Timewatch has always had an interest in new areas of research and in examining topics which inspire debate. Stonehenge in particular prompted lively comments on our Timewatch forum. Here Dr. Olwen Williams-Thorpe, an archaeological scientist, presents her own perspective on Darvill and Wainwright's theory as explored by the Timewatch Stonehenge programme.

The central theme of the program was the hypothesis that Stonehenge was a prehistoric ‘healing’ centre. The perceived power of the site, we were told, was due to the ‘bluestones’, which had been quarried in the Carn Menyn area of Preseli (South Wales), an outcrop chosen because of the special ‘healing’ springs found there.

Unfortunately, this simply does not fit the geological evidence.

My work includes extensive research into the bluestones at Stonehenge which started in 1987 when I and a small group of OU colleagues were granted the unique privilege of drilling some tiny samples from the bluestones for modern geochemical investigation. Since that time, I've carried out hundreds of analyses of bluestones from both Stonehenge and Preseli.

As a result it is clear to me that the bluestones actually come from all over South Wales. They are a rag-bag mix of many rock types; there are dolerites from Preseli, rhyolites from the north Pembrokeshire coast, sandstones from the Senni Beds many miles from Preseli.

Even those stones that do originate in Preseli are from at least three different outcrops – Carn Ddafad las, Carn Breseb, and either Carn Menyn or the geochemically similar Carn Goedog. It is by no means certain that any of them came from Carn Menyn itself.

Stonehenge.
[Image © copyright Photos.com]

The large ‘Altar Stone’, a key feature of the bluestone settings at Stonehenge, certainly does not come from anywhere near Preseli. Its petrographic characteristics mean that it cannot come from that area; it must be from far further east, perhaps the Brecon Beacons.

So one has to wonder, are there supposed to be magic springs at all these outcrops? Why, if Carn Menyn was the important one, did these ancient stone collectors take some monoliths from entirely separate outcrops? And how on earth does the Altar Stone, with its very different source, fit into the picture? It just does not stack up with the ‘special Carn Menyn area’ theory.

The program also made the total, unquestioning assumption that people transported the bluestones to Salisbury Plain. This remains a hotly debated subject, but there is another view on it. There is growing evidence that an ancient ice sheet moved the bluestones across Wales and into southern England as glacial erratics, to be found on or near to Salisbury Plain thousands of years later by the builders of Stonehenge. The widely dispersed and very diverse nature of the bluestone sources (more than a dozen sources, up to 100 km apart) suggests random transport by ice, not human selection at a carefully chosen quarry.

One might take issue with quite a few other aspects of the story we were told: the ‘bluestone’ dates, the skeletal evidence, the quite extraordinary claims about ‘Neolithic inscriptions’…..as with the geology, the facts are at variance with the ‘healing’ thesis.

Of course we must to try to understand the significance of Stonehenge. But the theorizing should be based on all the facts, not just a selection.

Further reading

Brian John. 2008. The Bluestone Enigma. Publication date 3rd November. Greencroft Books, Newport.  ISBN 9780905559896.

Thorpe, R.S., Williams-Thorpe, O., Jenkins, G. and Watson, J.S., with contributions by R.A. Ixer and R.G. Thomas, 1991. The geological sources and transport of the bluestones of Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK.  Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 57, 103-157.

Williams-Thorpe, O., Potts, P. J., Jones, M. C. and Webb, P. C. 2006. Preseli spotted dolerite bluestones: axe-heads, Stonehenge monoliths and outcrop sources. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 25, 29-64.

Ixer R. A. and Turner P., 2006. A detailed re-examination of the petrography of the Altar Stone and other non-sarsen sandstones from Stonehenge as a guide to their provenance. Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, 99.

About the author

Olwen Williams-Thorpe is an archaeological scientist who specialises in provenancing ancient stone artefacts - working out what sort of rock they are made from, and where their quarry sources are. Olwen is currently a Visiting Senior Fellow of The Open University.

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1 October 2007

I have been asked to make a programme about the last day of World War One for Timewatch. I’ve been interested in the Great War since I heard Lyn Macdonald’s wonderful radio documentary about Passchendaele in the mid 70s. With both my grandfathers serving in that conflict – one as a Lieutenant at Gallipoli and the other as a doctor on the Somme – I’m pretty pleased to be able to tell this story for Timewatch.

