Another piece of Britain's "Henge Capital" to be destroyed by Anglo American?

[Venutius]

I posted about Thornborough some time back and Tarmac have delivered on their promise of continued destruction.

Despite finding extensive areas of settlements and burials of those that came to worship at Britain's "Orion" Henge complex in North Yorkshire - Britain's largest Neolithic Ritual site (3,500 BC) Tarmac have announced plans to further extend the quarry in the area.

TARMAC HAVE REQUESTED PLANNING PERMISSION TO DESTROY POSSIBLY THE LAST REMAINING SETTLEMENT SITE AT THORNBOROUGH.

http://www.heritageaction.org/thornborough.html

This is a critical time for the ancient heritage of Britain. Thornborough may well have been the "Henge Capital" of Britain, the site comprises not just of the three super henges of Thornborough, but also a further four identical henges aligned on two linear paths. one from Newton Kyme to Catterick (40 miles!) and comprising of the identical henges of Cana, Hutton Moor and Newton Kyme, as well as the Devil's Arrows stone row and the henge at Catterick (this is smaller - the size of the henge at Stonehenge).

The other linear alignment is from the Devils Arrows to Thornborough, passing through yet another identical henge at Nunwick.

Henges this size (240m dia) do not come identically elsewhere in Britain (except priddy) and they certainly do not form 40 mile long dead straight alignments and neither do we have any other mile long ritual sites that apparently mirror the Orion constellation.

Just how important does a site have to be before we say NO! to the quarry? This has already destroyed countless remains of the period, including two settlements and several ritual areas. It is now clear that the Nosterfield quarry served as a prestige burial site from 3,000 BC to at least 700BC (The only two square barrows found in North Yorkshire were discovered here in November last year - they are now lost).

Please help the people of England hold onto their most important heritage - write a letter of objection today.

More news will be forthcoming. Tarmac are playing the same old games - they provided North Yorkshire County Council with insufficient copies of the application to go round so key objectors, including myself are left in the dark till the last minute. The clock is ticking, we have four weeks to get as many objections as possible.

[Seren_]

Venutius,

What do English Heritage have to say about this? This sounds pretty outrageous.

I'm not sure if your interest in this is personal or professional (or both), but if you're not already aware, there are planning guidelines to be considered in cases like this. Of particular relevance is PPG16 - Planning Policy Guidance 16, which governs the appropriate action that should be taken when potential archaeological sites might be affected or even destroyed. I would have thought Annexe 4 might be of use to you, and perhaps you could use it to tailor your protest as it were. You can read it here (http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_planning/documents/page/odpm_plan_606901.hcsp). Exciting reading, I know.

Sorry if I'm rehashing stuff you already know and all that, but from what you've said it seems somebody at your local council hasn't been paying attention to it so far...They are only guidelines, though, admittedly. When big money is involved, important things like our heritage seem to fly out the window. :goodgrief

[Venutius]

Unfortunately, once a planning application has been granted, in North Yorkshiore at least, there is nothing that will save any archaeological feature, regardless of it's importance.

The area immediately outside of the henges is not scheduled, even though it is here where most of the archaeology is hidden, Tarmac are therefore at liberty to apply for planning permission and although they have found around 500 archaeological features in the current quarry they will say that it is unlikely to contain any important archaeology. And in a way thety are right, for once they are granted planning permission, nothing on the site will be regarded as important.

However, do not give up hope. Believe that they can be defeated and they will, all we have to do is harness our energy and focus it on the job at hand. That job is to get as many opbjections to the planning application as possible. Experts are working on detailed objections but as we all know nothing has more power than a united public voice. And if it's a global voice it has even more power.

The message is a clear one - Thornborough, being a henge complex that streches for over a mile and comprising of some of the largest henges in Britain was clearly a very important sacred site for a very large number of people. Those people came and camped in the land surrounding the henges and performed rituals both in this space and in the henges. The surrounding landscape is therefore of equal importance as the henges for not only does it contain vital evidence of those that came to worship here, but also it forms the setting - the context of the henges themselves. ALL quarrying within a mile of the henges must stop immediately and must never be allowed again.