times... Anyway, here are a couple of my memories:

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Trilithon over the Slaughter Stone

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Disapproving rook giving me stinkeye

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Classic view

English Heritage have placed a sample bluestone and sarsen stone at the Visitor Centre. Here I am imbuing one of them with my mystical energy:

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Well 'ard

Dinner at the Haunch of Venison, Salisbury:

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Try the twice-cooked pork belly. Or the triple venison (steak, sausage, pulled loin). Thank me later.

The Haunch is Fortean as it's haunted; also because, on the first floor, set in a niche in the wall, is the hand of a cheating card player, allegedly struck off and kept as a warning to stay honest (placement and lighting v. awks for photography):

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What can one say about the Mary Rose that hasn't already been covered? Amazing preservation and artefacts. Just as a flavour, here's a naff iPhone shot through glasss:

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Just go and see it, really.

HMS Victory: What Englishman's heart doesn't swell at the thought of it:

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Restored to her original, Trafalgar, colours

For the kinkier Forteans:

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The cat, and the bag it came out of. Also bosuns' "starters" and the stocks

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Anybody else amused that the "Don't Touch the Pistols" sign is in English and French?

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The very spot on the orlop deck where Nelson died.

I saluted England's Hero with a - most unusual for me - tot of pusser's rum that evening.

"Engage the enemy more closely!"

maximus otter
 
envy envy envy.... I love that area :)
 
Love it! Glad you enjoyed a weekend down in the deep dark south west with us :) Call in for a cuppa next time!

If you ever make it back, give visiting Avebury a whirl - the stones go on for miles...

The whole of the area does have an 'atmosphere' - archaeological research has shown it's the oldest and longest continually-inhabited area in the British Isles, around 10,000 years give or take a few https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-27238503
 
I have a list of places I'd like to visit around there, if I ever find time. I visited Stonehenge for the last summer solstice, but I'd love to do it again.
 
Of course you will have visited Salisbury Cathedral, famous not just in Europe, but in the whole world.

It’s famous for its 123-metre spire. It’s famous for its clock, the first one of its kind ever created in the world, which is still working.
 
Of course you will have visited Salisbury Cathedral, famous not just in Europe, but in the whole world.

It’s famous for its 123-metre spire.
Yes. It's particularly popular with Russian tourists.
 
Of course you will have visited Salisbury Cathedral, famous not just in Europe, but in the whole world.

It’s famous for its 123-metre spire. It’s famous for its clock, the first one of its kind ever created in the world, which is still working.

Oh, yes.

(The clock is the oldest working one in the world).

maximus otter
 
If you ever make it back, give visiting Avebury a whirl - the stones go on for miles...

The whole of the area does have an 'atmosphere' - archaeological research has shown it's the oldest and longest continually-inhabited area in the British Isles, around 10,000 years give or take a few https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-27238503

Megalithophile here: We’ve done Avebury, Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow, Newgrange, Callanish, Weyland’s Smithy, Castlerigg...

maximus otter
 
I know a certain someone who might just work at the Stonehenge site and if asked nicely they might just be able to let friends and family visit before opening and get close to the henge stones. PM me if you ever want to join in an early day visit and maybe something can be arranged :)
 
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