The Wansdyke & District Forums

We had a wonderful talk at the society last week on the Silbury conservation, so I thought I would share for those who could not come. Many of you will remember the hole that opened in the top in 2000, after all the rain, which turned out to be the old shaft from the antiquarian digs collapsing in on itself. The Duke of Northumberland's men sank one in 1776, and there were tunnels in the 1800s and again in 1968 for the television. All that disturbance finally caught up with it. English Heritage went in, recorded everything, and backfilled the lot with chalk to stabilise it. The speaker said the most surprising thing was how little was ever found inside: no burial, no chamber, no treasure. It was built for the building of it, he thought, not to hold anything.

A good summary, Janet. The 1968 dig is the one people forget caused the most trouble; it left voids that the later rain found. The no-burial point is the important one for newcomers: Silbury is the largest man-made mound in prehistoric Europe and it contains, as far as we can tell, nobody. That is the genuine mystery, far more than any treasure would have been. People find emptiness harder to sit with than gold.

Oh that last line, Col, about emptiness being harder to sit with than gold. I shall be thinking about it all day now. Roy says you have ruined his breakfast.

Ha, Col does have a way of putting things. But it is true, isnt it. We so want these places to be FOR something. Sometimes the doing was the point and there is nothing in the middle. Anyway, the society has the talk recorded if anyone would like the link, just message me.