4 October 2007

I have chosen Paul Reed as my historical consultant for this programme. Paul is a writer and battlefield guide and he and I have worked together on two WW1 documentaries; The Forgotten Battlefield about the excavation of front line trenches to the north of Ypres in 2001 and then a couple of years later on Gallipoli- the First D-Day a programme about the 1915 Dardanelles campaign. This will be the fourth documentary I have now made about World War One.

16 October 2007

It’s our first recce to find filming locations in France and Belgium. Paul has taken me to a small communal cemetery to the south east of Mons as he wants to show me something. In the middle of this tiny cemetery are 9 headstones of soldiers from WW1. We see that 4 of them are men who died on 11^th November 1918, almost certainly in the taking of Mons in the last hours of WW1. What is remarkable though are the 5 headstones in front of them from August 1914. These are the graves of soldiers killed in the opening weeks of WW1; the first engagements that later became known as the ‘retreat from Mons’. It’s just extraordinary thinking that these two sets of graves represent the start and the end of the war. Paul reckons that no-one knows about this place and this will certainly be the first time it’s been featured on television.

02 November 2007

I have heard today that the broadcaster and writer Michael Palin has agreed to present our documentary. I can’t think of a better person to front the programme. He is not associated with WW1 but I know that he has narrated an internal film for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission so I guess he must have something of an interest in the subject area. What I also know is that someone of his standing will bring viewers to the programme, perhaps viewers who might not usually tune into a documentary about World War One.

17 November 2007

Recce number two. We are now down in the Argonne region which is just over 20 miles north of Verdun way over in eastern France. It’s here where the Americans fought in the last 10 weeks of the war and where they suffered dreadful casualties, particularly on that final day of that conflict. Today we met local historian Jean-Paul de Vries who has a great museum in the small village of Romagne. Jean-Paul has amassed over 40,000 artefacts which he has recovered from the ground over which the Germans and the Americans fought. Jean-Paul shows us a German trench in the woods - still clearly visible and also a German WW1 bunker which is now frequented by wild boar! In the ploughed fields around the village we find evidence of the fighting from shrapnel to cartridge cases both American and German, just lying on the surface of the fields which have been ploughed. Paul even discovers a button from an American battle tunic from the time. Apparently it’s very rare.

In Jean-Paul’s village is the massive Meuse Argonne US cemetery which contains over 14,000 graves of soldiers from WW1 including over 100 from 11^th November 1918 and what makes it worse is that the war was over by 11 in the morning. Poor fellows. The place is deserted and It seems that no-one visits this cemetery as its off the beaten track and yet it is far bigger than the US cemetery above Omaha beach in Normandy which has over a million visitors a year.

11 December 2007

I woke in the middle of the night when it suddenly came to me that I have to interview the author Joseph E Persico who wrote a book a couple of years back on the last day of the war. Joe is a writer rather than a historian and takes an interesting slant on the story claiming that there were over 10,000 casualties on the final morning of WW1 on all sides. Although people have written about the Armistice, no-one has put it into context the way he has, questioning the fact that people died unnecessarily. My only problem is that Joe lives in New York and heads south to Mexico for the winter and I have to fly there for the interview next week returning within 24 hours on the overnight flight to London. Who says making tv is glamorous!

15 December 2007

Just before midday I receive a phone call. Yes! After some weeks of searching we have found the grand-daughter of George Edwin Ellison, the last British soldier to die in World War! I knew Ellison’s family lived in Leeds when he was killed so I made an appeal on a BBC Yorkshire radio station hoping that the family were still living in the area, and following an appeal in York we eventually reached Ellison’s granddaughter. It appears that the family were aware that George was one of the last soldiers to die in WW1 but they knew very little more and have never seen a photo of George.

20 January 2008

A contact of Paul Reed has now found a photograph of George Ellison in a local Leeds paper from December 1918 the last British soldier to die in the Great War. We are trying to get a better copy from the British Newspaper Library as it’s a poor quality copy from microfilm. This is certainly a first as I have never seen a photo of Ellison before and I’m sure that next year when the programme goes out, this photo will be picked up by the newspapers which is good publicity for our documentary. We now have photos of the last British Soldier, the last Canadian, the last Frenchman, the last Belgian and the last soldier to be killed in action in WW1 - American Henry Gunther. And we have his photograph too!

