Wiltshire Museum is big in Japan. A TV prog about the Museum's Wiltshire Thatcher photograph featuring on the cover of Led Zeppelin's fourth album has been viewed by more than 3 million households.

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Avebury

250 years ago this autumn Edward Drax organised the top to bottom excavation of Silbury Hill fom this house in Bath. As it also coincides with the 40th anniversary of the inauguration of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, it could be time to revisit Drax's extraordinary escapade.

Wishing Roland a long and happy retirement. wshc.org.uk/a-career-in-...

One of those early mornings at Stonehenge (in 2018), hours before the public are allowed access, and it just so happens a giant CND logo is rolled into view.

Unusual skies over Stonehenge.

The latest issue of British Archaeology is out now 📖🏺 From new discoveries at Lancaster’s Castle Hill, to Wiltshire’s chalk horses and the questions they raise about care and responsibility. Plus Casefiles, news, and more! Read the new issue today 👉 tinyurl.com/yhhhfm35

Should anyone be interested, my note about Guy Underwood's early interest in dowsing is a free download: ‘From sceptic to convert' in Guardian Angel: The Journal of the Bradford Preservation Society Trust, Winter 2025, pp. 20-22. share.google/CP20m07TLCx1...

'Succession and indifference' out now...

"I don't know why people expect art to make sense. They accept the fact that life doesn't make sense." - David Lynch #quote

Shell had such a high profile with similar promotions have they overshadowed the 1963 Motorist's Guide series by National Benzole?Including British Castles, Follies and Monuments, they were edited by Sir Hugh Casson and illustrated by the great artist designer Paul Sharp.

Stukeley had one or two good ideas - more photographs of dogs at ancient sites is what is required.

I have not sketched a crowd at night before, let alone sketching from memory and imagination. I started with mark making to give the impression of some vague figures of all ages then put them together. I was quite pleased with the result.

Someone was looking wonderful in the sunshine today.

Curried cauliflower pasties from Circles in Avebury are really nice - meat eaters have their own so no nicking our veggie pasties!

Part way through sketching the gates on the north side of the Alexander Keiller Museum forecourt for the illustrated map of Avebury for a memorial walk. It was too cold to hang around the gates I am sketching for more than a couple of hours so I shall have to visit again today.

This #findsfriday, we are sharing with you one of three leather shoes that were found in Avebury in 2025, concealed in a wall of a house. Wiltshire Council's Conservation & Museums Advisory Service then worked to conserve the shoes for our collection, creating bespoke mounts to stabilise the shoes.

A cut and build #Stonehenge kit for children. Includes a small hammer and chisel for separating the stones. We didn't sign in so we don't know the price. scienceandnature.com/cut-and-buil...

Third visit to Avebury in 5 days (research), and each day the village and surrounds was busier than the last. Every space in all 3 car parks were occupied, laybys were full, and thd henge was heaving with visitors.

An artwork featuring a flying saucer beaming up sheep from Avebury on the post box outside the village community shop. Can you spot which Avebury stones they are?

No more game of this thank goodness.

Opposite Silbury Hill in 2006 - the sort of everyday thing one encounters when driving along the A4.

Outlines of Grandeur plate featuring Stonehenge, designed for Wedgwood by Laurence Whistler, 26.5 com diam.

Our seasonal decorations range from a stained glass Christmas tree, made by a talented friend, to bats and flying monkeys.

Winter Solstice lantern lighting at sunset at Stonehenge today.

Since working on the reenactment of some photographs of Morris dancers at Stonehenge for English Heritage in 2023, I occasionally sketch dress, presentation and movement from online photographs. In this example the seasonal garlands worn by Hawthorn & Hare Morris form a canopy.

On entering a Pizza Express for the first time I encountered Lord of the Flies.

Humour for my grandsons. What is the difference between a Klingon battle cruiser, a Romulan battle cruiser, and a carrot that resembles a battle cruiser? Only the latter is found in a bag of 'Wonky carrots' from Morrisons and gets turned into a Christmas greeting. Merry Christmas.

Part of my fag packet survey at Clatford - back then I couldn't afford film, only had a pocket tape rule. 5 much larger sarsens plus others within 200 metres. All but the three largest (in a line in this drawing) have been moved. 1 of 3 possible locations of the Clatford Circle.

A large ivory handled folding knife signed M. VERINDER, LUDGATE HILL scrimshawed with a scene of Stonehenge.

Awaiting peer feedback on a draft (5,500 words) about threats to chalk figures in the landscape. If it makes it into print it will be my 75th article/ paper/ chapter published in 30 years. Think I should host drinks somewhere?

Removing the rear layers of the 1960s frame we encounter confirmation of the date from a January 1968 copy of the Bath Evening Chronicle, and access to the details - the artist is J.Baker, the publisher is William Baily, bookseller of Calne. It is dated July 20th 1798, and Bluck was the engraver.

I bought this hand coloured copy of the 18th century engraving of Cherhill White Horse some time back. It was inexpensive because someone started recolouring it in the 60s judging by the paint applied to the traveller's coat left.

Maud Cunnington new photos www.sarsen.org/2025/11/maud...

Stonehenge c. 1846 by William Turner of Oxford, who was born on this day in 1789. Turner was an English painter who specialized in watercolour landscapes. The Ashmolean has a collection of works by this artist.

The blue Uffington Horse road sign erected by North Wessex Downs National Landscape where the Cherhill White Horse comes into view on the Bath Road on travelling east from Calne - too tricky standing in traffic so have included two composites. The 18th century image is by John Bluck. Your thoughts?

My new book, all about how, in the 1970s and 80s, the good architects and planners of the Peterborough Development Corporation tried to create pedestrian-friendly places to live. Available here: theradburnidea.bigcartel.com/product/the-...

The Making Of David Bowie's 'Sound And Vision': "He encrypted everything with hidden meaning": How Monty Python, Brian Eno and "a little Bo Diddley kind of thing" helped create Bowie's Low hit www.uncut.co.uk/features/the...

Questions on hill figures on University Challenge this evening.

The Alton Barnes White Horse was for many years lit with tea candles in jars to mark the winter Solstice in the present century. It was a sympathetic tradition, albeit walking back and forth over the vulnerable edges and chalk surface was a little less mindful of potential change.