Home
Ridgeriders
Shapes On The Landscape
The Work Of The Devil
Along The Downs
The Drovers Song
Turnpike Reel
Close Your Eyes
Low Southern Slopes
What Celia Sees
Never Without A Thief Or Twain
Along The Pilgrim's Way
Michael Morey's Hump
Mossing We'll Go
Up On The Ridgeway
Smugglers Road
Betteshanger Treasure
Dorset Cursus
The Ridgeriders Band
Ridgeriders Links

Moonraking @ the BBC

"There are many pleasanter places even in this dreary world, than Marlborough Downs when it blows hard; and if you throw in beside, a gloomy winter's evening, a miry and sloppy road, and a pelting fall of heavy rain, and try the effect, by way of experiment, in your own proper person, you will experience the full force of this observation."

from Chapter XIV of "The Pickwick Papers" by Charles Dickens

Do You Hear The Sound?

Angelyard, Marlborough, Wiltshire

Can you hear beyond the silence that is really not silence? Beyond the song of the skylark, as she soars to the skies?....Can you hear....? Here on the downs, the past, the present and the future meet, those dim but audible voices from the past, telling us of what they knew and encouraging us to learn from the lessons provided, the voices of the present, those voices that would indeed learn from the past, and those same voices applying, what they have learned from the past, to the future and so the circle of life continues for all time.........

 
Close Your Eyes

Close your eyes, now what do you hear?
Apart from the wind on high,
Apart from the horn of a distant car,
Apart from the lark as she takes to the sky?
 
 
Do you hear the sound of the drovers cry,
and the cattle he lead to the Wiltshire towns?
Over many centuries, many miles,
So many drives on the Marlborough Downs.
 
 
In summer and snows the shepherd was here,
Guiding his flock to the nearby pens,
Up on The Ridgeway, year after year,
Lambing, then market, then lambing again.
 
 
Can you hear the pick in the ancient hand?
Carving a horse in the chalky hill,
The murmur of Avebury stones where they sand,
Sometimes on the wind you can hear it still.
 
 
Close your eyes now what do you hear?
 
©Ashley Hutchings/Chris While

Between Marlborough and The Ridgeway

Avebury Panoramic Tour.
The only internet site about
Avebury From Avebury.
 
 
A learning journey through
the history in Hampshire's countryside
 

1724
taken from
Daniel Defoe's Hampshire. 1724

Rob and Angela Dickens
run and ogranise this very
informative website on this,
a very famous Wiltshire village.

From Swindon in the north
to the Vale of Pewsey in
the south, from Calne to the
eastern boundary of the county
lays the gentle undulating
Marlborough Downs,
sometimes known as the
Wessex Downs.
These downlands offer
great opportunities for
walkers and ramblers.

images in words and pictures
of this oldest of villages
in Wiltshire
 
 
Savernake is a surviving
remnant of one of Wiltshire's
ancient 'Royal Forests'
much beloved by Norman kings.
Today the forest is leased
to the Forestry Commission
and access is via
many paths and tracks.
It remains a place of
mystery and imagination
and an important habitat for
a number of wild birds,
plants and animals.
a well researched
(what did you expect?)
from the BBC
 
and very nicely done too

another name for
The Marlborough Downs.
this site from the BBC's wonderful
programme, Open Country.

Described as Britain's and
perhaps Europe's Oldest Road,
The Ridgeway is a 85 mile (137km)
route that follows the
chalk hills between
Overton Hill, near Avebury
 and Ivinghoe Beacon in Hertfordshire.
This website, once more, from
the BBC

Five of the horses lay close to
one another within a five mile
radius of Avebury which lies
in the very centre of the Wiltshire Downs;
three further horses lie a
short distance further away.
All may be visited by road or
via track-ways, the old lines of
communication in this area.

A Virtual Tour of Marlborough Downs

ridgeriders website is
©2004/2005/2006/2007/2008/2009/
2010/2011/2012/2013.2014
all rights reserved