Derbyshire (England) -- Antiquities; Derbyshire (England) -- History
The Wet-Withens is on the northern slope of Eyam Moor, 1,002 feet above
sea-level, and is the best example of the type in which the fosse is
absent. To-day it is represented by a circular mound of earth, one
hundred and twenty feet in diameter, and about ten feet broad by two
feet six inches high, broken for the entrances in the usual positions,
namely, due south and nearly north. Set in the inner margin of the
mound remain ten stones of millstone grit, most of which are upright,
and probably fifteen or sixteen originally completed the arrangement,
and some may be hidden by the heather. They stand at nearly equal
distances, but the largest only measures, as exposed above the turf,
four feet three inches long, one foot nine inches broad, and nine
inches deep. It has already been mentioned that a monolith once stood
in the centre, and there is still a considerable depression in the
ground whence it was excavated—for the hand of the quarryman has
been ruthless amongst the prehistoric monuments of our county. Forty
feet due north of the circle are the remains of a great cairn, or
tumulus, with a base seventy feet by forty feet, composed entirely
of stones averaging over a foot in length. This may have served the
purpose of the pointer, or, like the tumulus on the vallum at Arbor
Low, may merely have been a sepulchral mound, for it also yielded a
half-baked urn containing cremated remains and a flint arrow-head. If
Mr. Trustram’s theory be correct, the stone-marked avenue leads to the
south-west, and thus conforms with the pointers of Arbor Low and the
Bull Ring; also with the general direction of the avenue or causeway of
the former.
The relative position of these three circles is certainly curious.
They form an inverted isosceles triangle, of which the base line from
the Wet-Withens to the Bull Ring is nearly due east and west; to be
accurate, it is almost the true magnetic orientation, and the apex at
Arbor Low is due south. The Ordnance map discloses the length of the
base line to be nine miles, and that of each of the sides ten miles;
in fact, the compasses pivoted in the centre of Arbor Low bisect both
the circles of the Bull Ring and Wet-Withens. It is needless to remark
that the megalithic builders had not the knowledge nor the appliances
to measure distances otherwise than on the ground level; but as the
valleys run north and south, and the line east to west is therefore
much more broken and undulating, it is not impossible that there was
a measured intention to construct these three circles as nearly as
possible in the form of an equilateral triangle, of which the circle
of Arbor Low was to be due south, according to the sun’s then apparent
meridian. Indeed, it is an interesting question of fact whether, if
measured on the ground level, these three circles would not prove to be
equidistant one from another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account