Lake House, Wilsford
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_House
http://www.insidewiltshire.co.uk/largest-meteorite-to-fall-in-the-uk-was-used-as-door-stop/
From an old post by Hobgoblin:
"In a letter of 1933, R S Newall, assistant to William Hawley in his excavations of Stonehenge between 1919-1926 and discoverer of the Aubrey Holes, stated he found a large piece of spotted dolerite in a cottage garden near Lake House. Newall described it as a rough cube of about 18 inches each way, which might have been broken off the top of a worked monolith of the bluestone horseshoe. The owner of Lake House, near Wilsford, south of Stonehenge, donated the bluestone to the Salisbury Museum."
The mystery deepens. Last year Julian Richards was pictured at the new Boles Barrow dig with a lump of spotted dolerite. He was using it to show the diggers what they might need to look out for and what might just still exist in the depths of the barrow. Where did that lump of rock come from? Is it from the Salisbury Museum collection, and might it even be the very same lump of rock (or part of it?) that came from Lake House?
Bevins, R., Ixer, R. A., Pearce, N., Scourse, J., & Daw, T. (2023). Lithological description and provenancing of a collection of bluestones from excavations at Stonehenge by William Hawley in 1924 with implications for the human versus ice transport debate of the monument’s bluestone megaliths. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 38(6), 771-785.
http://www.insidewiltshire.co.uk/largest-meteorite-to-fall-in-the-uk-was-used-as-door-stop/
From an old post by Hobgoblin:
"In a letter of 1933, R S Newall, assistant to William Hawley in his excavations of Stonehenge between 1919-1926 and discoverer of the Aubrey Holes, stated he found a large piece of spotted dolerite in a cottage garden near Lake House. Newall described it as a rough cube of about 18 inches each way, which might have been broken off the top of a worked monolith of the bluestone horseshoe. The owner of Lake House, near Wilsford, south of Stonehenge, donated the bluestone to the Salisbury Museum."
Note the mention of a cottage garden on the estate. If this large lump of rock had been donated by Cunnington and Colt Hoare to members of the landed gentry as an "'interesting stone", why was it not kept in a prominent place on the estate rather than in a cottage garden probably occupied by an estate worker? Are we talking about the same stone? Is it possible that the Lake House stone had nothing to do with either Boles Barrow or Stonehenge?
The mystery deepens. Last year Julian Richards was pictured at the new Boles Barrow dig with a lump of spotted dolerite. He was using it to show the diggers what they might need to look out for and what might just still exist in the depths of the barrow. Where did that lump of rock come from? Is it from the Salisbury Museum collection, and might it even be the very same lump of rock (or part of it?) that came from Lake House?
In the recent paper by Bevins et al (2023) mention is made of ".........a dolerite block reputedly found in a cottage garden near Lake House, near Amesbury, which lacks a reliable context". But the rock was not analysed by the geologists.
Bevins, R., Ixer, R. A., Pearce, N., Scourse, J., & Daw, T. (2023). Lithological description and provenancing of a collection of bluestones from excavations at Stonehenge by William Hawley in 1924 with implications for the human versus ice transport debate of the monument’s bluestone megaliths. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 38(6), 771-785.
Does anybody have any light to shed on this issue? All info gratefully received........
Do you have the reference for the Pillinger & Pillinger article?
ReplyDeleteYes, thanks to Tony who sent it to me. Pillinger, CT and Pillinger, JM. 2024 Grandfather's stone: the Lake House Meteorite, Britain's largest and earliest extraterrestrial sample. Wilts Arch & Nat Hist Magazine 117, pp 181-196. The article is mostly concerned with the meteorite -- of which, more in due course.....
ReplyDeleteThanks
ReplyDeleteOn page 191 of the two Pillingers' recently published article in the WANHS magazine 2024, they remark that Edward A Duke (antiquary) and Edward G Duke (geologist) " obviously.. collected monumental stones since a bluestone, a large piece of dolerite, was found in a Lake House Estate cottage garden by Salisbury !museum honorary curator R.S. NEWALL, F.S.A. and donated to the Museum by FGGB ( Newall 1933, 523). NEWALL [ he of the 1924 Newall Stonehenge Boulder!] commented that it might have been taken home to LakeHouse by the Duke family as a geological specimen. "
ReplyDeleteThe large piece of dolerite donated to Salisbury Museum is named as " Salisbury Museum Acquisitions Catalogue. A block of blue-stone from the garden of Lake House, Museum accession number SBYWM.1931.37, Museum Annual Report, 1930-31, 10. [ bottom of page 191 of 2024 article by the Pillingers]. So there we are!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tony. Has anybody ever seen it? Are there any photos of it?
ReplyDeleteThanks Tony. Has anybody ever seen it? Are there any photos of it?
ReplyDeleteI shall enquire.....
ReplyDelete