Alton Arts Presents  Alton Talks  September – November 2024  

A series of three talks in memory of the late Dr Kate Fielden
Coronation Hall  Alton Barnes SN8 4LB

 7.30 to 9.30pm. 
Doors and Bar open from 7.00 pm.  Bar is also open after the talk

Kate Fielden was a resident of Alton Priors since the early 1980’s and was a member of our Parish Council for many years.  She lived in The Old Smithy in Alton Priors and was a much-valued member of our society.

Kate’s first job as a Doctor of Archaeology was with the National Trust in York. She then moved to Devizes and was employed by the Wiltshire Archaeological Society doing much-associated work at Devizes Museum. In 1985 Kate began her long association with Bowood House as an Archivist and Curator.  As part of her work, she wrote ‘Bowood Revisited: The Revival of a Country Estate’, a chronological account of the 9^th Marquess of Lansdowne’s stewardship from 1972 to 2016.

During this time Kate was becoming a seasoned activist and campaigner. It was Kate’s love and understanding of the archaeological, historic and cultural importance of the entire landscape that drove her to tirelessly remind the authorities that “the Outstanding Universal Value of Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites WHS was fixed at the time of designation” and that development could “never benefit one part of the World Heritage Site without harming other parts”.

How lucky we are that Kate was prepared to selflessly devote so much of her life to champion the Stonehenge landscape and the entire World Heritage Site of Stonehenge and Avebury. It was as if Kate’s considerable professional and campaign experience in archaeology, curating, editing, countryside planning, heritage, archaeology, and environmentalism were destined to come together to fight the protracted battle for Stonehenge. Her advice on all these local things is sadly missed by her local community and all conservation organisations she supported. More about Kate with photos whilst campaigning with the Stonehenge Alliance here.

PROGRAMME

Thursday 26 September 2024:  “Playing with Giant: completely revising our understanding of the Cerne Giant” Talk by Dr Michael J. Allen BSc MIfCA FLS FS

The Cerne Giant is an iconic hill figure overlooking the Dorset Downs, which is just one of two extant hill figures of the human form. Both have been considered to be any date from prehistoric to post medieval. In 2020 the National Trust undertook a project to date  the Cerne Giant once and for all … and that excavation led to many more discoveries. Who was he? Why was he there? What was his purpose? Why have many famous scholars and antiquarians travelled the road between Dorchester and Sherborne never commented on him?  All of these, and more, will be addressed.

Thursday  24 October 2024: “Sighting the Sun – and Moon – at the Stonehenge World Heritage Site” Talk by Dr Amanda Chadburn FSA FSAScot

Most people know about the summer solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, far fewer know about the many astronomical alignments at the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. In fact, archaeoastronomy –  the study of how ancient peoples understood phenomena in the sky and what role the sky played in their cultures – is not well understood and this has led to numerous theories and common misconceptions about Stonehenge, particularly concerning its relationship to the sky and the heavenly bodies. This talk will explore how ancient people designed their monuments to sight the sun – and perhaps the moon – in and around the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.

Thursday 28 November 2024: “Wiltshire’s Chalk Horses”  Talk by Garry Gibbons

Wiltshire’s stable of equine chalk hill-figures are arguably the county’s most prominent group of landscape monuments. They have persisted across the decades due to a strong symbiotic relationship between each chalk horse and its local community. Yet the simple question of why this nationally unique herd of current — and lost — chalk horses were corralled within a small area of Wiltshire across the 18th and 19th centuries continues to evade us. This talk begins by exploring how today’s popular understanding of Wiltshire’s chalk horses came to be established, it then proceeds by presenting recent investigations at Marlborough and Devizes, the results of which demonstrate that a more nuanced understanding of the county’s equine chalk hill-figures can be achieved through a combination of topographic survey and social history research.

Book in advance online. Tickets £8.00 each.  Tickets in advance £6.00 each if booking for all three talks
All money raised through this series of talks will go towards the upkeep of our village Hall, The Coronation Hall in Alton Barnes.  All those taking part have offered to give their service in memory of the late Kate Fielden and are thus helping the community that Kate supported while she was living here.

www.ticketsource.co.uk/alton-arts-for-the-coronation-hall-alton-barnes

SPEAKERS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Mike Allen Thursday 26 September

Mike Allen is a geoarchaeologist and environmental archaeologist, but an archaeologist. He specialises in the study of soils, sediments and snails (as you will see) and has studied the landscapes of Stonehenge, Avebury, Dorchester, Cranborne Chase (rewriting the textbook understanding of these) as well as abroad (eg, Malta and Cape Verde). He has run his own lab and environmental archaeology consultancy for over 15 yrs, but before that he set up and ran the Wessex Archaeology environmental department for 20 yrs. It was during his post there, and then on  ASHARG that he regularly met Kate Fielden – in fact she edited his first published article from Wessex Archeology (land snails nail from the Marlborough Downs, a WNHAS monograph)

Amanda Chadburn Thursday 24 October

Is an archaeologist who has worked for nearly 40 years in local government and government agencies, notably for English Heritage and Historic England – for many years as the Lead Adviser, at Stonehenge and Avebury WHS. She is now semi-retired but still works in archaeology as a Tutor at the University of Oxford; as a heritage consultant; a researcher and as a Trustee. Her new book with Clive Ruggles is on archaeoastronomy – Stonehenge: Sighting the Sun.

Garry Gibbons Thursday 28 November

Garry spent the first 20 years of his career working in design, photography and publishing before taking a first degree in archaeology at Southampton, since when he has combined heritage with his creative impulses. He has constructed continuing education courses through Oxford University and delivered modules in postgraduate courses through Brookes University. Spanning that entire period he has wrestled with the question of Wiltshire’s chalk horses, publishing results of investigations in the Wilts Archaeological Magazine and, recently, contributing to a book on the Cerne Abbas giant and other chalk monuments.

For information about Alton Arts please email:- altonarts@altonsandhoneystreet.org.uk