Woodhenge

Woodhenge was built in about 2500 BC and revealed by aerial photographs taken in 1925 to be a leveled henge.

The bank and internal ditch enclose a circular area about 50m (160ft) in diameter with a single entrance facing north-east.  Shortly after its discovery the site was excavated by Maud Cunnington Her work revealed that within the interior lay six concentric circles of pits, varying considerably in size and having originally held large upright oak timbers.  Because of the similarity of this plan to that of Stonehenge, the site became known as Woodhenge.  Woodhenge did gain some stones, assumed to be sarsens, late in its life, but they were subsequently removed.

From the ground plan, these timber circles (like those at Durrington Walls) are difficult to interpret.  The upright timbers may have stood in the open air, either plain or highly decorated.  They may have been linked together by horizontal beams to create a wooden version of Stonehenge or may even have been the framework for a huge building.*

Woodhenge

Woodhenge

*From English Heritage Guidebooks – Stonehenge, step into England’s story, published 2013

14 Comments CherryPie on Jun 17th 2014

14 Responses to “Woodhenge”

  1. Sean Jeating says:

    Almost as fascinating as Seanhenge. : )

  2. ubermouth says:

    Fascinating. That I did not see. What are those pillars made from?

    • CherryPie says:

      The pillars are concrete placed where the wooden ones originally were. The have colours on top of them the most recent guidebooks do not explain what they mean. The first time I visited there was a leaflet that explained what the colour coding meant. I seem to have lost it over the years.

  3. Ginnie says:

    Amazing to me, Cherry, this is the FIRST time I’ve ever heard of a WOODhenge! WOW.

  4. wiggia says:

    Just a little bit more about Seahenge and why it was moved.

    http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba78/feat5.shtml

  5. J_on_tour says:

    So many “Henge’s”. You might have to create a Cherryhenge !

    • CherryPie says:

      Now you set me a challenge or… Maybe I should ask Sean to create a Cherryhenge for me?

      He would construct it far better than me ;-)

  6. Mandy says:

    I had never heard of this before your post Cherie. Absolutely fascinating! My mind is working over time now, wishing I had the answers!