5 February 2008

It’s the first day of filming with our presenter Michael Palin and we are at Compiegne where the Armistice negotiations took place that November of 1918. We film in the Allied supreme commanders Marshal Foch’s carriage. It’s not original because during WW2 the Germans took the original back to Germany where it was bombed later in the war. However the table, chairs, pens and inkpots on it are original. No-one is allowed to wear shoes in the carriage so we film everything from chest height to avoid showing Michaels shoeless feet! Rain cuts the ‘outside-filming’ short and then it’s a long drive to our next location with a brief stop for a warm pizza-like-sandwich in the back of the van. Slightly embarrassed but then I expect Michael has had worse lunches on his world travels and he certainly doesn’t complain!

12 February 2008

Today we are filming in the town square of Mons in Belgium, which the Canadians took on the final day of World War One. To our horror we find a Belgian TV outside broadcast truck right in front of the town hall where we were going to film! It seems that our filming has clashed with the Belgian ‘festival of love’ and we are competing with the Belgian’s for access to the town hall. I have sympathy with the Belgian tv producer who has to light the hall for the big press conference happening later that morning, but we manage keep one step ahead of the love-team and just about finish as the ‘beautiful people’ for the festival arrive!

13 February 2008

Today is a pretty significant day as ‘the Ellison’s (as I call them) have arrived. We have given Marie and Catherine the opportunity of visiting their grandfathers grave for the first time and understandably they are quite apprehensive. We have a discussion about them seeing the grave with Michael as we film and they are concerned - I think because they are quite emotional about seeing the place where their grandfather is buried. They are well aware that their father was just six when his dad died and this is almost certainly the first time any member of the family has visited the grave.

Catherine and Marie arrive at St Symphorien cemetery. It’s bitterly cold, but they have bought a beautiful bouquet of lilies for the grave and it all goes well. Michael is very sensitive with them and yes it is a very emotional experience I think for all of us. They are very dignified particularly realising that their father never managed to make it here to see his own father’s final resting place.

18 March 2008

Michael has returned to France with us for several PTC (pieces to camera). Paul has done some research on Michael’s great uncle Harry who was killed on the Somme in 1918 and we want to make the point in the film that almost every family in Britain was affected by World War One, so we are going back to the place close to the spot where Michael’s great uncle is commemorated. Paul shows Michael the field where Harry Palin was killed and he spends some time taking in the atmosphere, if that’s the right expression.

About the author

Timewatch is the world's longest-running history series, having started in 1981, and is the BBC's flagship history series. Here, members of the production team share the highs, and lows, during the production process as they make some of the next series of programmes.

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March 2007

I’m waiting downstairs in the Media Centre offices at White City. I’ve been to the BBC before, to appear on various programmes, but this is different – I am meeting John Farren, the editor of Timewatch, to discuss a forthcoming programme on Young Victoria – presented by me and based on my work. I can hardly believe I am here. 

In my book, Becoming Queen, published in September 2008, I explore the passionate youth of Queen Victoria, set against the story of the life of her cousin, Princess Charlotte, the heir to the throne, whose tragic, premature death set off a wild race to father the next heir between the sons of George III. We have a vision of Victoria as dull and dreary and repressive: instead I want to explore how she was vibrant, tempestuous and determined to fight for the throne.  This was despite an overbearing mother who would do anything – even consider imprisonment and coercion – to get power, a miserable, isolated childhood, and a quite ridiculous name. No one in the country had ever been called Victoria before – she was called it to indicate that she would never be more than a minor Princess. Victoria’s battle to reach the throne is a fascinating story: painful, gripping, shocking, and ultimately redemptive. John thinks that it would work brilliantly on TV – to my delight.

April 2007

I’m back at White City, meeting Mike Wadding, the director, James Gray, the researcher and Tanya Severn, the production co-ordinator. They are so engaged and interested that it is really easy to talk. I tell the story, and we discuss. We agree that I will make a voice recording of the story so that Mike and James can listen to it on their ipods.

Throughout April, we work hard on the script, and discuss locations, stills, interviewees and props. I come back early from giving talks in Stockholm to film in Hyde Park, first with James and Mike, and then with our cameraman, really Director of Photography, Paul Lang. The initial shoots are a little shaky. Second time around is better and we all feel more confident. I am speaking about Victoria, as well as other subjects on the Queen Victoria cruise ship in May, so I take my pieces to camera with me. We’re set to film almost as soon as I return.

