Is it time to man our henges?

THE centuries have not been kind, but standing in the middle of a North Yorkshire field, amid a flock of grazing sheep, it is still possible to get a sense of the panorama that confronted our ancestors 5,000 years ago. Whichever way you look, no landmarks are visible above the height of the earth banks, just a huge expanse of sky.

This is the central henge at Thornborough, once the most important site in the north of England, before languishing in obscurity for thousands of years. And that is where it may well have stayed, if its future were not at risk.

Tarmac has been quarrying gravel and sand around Thornborough, about eight miles north of Ripon in the Vale of Mowbray, for almost 50 years, extracting almost seven million tonnes so far. Now the company wants to extend its operations to a 45 hectare site less than a mile east of the henges themselves.

The proposal has galvanised villagers and archaeologists to rise up to defend the landscape which surrounds these ancient monuments, and in doing so they have brought the importance of Thornborough Henge to a wider public.

"Obviously, local people knew of their existence, but they didn't know of their importance," says Dick Lonsdale, a resident of the neighbouring village of Nosterfield for 13 years and the archivist of the Friends of Thornborough Henges.

"When I told people we had something akin to Stonehenge and Salisbury Plain here, they thought I was mad, but it is only recently that people have known about their significance."

Henges are the circular bank and ditch monuments constructed in huge earth-moving operations by the Neolithic inhabitants of these islands. But while Stonehenge may be the best known, it is dwarfed by Thornborough Henge, whose central circle measures around 240 metres across. Thornborough also predates Stonehenge's standing stones by around 1,000 years.

While most henges have a ditch inside the bank, Thornborough is unusual in having an additional ditch outside the bank. And while henges themselves are not unusual in the north of England, it is only at Thornborough that there are three in the same landscape, making it undoubtedly the most important Neolithic site between Stonehenge and the Orkneys.

Although they still retain some of their power to impress, they are a shadow of their prehistoric incarnations. The banks originally measured around five metres high by 18 metres across; now the bank in the central henge is less than a metre high in places. The ditches were around three metres deep and 15 metres wide; the outer ditch at the central henge has been levelled by ploughing, and the inner ditch reaches a maximum of a metre deep. Bridges over the ditches connect to gaps in the banks, making two entrances at each henge.

The northern henge is the best preserved, protected by trees probably planted in the 19th century, making it the most intact earth henge in the country, even though it is completely masked by vegetation. The southern henge has the lowest banks.

The exact purpose of the henges is unknown, but the lack of archaeological finds within the circles themselves, compared to the signs of settlement found outside, suggest they did not have a defensive role, as had previously been thought. Indeed, the name Thornborough means "three fortifications".

Instead, they are likely to have had some sort of ceremonial function, according to Dr Jan Harding, senior lecturer in archaeology at Newcastle University, who has been carrying out field work at the site for ten years.

"They had little practical role, but it is clear they had a ritual or religious significance, and were probably religious gathering places," he says. "They represent one of the largest earth-moving exercises in Neolithic Britain; they are substantial pieces of work.

"It is a monument complex which was exceptionally large and which employed a unique form of architecture: you are looking at a landscape which clearly would have played a major role in religious life during the later Neolithic period."

Support for this theory comes in the large quantities of gypsum found at the henge sites. The white mineral, used in making plaster, would have been brought from the River Ure two miles away and daubed on the sides of the banks, making them visible from some distance in the otherwise flat vale. So much gypsum has been used the earth's mineral composition has been completely changed from grassland to calcareous land.

Lines of pits running from the north of the henge may have been used for totem poles, providing an avenue to guide pilgrims from across the North from the Ure to the henges.

The centres of the henges are about half a mile apart, but they do not lie in a straight line. Instead, they are at a slight angle, and it was Dr Harding who first realised the axis is the same as the three stars in the belt of Orion, the configuration used in the pyramids of Giza, built 500 years later, suggesting the henges may have been used to observe the sky.

Tarmac claims its application to extend its quarrying, expected to be decided by North Yorkshire County Council early next year, does not threaten the henges, and will provide around 2.2 million tonnes of gravel and sand.

The proposed extension is actually further from the henges than existing quarrying, and there is no intention to go any closer to the protected monuments, according to Tarmac Northern's estates manager Rob Moore.

"We don't feel it is going to be detrimental to the setting of the henges; it is going to be in keeping with the landscape," he says. "There is a shortage of high quality sand and gravel reserves within North Yorkshire, and if we don't get an extension there will be a shortfall over the next ten years."

He says the company plans to turn the quarrying sites into nature reserves once work has finished, but for campaigners it is the loss of the traditional farmland setting to the henges which is at issue.

"When you are talking about Thornborough, you are not just talking about three monuments, you are talking about a landscape and a setting," says Dr Harding. "We're looking at something that is not repeated elsewhere, and we need to not only preserve it but also research it."

He adds that although Tarmac are carrying out their own archaeological work in the surrounding fields, where evidence of Neolithic settlements has been found, quarrying will destroy any chance of using techniques which may be developed in the future to find out more about what role the henges played. "These sorts of landscapes ought to be preserved so archaeologists can come back to them. Thornborough has been allowed to get into a mess, and it would be a disaster if more damage was done."

English Heritage opposes any further mineral extraction at Thornborough until there is a better understanding of the landscape, and Dr Keith Emerick, its inspector of ancient monuments for Yorkshire, believes the company's proposal would have a negative impact on the setting of the henges.

"We now believe the area around the henges was divided into zones, and understanding those zones and how they work gives a way of understanding how the prehistoric mind works. Even if you protect the henges, you can only understand them within their context," he says.

For the Friends of Thornborough Henge, the fight to preserve the setting for the henges has awakened the possibility of bringing them out of obscurity for good.

"We can only really save it if we find an alternative use for it," says Wendy Orme, the group's vice chairman. "It is such an important site, it ought to be made available to the people, and managed so it can increase our understanding of early man."