Big skies and tall tales in Wiltshire

We spent a few days on a stretch of the Kennet & Avon Canal, nicknamed the Long Pound in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire. It passes the Barge Inn at Honey Street, recognisable because it has been featured in a few TV programmes such as Village SOS, The Haunted and Inspector Morse. This area is also famous for crop circles and the pub has a whole room dedicated to them. Unfortunately, we didn’t stop to see it and all the crop circle fields are now striped!

We did manage to find a mooring close to All Cannings and, at dawn the next morning, we went to see the Novolithic (new) Long Barrow for burials. This one was built in 2014 in the style of a traditional long barrow using natural materials. It has multiple internal chambers with niches and is used as a columbarium or place for keeping cremated remains in urns. It cost around £200,000 to build and initially charged from £1,200 for a niche.

There seems to be a demand for these across the UK. A further 5 Novolithic Barrows have been constructed, mainly in the south of England with a further 3 having planning approval and 2 being refused. The cost of a niche varies from £750 for a small niche for 1 year up to £7,000 for a large niche (holds 5+ urns) for 99 years. They are beautiful places and provide a resting place for anyone, of any belief or none, if you can afford it!

I’m a huge fan of West Kennet Long Barrow, there is something very thought provoking about places which provide evidence of our humanity from thousands of years ago. This barrow dates from around 3,000 BC, one of 15 left in the area of Avebury out of 500 recorded across England.

Due to the line of hills that stretches across Wiltshire, there are several iron-age hill forts and, much to the dog’s delight, we found another one near to All Cannings.

On the way back we saw a sign claiming to be the site of the original Moonraker’s Pond. This is a popular local fable of how not to underestimate a Wiltshire man. The exact date and location are not known, but it was around 17th-18th century when there was a tax on brandy. On hearing that a search was taking place, two men hid some brandy barrels in a pond. One night, when there was a full moon, the men went with hay rakes to retrieve the kegs but were caught in the act by Excisemen. When asked what they were doing, they claimed that they were raking the cheese (reflection of the full moon) from the water and the Taxmen laughed and left them to it. The tale of the smugglers is very popular and that’s possibly why there are so many pubs named after them.

Whatever the histories of this area, it is quite stunning and one we will continue to return to.