Leaving New Forest for Stonehenge

I am the kind of fan that takes pure joy and satisfaction from being in the place that I have admired from afar. Thus you, blogger friend, must understand that when you talk with joy about the places you love, I read and look at your photos, and I fall in love too. In this way, many of the stops in New Forest came directly from inspiration from Derrick’s blog posts. We all planned to meet up one last time at The Potting Shed Cafe in Hyde on our way out of town, because once I read a post about the place.

First though, we wanted to take another good look at the Channel in the daylight. Margaret’s former husband, who is no longer with us, once regaled me with a story of how he and his Navy buddies surfed the English Channel. It must have been around 1970. He was Australian, and if I remember the story correctly, was stationed somewhere along the southern coast of the UK. John told me that he had been watching the waves with his fellow seamen, and they agreed that the huge waves crashing up the channel were surfable. They made a plan and actually pulled it off! What did they use for boards? I don’t recall. They attracted some attention, and cameras were produced. John actually had a photo of the scene. What a story!

Margaret’s request the day before had been to see the sea. She had stayed with our hosts the previous evening at the Beach House, keeping them company while I ran around and photographed the beach. Today, then, I resolved to make sure she had the chance to really see the Channel. On our way out of Lymington, I found a car park with a great view.

From there, it was a nice 45-minute drive north to Hyde, and we arrived a little early. Margaret and I took the time to walk around a bit.

I had seen many thatched roofs in New Forest, and, assuming I would see many more in the days to come, did not photograph very many. I am grateful that I have these captured, then. Once we left New Forest, we did not see as many thatched roofs for the remainder of the trip.

By the time we returned to the Potting Shed, Derrick and Jackie were there, and we all went inside, which by that time had a line of people waiting to get in when they opened at 9am. Everyone knows that is a sign of good food to come, and that is exactly what we had. I enjoyed the best full English breakfast I had ever had, and a very good cup of coffee.

Can you believe the weather? It was our fourth day of spectacularly blue skies and I was laughing to think of how many times I had been assured that England’s weather is somehow dreary.

I learned from the Interwebs that one can visit Stonehenge without paying a penny, and thought it would be good fun to try. It was less than an hour’s drive to Larkhill, where we easily found street parking with a dozen other vehicles doing the same as us. Soon it was clear that we had not uncovered a secret, unless it is the worst-kept secret.

We arrived about the same time as others, and walked with them all the way. The distance was a smidge over one mile, but with an easy slope and a trail wide and well-maintained. The weather was pretty, but you can’t see the wind, that whipped at us briskly, and brought a chill.

Visitors like us, seeking a free visit to the henge, are welcomed. This was clear by the free parking, with Stonehenge signs at the beginning of the path, by the very well maintained path, and by information signs posted just for us, along the path we walked.

When we did arrive, we were separated from paying guests by a simple fence.

Visitors in 2025 are prevented from getting very close to the henge. No one is allowed to touch the stones. If you pay, you are able to circle the henge, while keeping far away from it. If you arrive on the free path, you can’t circle it.

Some of the people who arrived with us found a low spot in the fence and climbed over. Margaret and I climbed over also. Purely for a photograph without all the fencing in the way, of course, not because we wanted to take advantage. 🙂

Stonehenge is a cultural icon, and has been and will be studied by anthropologists (and their subset of archaeologists) for generations. It was constructed in several phases beginning about 3100 BCE for the earthworks, the placement of the famous stones about 2400-2200 BCE, and construction of other aspects continuing until about 1600 BCE. Stonehenge was produced by a culture that left no written records, so no one knows what it was for or how it was used. When I studied it at Brandeis, we were reading new theories formed by the use of LIDAR and drone photography, and most of it regarded the placement of the stones in relation to the heavens and the seasons. It may have been used as a burial place, and many remains have been found there, of humans and animals.

We climbed back over the fence and headed back to the car. The wind had made us both cold, or we might have stayed longer. Stonehenge is on a bit of a rise, so there was a bit of a view.

Our next stop would be Avebury Henge, less well-known, but possibly as important as Stonehenge.