Great Western Coffee Shop

From Stonehenge Stone Circle News and Information (https://blog.stonehenge-stone-circle.co.uk/2020/04/13/monumental-lockdown-a-period-of-rejuvenation-for-stonehenge/)


Many of us will also have seen the pictures (no-one gone in person, I hope!!) of goats roaming the streets of Llandudno ... and I suspect there are other cases of wild fauna moving in, and wild flora recovering from the human pounding they normally get.

"birds and insects that call the planes of Wessex home."

Would these planes of Wessex be Airbus or Boeing?

 

More likely Lockheed-Martin C130s, surely?

I may be a bit more strictly pedantic about the use of hyphens than is really necessary, but doesn't "the drop-in air pollution" mean something different to "the drop in air pollution"?

And while we're at it:
a return to environmental conditions closer to that of the stone’s erection
"those" conditions, surely. The 'of' sounds decidedly strange, too (during/at the time of).

worlds cities and monuments a well needed break

 A silver lining in the crisis, appears to be a global drop in air pollution


In Venice have cleared and wildlife has returned in droves...

This period of rest for the worlds monuments and natural resurgence is set to benefit the world and will improve the tourists experience when they return.

 ::)

The Internet has brought the ability to publish to a wide audience to many people who are far from being professional authors. And the lifestyle changes brought upon us by the current pandemic has brought others in into the forefront of contributing where even a month or two ago they would have been rephrased and proofread.  I can hugely sympathise with the people dropped in at the deep end (heck, members know I have a spelling problem!) and it's light relief to be reminded of Stonehenhge Aerodrome (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/first-world-war-aerodrome/) and think back to visits to Boscombe Down (https://www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/stations/mod-boscombe-down/) and Old Sarum Airfield (https://www.oldsarumairfield.co.uk)

Where I lack sympathy for muddled or inaccurate wording at present is in official pronouncements or advise - still being provided by professional local or central government, the police, ministers, the BBC and the like from whom we have seen a number of clumsy statements leading to confusions as to whether there's a time limit on exercise, whether you're allowed into your own garden, and whether you can put non-essentials in your shopping trolley when in the store for basic essentials anyway.  Anyway - I'm repeating myself there and I'm going to head onwards - I have a whole lode of massages to send.

Your reference to Stonehenge Airfield adds to this morning's nostalgia when, on another forum, I gave the precise location of Pond Farm, NE* of Market Lavington, which was taken over by the War Office around 1900, with a summer camping-site being established about 1.5 miles away. (It's now an impact area for artillery shells.) I looked at various old maps, someone else contributed a couple of modern ones, and lots of memories came flooding back of cycle rides and walks on the "permitted" parts of the Plain. Will I ever be able to return?  :(

And only last night I was ruing how much I missed a conventional massage (a reflection brought on by watching Lee Remick helping Burt  Lancaster unwind in The Hallelujah Trail (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059250/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)).

As I've recounted, on Friday I passed untroubled through a wood notorious for sexual mispractice, but I wouldn't mind a virtual massage ...

* As Grahame has pointed out, this should have been "SE"!. Too many attempts to get the correct compass points when advising on the other forum - and when discussing the subways and tunnels at Purley!

The Great Bustard at Stonehenge is not so surprising. There has been a long running project to try to reintroduce the species to Salisbury Plain - see http://greatbustard.org/

Occasionally escapees range further. We were fortunate enough to have one by the Ridgeway for a couple of days a few years back. When the world gets back to normal I would recommend a trip to Spain to see them in the wild. A displaying male is an unforgettable sight. Extramadura is best, but they occur remarkably close to Madrid. I once saw a group at the head of a shallow valley with a view of construction sites in the city on the horizon.

Pond Farm is to the South East, rather than the North East, of Market Lavington, and is in the Parish of Easterton. An area I know very well as I moved to Easterton ("East Lavington") 1982 and lived there until 1999. A long and personal story which I have started to write up and will post in "And Also" in due course.  Small world!

http://www.passenger.chat/23257 - in "Intro and Chat" as there's nothing in there I'm not proud to admit to in public.

Further on Pond Farm. Pond Farm has two photographs in The Field Archaeology of the Salisbury Plain Training Area https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/field-archaeology-salisbury-plain-training-area (https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/field-archaeology-salisbury-plain-training-area). You can find it at cheaper than list price on the web, and when it is open at the Stonehenge visitor centre bookshop. Shows that in its own way the northern part of the plain has almost as much history as the Stones. The two photos;a tented camp in 1909 and farm itself in 1910. The Field Archaeology gives a location of SU 044525, NDG James in Gunners at Larkhill (Gresham Books with RA Institution, 1983) gives a location of SU 043525. This gives a track junction with a disused well on the 1:25,000 OS map, use Bing maps and locate the spot and change to aerial and there is a structure, possibly a splinterproof shelter as shown on the 1920's 1:10,000.

EDIT: James NGR amended

My chance to redeem myself for confusing "NE" and "SE". James' location is actually 043525 and that's for the original farm, as is the Field Archaeology location. In Plain Soldiering he gives a grid reference of 055534, but that's for the camping-site, which was some way away. There's a link to a 1898 map and a couple of modern maps on the Great War Forum (https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/83458-market-lavington-landing-ground-wiltshire-1919/), post 18-19.

Googling "pond farm camp great war forum" will lead to various other threads.

Here's Stonehenge Airfield on the horizon in the 1920s.

Perhaps Pond Farm c1911. The postcard was published by a Market Lavington photographer, but the War Office had taken over other farms in the locality.

Certainly wasn't the last time the Royal Artillery had problems pointing things in the right direction.

There have been cases of shells overshooting the ranges, including one that landed "only yards" from a railway line in  2014.

