All Cannings Cross

Archaeological sites in WiltshireFormer populated places in WiltshireIron Age sites in EnglandScheduled monuments in Wiltshire

All Cannings Cross is the name of farm and an archaeological site close to All Cannings, near Devizes in the English county of Wiltshire. The site is a scheduled ancient monument.It is notable as the first site where the emergence of Iron Age technology in Britain was identified by archaeologists. In 1911 it was first investigated by Ben and Maud Cunnington after they were informed of finds of numerous hammerstones in a ploughed field in the Vale of Pewsey. Subsequent excavation by the Cunningtons encountered a thick layer of humic material containing a high concentration of pottery and animal bone as well as both bronze and iron tools. The date of the site was estimated at c. 500 BC, a time of transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The Cunningtons returned to the site between 1920 and 1922, and study of the wide range of pottery they excavated became influential on the understanding of the period. From the eighth century to the seventh century BC, the area (Wessex) boasted an elaborate array of different vessel types, often highly decorated and well made. Some were covered with iron oxide and fired in oxidising conditions which produced pottery which could be burnished to shine like bronze vessels. This pottery, which has All Cannings Cross as its typesite, has since been found in an area of southern Britain from the Somerset Levels to eastern Hampshire. This suggests a high degree of interaction during the period and some kind of shared values which indicate that communities in the region were in close contact with another, likely through exchange networks used to trade bronze. There is evidence for some post-built buildings and other settlement features such as hearths and floors. More recent work by the University of Sheffield in 2003 and 2004 has interpreted the humic deposit as being part of a group of large middens, analogous to similar sites at nearby Potterne or East Chisenbury. The nature of the settlement itself is still poorly understood and it is uncertain whether the middens represent waste materials from a farming economy of whether the midden pits were perhaps ritually created through group feasting activities.

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All Cannings Cross
Pewsey Road,

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude	Longitude
N 51.37 °	E -1.887 °

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Address

Pewsey Road

Pewsey Road
SN10 3NP , All Cannings
England, United Kingdom
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Long Barrow at All Cannings

The Long Barrow at All Cannings is a modern barrow near All Cannings, Wiltshire, England, inspired by the neolithic barrows built 5,500 years ago. It was the first barrow built in Britain in thousands of years. The structure was commissioned by farmer and Stonehenge steward Timothy Daw, and completed in 2014. A sequence of stone chambers under an earthen mound contains 340 niches for the placement of cremation urns, which were sold for £1,000 each to pay for the construction of the barrow.BBC television programme Countryfile filmed at the barrow in 2016.In 2018 it was approved as a place of worship.The barrow has been associated with the revival of barrow building in the UK.

Tan Hill, Wiltshire

Tan Hill (grid reference SU081646) is a hill north of Allington in the parish of All Cannings, Wiltshire, England. Its summit is 294 metres (965 ft) above sea level and is the second highest point of the North Wessex Downs AONB hill range (the adjacent Milk Hill is 295 m high), and of Wiltshire. It is also the third highest point between Bristol and London. On 23 August 2009, the BBC programme Countryfile featured an item on analysis by Ordnance Survey to determine whether Milk or Tan Hill is the highest. It was confirmed that Milk Hill is 26 centimetres (10.2 in) higher than Tan Hill.Along the north side of Tan Hill runs a section of The Wansdyke, an earthen rampart which runs east to west across much of southern England.The hill is frequently used by the Thames Valley Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club in conjunction with Milk Hill.

All Cannings

All Cannings (pronounced "Allcannings") is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey in the English county of Wiltshire, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Devizes. The parish includes the nearby smaller settlement of Allington. The southern part of the parish lies in the Vale of Pewsey, and in the north the parish extends some 3 miles (5 km) onto the Marlborough Downs and includes Tan Hill, which is (by a small margin) the second highest hill in Wiltshire. Etchilhampton Water, a tributary of the River Avon, forms part of the southern boundary of the parish. Moor Brook flows south through Allington and All Cannings villages to join it.

