stonehenge - English Heritage

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2000 of human remains from Stonehenge itself, previously
believed to be lost (Pitts et al. 2002), shows the potential
for surveying collections and trying to track down items that
have been recorded but since lost from view.
Archive collections including publications, printed
matter, drawings, paintings, maps, plans, and notebooks of
various kinds are held by the National Monuments Record in
Swindon and the Society of Antiquaries of London. Julian
Richards has published a personal selection of old
photographs of Stonehenge which vividly illustrates many
aspects of the monument’s recent history (Richards 2004).
The National Monuments Record also has an extensive and
fairly complete collection of the ‘grey’ literature relating to
the assessments, evaluations, and management plans
prepared over the last 20 years of so. The guide catalogue
to an exhibition entitled ‘Visions of Stonehenge 1350–1987’
mounted in Southampton City Art Gallery in September
1987 to coincide with the first meeting of the World
Archaeological Congress provides a useful summary of the
main pictures and illustrations of Stonehenge (Chippindale
1987). Others are listed by Hatchwell (1969).
Historical and cartographic sources
Contributed by John Chandler
Local historical sources, including maps, are generally
catalogued and retrievable according to the parish(es) to
which they relate. The Stonehenge Landscape embraces, in
whole or part, no fewer than 18 modern parishes formed
from 23 ancient parishes. Although few have surviving
Saxon boundary charters, most are named in Domesday
Book (1086), and some may be coterminous with Saxon or
earlier land units.
The Victoria History of Wiltshire has, between 1962 and
1995, published modern scholarly accounts, embracing,
inter alia, the topographical, tenurial, and agricultural
history of all these ancient parishes apart from four (which
all happen to be peripheral). These treatments, including
their detailed annotation to primary sources, supply the
researcher’s first resort.
The Ordnance Survey mapped the area at small scale in
1817 (surveyed 1807–10) and at large scale c.1887–9
(surveyed c.1877–86), with subsequent revisions published
irregularly to the present. Before 1800, the most useful
printed map is that of Andrews and Dury published in 1773.
Maps by Crocker for Colt Hoare’s The Ancient History of
Wiltshire (1812), and engraved views by Stukeley for his
Stonehenge (1740, but executed 1721–4) provide important
landscape information (Illustration 14).
Manuscript estate maps, usually of the period 1700–1850,
depict portions of the study area, notably (for part of
Amesbury parish) a fine atlas of 1726. Two series of
manuscript maps, accompanying parliamentary enclosure and
tithe commutation, are of paramount importance. Twelve
enclosure maps (c.1790–c.1866) describe approximately half
the area, while tithe maps (all c.1837–43) cover each ancient
parish except one (Netheravon). Using tithe maps and
apportionments it is generally possible to discover ownership,
occupancy, name, acreage, and use of each land parcel c.1840.
Most relevant maps, as well as other archival sources (of
which estate, manorial, and taxation records, glebe terriers,
farm accounts, and sale particulars provide the most useful
landscape and toponymic information), are held in the
Wiltshire and Swindon Record Offices. Certain key historical
sources have been published in the Wiltshire Record Society
series or elsewhere.
Catalogues of historical sources, and in some cases
complete texts, are becoming increasingly available on the
internet, and this is a trend which will doubtless facilitate
historical research in future. Likewise, the technique of
linking detailed map regression to evidence from other
archival sources has advanced since its pioneering use in
Illustration 14
Early map of the
Stonehenge landscape
from Sir Richard Colt
Hoare’s The ancient
history of Wiltshire.
[From Colt Hoare
1812, opp. 170.]
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