Daily Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/10689412/Army-suspends-live-fire-on-Salisbury-Plain-after-stray-shell-fired-over-Wiltshire-villages.html)

"The round landed at Patney, near Devizes, only 3330 yards from the Paddington-Penzance railway, leaving a crater 6ft in diameter and 2ft deep."

Hang about, isn't 3330 yards almost two miles? However, another article  (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-26586271)says "the shell left a 6ft (1.8m) wide crater when it hit the ground 980 ft (300m) from a railway line at Patney, near Devizes".

(So an extra "0" crept into the Telegraph measurement.)

Way back when (c1963 actually), another shell landed in the garden of a hotel in Market Lavington. I got my parents to take me for lunch there, so I could inspect the modest dent.

I am aware from a recently retired army acquaintance of mine that the 2014 incident caused considerable embarrassment, but was not unprecedented. It was as much the publicity as the fact that it happened - looks like Cycling Sid knows more...... 

2014 is after my time around there.

There were occasions when Territorial gunners got their compass back to front, once again more embarrassing than dangerous.

There was the occasion when the Royal Ordnance Factory mislabeled ammunition, labeling 40 mm Solid shot as 40 mm Break-up. Break-up was used in training on Bofors guns (wonderful things!), the Canberra would fly over trailing the target drove on a very long piece of wire, the ammunition would break-up once it left the barrel. Regularly used at Larkhill. On this particular occasion the Canberra had done the first pass and was just about to come round for the second, you obviously didn't turn quickly with a long length of wire out the back. Just as it was about to happen a white top (Instructor Gunnery, or Assistant Instructor Gunnery) called Stop. There I think there were three holes in the roof of Bulford school, fortunately it was a break and all the children were outside. No injuries, but lots of embarrassment and coverage in the local papers.

EDIT: for drove read drogue

Now, now - that was a Rushton towed target; a drone was a buzzy little aircraft that bumbled along (well, you couldn't do anything clever with a simple radio control) asking to be swatted by some ordnance or other. Though there were a few Canberra drones - reserved for every special and expensive trials.

But that turn was rather surreal. The winch had five miles of wire on it, and the tug pilots preferred to pay it all out just to be on the safe side - especially with missiles: so much more imaginative at getting lost. The Rushton was an aluminium tube with fins and a wire fixed so it would fly straight and stable. The wire sloped down fairly steeply to the target, and during the turn the target dropped further. The wire didn't pull straight, or follow the tug, or quite fly - it did a bit of each, and the target had its own momentum and aerodynamics too, affected by the wind. So its path wasn't that predictable - the tug pilots concentrated on preventing it hitting the sea; very visible and expensive in money and kudos.

But the targets themselves could go missing and be a hazard. I'm not sure anyone really knew where they went exactly as the turn was done outside the instrumented part of the range. I was on the cliff-top at RAF Aberporth during some Canberra/Rushton runs that were not for our trials, and saw the tug well offshore do its turn ... and some time later there was a rushing noise overhead and this big silver thing (about 2 m long) shot past us far closer than was polite. And we were supposed to be in a safe zone! And they did, occasionally, just fall off if the tug manoeuvred too sharply, but usually at sea.

The benefits of coastal ranges like Aberporth and Manorbier. Bit more problematical on inland ranges like Larkhill.

I remember an enjoyable firing camp at Manorbier. This was the time when the Bofors was being replaced by Rapier. The Regiment were firing Bofors 40/70 with radar and fire control equipment (which is what I was supposed to be tending). Also firing were the Gibraltar Regiment using 40/60s without FCE etc. Embarrassingly they did as well, if not better than the Regiment with FCE.

Side benefit of the last firing camp with Bofors the Ammunition Depot had lots of 40 mm tracer to use up. If you are going to play with guns I think 40 mm tracer in ground defence role is addictive.

I think they only did about two firing camps with Rapier and towed targets. RAF didn't like having to cut the cable and try and escape at zero feet. But Rapier trials were supposed to be a whole collections of things that shouldn't happen. Like most trials which is why you had them.

I think the whole area of Stonehenge would look far better if somebody got rid of those massive great rocks that seem to be huddled together:  ;D ;D ;D



Smokey's now going into hiding and arranging a new ID ::)

That's what the Royal Flying Corps is rumoured to have requested c 1918 because the stones were impeding aircraft taking off and landing. No evidence has been found in surviving official documents. The story probably stemmed from pilots' comments that the stones were a bally nuisance.

Records do show concern during WWI about military damage to the Stonehenge landscape, with sewage from Lark Hill Camp being carried over the Cursus and discharged into a field. Aerial photographs of the 1920s show a rather nasty "stain" there.

Returning to the present, I hope that someone is available to shoot any rabbits seen near Stonehenge.
Such animals are very destructive to ancient monuments.
Only needs one person with a shotgun, easily achievable under social distancing.
Most other wildlife is more benign.

From the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53092245)


Leave it to the Great Bustards.

I got ((this)) (http://www.stonehenge-tours.com/blog.Summer-solstice-at-Stonehenge-2019.html) from a search.


Sadly, clicking on the details for service 333 indicates it has been replaced by 404 this year.

Have you seen the size of the holes that badgers dig ?  ;)

Yes but they seem less of a problem.
Badgers are less numerous than rabbits.
Badgers seem to favour farms, rather than open country.
And anyway badgers are protected and in general cant be shot, unlike rabbits.

Rabbits eat grass and other green stuff, Stonehenge is surrounded by grass.
Badgers are carnivorous and perhaps find little prey around Stonehenge.

Big badgers? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53132567 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53132567)

Ah ...

Not RA specific, and on a much bigger scale, Singapore in February 1942 would probably be top of the list!