Stanton St Bernard

Stanton St Bernard is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire, England. Its nearest town is Devizes, about 6 miles (10 km) away to the west. The parish is tall and narrow, extending north onto the Marlborough Downs where it includes Milk Hill, the highest point in Wiltshire.

Milk Hill

Milk Hill, located near Alton Priors east of Devizes, is the highest point in the county of Wiltshire, southwest England, at some 295 m (968 ft) above sea level (the adjacent Tan Hill rises to 294 m). It is the location of the Alton Barnes White Horse (a hill figure cut in 1812).

Alton Barnes White Horse

Alton Barnes White Horse is a chalk hill figure of a white horse located on Milk Hill some 1,000 metres north of the village of Alton, Wiltshire, England. The horse is approximately 180 feet high and 160 feet long, and was cut in 1812 under the commission of local farmer Robert Pile. Pile instructed inn sign painter John Thorne to design and cut the horse, although Thorne conned Pile by leaving with his advance sum while employing local resident John Harvey to cut the horse instead. It is based on another white horse hill figure in Wiltshire, the Cherhill White Horse, and is the second-biggest of nine white horses in Wiltshire. One of the county's best-loved and most iconic white horses, it remains a tourist attraction and has been regularly maintained, with numerous groups or individuals scouring the horse throughout its life. More recently, the horse was illuminated by candles every winter solstice for over ten years, as well as in a lantern parade to celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2012. The horse has also been transformed into a zebra on April Fools' Day on two occasions.

Beechingstoke

Beechingstoke is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Pewsey about 5 miles (8 km) west of Pewsey and the same distance east of Devizes. The parish includes the hamlet of Broad Street and the northern part of the village of Bottlesford. The River Avon and its small tributaries form parts of the west, south and northeast boundaries of the parish.

Vale of Pewsey

The Vale of Pewsey or Pewsey Vale is an area of Wiltshire, England to the east of Devizes and south of Marlborough, centred on the village of Pewsey.

Alton, Wiltshire

Alton is a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The parish includes the adjacent villages of Alton Barnes and Alton Priors, and the nearby hamlet of Honeystreet on the Kennet and Avon Canal. It lies in the Vale of Pewsey about 6 miles (10 km) east of Devizes. The north of the parish is on the Marlborough Downs and includes part of Milk Hill, which is the highest point in Wiltshire at 295 metres (968 ft). The Woodborough Stream, a tributary of the Hampshire Avon, rises at Alton Priors and separates the two villages as it flows south.

All Saints Church, Alton Priors

All Saints Church in Alton Priors, Wiltshire, England, dates from the 12th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II* listed building, and is now in the care of The Churches Conservation Trust. It was declared redundant on 28 July 1972, and was vested in the Trust on 12 December 1973.

Patney

Patney is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, in the Vale of Pewsey about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south-east of Devizes. The infant Salisbury Avon forms part of the southern boundary of the parish.

Adam's Grave

Adam's Grave was a Neolithic long barrow near Alton Barnes in Wiltshire, southwest England. Its remains have been scheduled as an ancient monument.The barrow is considered to be of the Severn-Cotswold tomb type. These generally consist of long, precisely built trapezoidal earth mounds covering burial chambers, thus they are a type of chambered long barrow. The chamber, made of sarsen stones, contained partial human skeletons. An arrowhead was also recovered. There is a breast-shaped hill on the spot, with the remains of the barrow being 70 metres (230 ft) long and around 7 metres (23 ft) high with ditches on either side. It was partially excavated by John Thurnam in 1860. The area around Adam's Grave has a high density of long barrows and is important because of its archaeological potential.The arrangement of stones around the site suggests there was once a kerb or forecourt. They are known as 'Old Adam' and 'Little Eve' and are near the original entrance to the barrow. According to folklore the barrow is the grave of a giant, and his ghost has been reported. Associations with the nearby monument at Avebury have also been suggested.In the Anglo-Saxon period, the site was known as "Woden's Barrow" (Old English "Wōdnesbeorg") and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records two battles, in 592 and 715, thought to have taken place at the site.