First Filming – May 2007

We start with a three day trip to Sidmouth, the Isle of Wight, Dover and Ramsgate. I arrive at White City and meet the team, and Paul Miller, in charge of sound, and Helen who will do make-up, which we need for me and the interviewees as we are filming in high definition. We cram into a car full of snacks. I feel a little as if I am on a family holiday…

We arrive at the Royal Glen Hotel in Sidmouth. Victoria, her mother and father, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, came here when she was an infant, in the hope of saving money. But the winter was bitter, and the Duke died abruptly, leaving the Duchess a poverty stricken widow.

I have been to the hotel before, but now I have the ‘Princess’ room, chosen in case we need it to film. It’s huge. I feel like a Queen myself.

Mike and I go over my pieces to camera before I have to say them, and change and revise, where necessary. I discover that it is easier to revise it moments before than learn it all in advance. The day proceeds so quickly. We film in the hotel, outside, and on the beach and it’s all done. I also learn how much shots of me are needed simply walking about or looking around.

I am learning just how long filming takes. Not only does it take a long time to set up the shot, but then so many things interfere: sound, the sun changing, the focus being out, so the time to capture the actual piece is limited.  

The team are great. I think of Queen Victoria who declared ‘Great events make me calm’. She would have been impressed by Mike and Paul, who are always unflappable, patient and generous with time and advice. Very early on, Mike said to me that the shoot must be fun – and it is.

The rest of the road trip is busy. We visit Norris Castle on the Isle of Wight, in the rain, and I stand looking out over the ships in Dover, next to the coastguard control centre. Ramsgate is our final location, where the first stop is a proper fish and chip shop for lunch. Then we head to the pier, and also to the park, to talk about when Victoria was seriously ill with typhoid and the Duchess of Kent tried to force her to agree to a Regency. Victoria’s childhood was miserable, but this is one of the most shocking moments of all, and I begin to feel incensed on her behalf as I talk to the camera.

June 2007: Kensington Palace

We are clambering over the locked gate in Kensington Palace. No one stops us – perhaps because we look like the most overloaded set of burglars in London. We’re filming after hours, and failed to find anyone to let us in and we stagger in complete with cameras, scripts, and sound equipment. Finally, Paul and the camera assistant, Magic, start setting up in the Red Saloon. We move aside the cash desks and security desks, which welcome the visitors, and replace them with camera tracks.

On my last birthday, in November, I visited the same restaurant in Kensington High Street that we go to for lunch, then I went to Kensington Palace. So I feel as if I am reliving my birthday every day.

Over the next five days, we film across Kensington Palace, fighting to get as much in as possible before it goes dark, setting up camera pods, so I can be filmed through a chandelier and tracks across the picture gallery. My shoes cause endless problems with the sound. Paul Miller has to cover the soles with wedges of sponge, so I feel a little as if I’m moon walking.

June 2007: Westminster Abbey

We have various places to film – we read extracts from Queen Victoria’s diaries at Miller’s Academy in Notting Hill and carry out our interviews there. We film in Green Park, which is full of people who want to wave at the camera. We travel down to Claremont, in Surrey, home of Victoria’s uncle Leopold, later King of the Belgians, now a school. But the most thrilling place of all for me is Westminster Abbey. We essentially have the place to ourselves from about 7pm and it is amazingly atmospheric. At one point, I deliver a piece from behind the Altar. To do so I have to wait behind the altar, right by the graves of Edward the Confessor, that the public cannot see, except from afar. I feel very lucky and we all come out on a great high.

July 2007: Editing the Film

I go to see the first version of the film in the edit suite. Finally, I see what high definition TV is. The film looks so great, and I’m so impressed by all the angles. But now we have all the pieces to camera, interviews and various shots, we need to write the voice over. After John Farren has watched it, Mike sends me the tape and I start to work on the script.

August 2007: Finishing Touches

The film is due to be submitted on the 8 August. I’ve postponed staying in Paris until I’m absolutely not needed, so on the 10 August, I set off on the Eurostar. It’s been an incredible learning experience in which I’ve learnt a lot about television, but most of all about Victoria. The very experience of being alone in the places that she was has made me feel closer to her. After spending three years researching and writing the book, it has been incredible to experience it in the form of a programme – as a series of emotional, dramatic and ultimately redemptive events, in truly magnificent locations.

It has been a great experience. If I could do it all over again – I would.

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About the author

Timewatch is the world's longest-running history series, having started in 1981, and is the BBC's flagship history series. Here, members of the production team share the highs, and lows, during the production process as they make some of the next series of programmes.

Subscribe to Timewatch's posts