Teryl’s Weblog

On Sunday I took a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath with the Give-It-a-Go program here at Sheffield.  Although it took four hours to reach Stonhenge by bus it was certainly worth it.  However, if I was to be honest, I was sort of dissappointed at first.  I mean if you don’t stop to contemplate the significance of the place, well, it really is just a bunch of stones in a circle.   I got within perhaps 20 meters or so of the stones, just outside of a chain linked fence.  I could have paid five pounds to get about five meters closer, but didn’t really feel the inclination to do so, primarily because I had only taken ten quid with me for the whole day.  In retrospect I sort of wish that I had, because I would have been able to walk in a circle and hear a guided tour about the stones and their significance.  However I was with some Australian friends and we were more interested in finding stones to climb and petting sheep than in learning about the site… although I did read a brochure and oooh and aaahh for a while from my position behind the fence.

However on the bus ride back I started talking to other people and became more interested in actually learning the history.  So here it is, for my education and yours!

The following info is my selection of the interesting things from the brochure and from the ever-insightful Wikipedia:

Stonehenge lies nine miles north of Salisbury Hill in Wilshire.  According to the brochure, Stonehenge was built over four major phases between 3200 BC and 1600 BC, although there is some evidence for activity both before and after that time.  Stonehenge is probably the world’s earliest earthwork to contain specific lunar and solar alignments!

The first monument was built in 3100 BC and consisted of a circular bank and ditch enclosure made of Late Cretaceous Seaford chalk.  There were also 56 pits dug around it which may have formed a timber circle, but there is no evidence remaining.   However, the holes are known to have contained remains of cremation burials dating to 3000 -2800 BC, the second phase of the monument, making it the earliest known cremation cemetary in the British Isles!

Archaeologic evidence suggests that timber was abandoned for stone around 2600 BC. Two concentric crescents of holes were dug in the centre of the site and these holes held up to 80 standing bluestones.  The stones each weighed about four tons and measured 2m in height.  For most of the 20th century it was thought that these stones were transported by humans (!) from the Preseli Hills 250 km away in Wales.  However the current theory is that they were brought from a much closer glacial deposit.  It is thought that the stones were carried down to Southern England from Preselis by the Irish Sea Glacier (during the Ice Age).  The north eastern entrance was also widened during in this third phase so that it precisely matched the direction of the midsummer sunrise and midsummer sunset of the period.   At this time a monolithic six-ton sandstone, twice the height of the bluestones was also set in the centre.  It is now known as the Altar Stone. 

From 2400BC to 2100 BC, 30 enormous Sarsen stones were brought from a quarry around 24 miles north of Stonehenge, on the Marlborough Downs. The stones were fashioned with mortise and tenon joints (actually a woodworking method) with a ring of 30 lintel stones resting on top. The lintels were fitted to one another using a tongue and groove joint.  The word henge may have come from the old English version of hinge because the stone lintels hinge on the upright stones. During this ambitious third phase, five trilithons of sarsen stone were also arranged in a horseshoe shape within the circle.  The open end of the horseshoe faced northeast.   In case you don’t know what a trilithon is (I didn’t) it is two large vertical stones supporting a third horizontal stone set on top. These huge stones, ten uprights and five lintels, weigh up to 50 tons each!  The trilithons ranged from 20ft to 30ft tall, but of course they have sunk into the ground over the years and some have fallen.  The largest upright stone still standing from the trilithons has 22ft visible above ground and 8ft below.

From 2280 BC to 1930 BC the bluestones were rearranged and some were placed in a circle between the two settings of sarsens and in an oval in the very centre. The Altar Stone may have been moved within the oval and stood vertically. Although this was probably the most impressive phase of work, it was shabbily built and most of the newly reinstalled bluestones soon began to fall over. However, only minor changes were made after this phase.

Even though the last known construction of Stonehenge was about 1600 BC, the last known usage of it was probably as late as the 7th century.  This is confirmed by the excavation of a decapitated Saxon man from that time period.  Roman coins, prehistoric pottery, and an unusual bone point have also been found, but scholars do not know if Stonehenge was in continuous use or exactly how it was used.

So that’s a brief history of Stonehenge.  Trust me I tried to keep it brief and only put down the stuff I thought was interesting.  I mean its all very interesting if you like learning about ancient civilizations, but its difficult to follow, especially if you start off not knowing your Neolithic from your Megalithic…

But it really is amazing to contemplate the engineering that must have gone into constructing Stonehenge.  Especially considering the prehistoric time period it was constructed in and the relatively primitive technology.  However they managed to build it, you have to give the people of that time credit.  Apparently scholars are still trying to discover the full meaning and significance of the place, but its one of those things that might remain a mystery.  Obviously its been used as a temple and a burial ground and a place for ritual, but beyond that little is known.  My French flat-mate Elise actually paid the five quid and took the guided tour.  Her tour guide said that the stones are arranged such that at a certain time the sun hits a different one each month… so it may have been used as a type of calender.  One of my other flat-mates, Roseanne, is also very intrigued by Stonehenge because she is a pagan and she says that it has been used in the past for various pagan rituals and for worshipping the sun.  Sadly she was unable to come because she teaches Dutch to English students and had to take a group of first years to Amsterdam over the weekend.  They were of course very excited about the “coffee shops.”

Side note: The first years here party harder than anyone I know.

To conclude, I wish that I had been a little more reverent and that I had researched some of the history about Stonehenge before I went.  When I got back I was talking to my friend Navid (the American from Iraq) and he sent me a link about the spiritual significance of Stonehenge and how it is viewed as a sacred place by many.   Some “intuitives” believe that it is positioned at the centre of a hub, or network of energy lines called “ley” lines.  Apparently there are 14 major lines that converge at Stonehenge.   These are of course just metaphysical constructs created by drawing a line between two old ancient sites, or churches.  I don’t know what I think of that as an idea, but it is interesting to contemplate.  For example, one part of the article talks about a vortex (such as Stonehenge) as being a “neural node” in the Earth’s energy grid.  So in that sense, the ley lines are like meridians on the surface of Earth.  That is the analogy anyways. 

However, at the same time I feel somewhat uneasy talking about it in those terms… not because I don’t believe there is energy there, but what type of energy it is… I’m not sure.  I suppose it depends on your definition of sacred and how you feel about creating these sorts of energy lines.  For example, the definition of sacred is “a state of being holy or sanctified, set apart for the worhip of God or gods.” Stonehenge is considered to be a sacred place and from the history it would seem logical to imagine that it was, at least during certain times, a place of ritualistic sacrifice, perhaps even human sacrifice.   Of course many churches and abbeys are also considered to be sacred places or vortices and they are also places that I’m sure were filled with violence at some point, either physical, emotional or spiritual violence.  So… I really have no conclusions, only a curiosity.   

This blog is mainly going to be a rant about first years and an update on natural disasters in the UK.

First of all the rant.  Ok, the first years here are insane. I mean I’m all for a good party and I’ve been going out a lot since I’ve been here and its great… I love the night life.  However, when things escalate from a party to drunken violence, well, its just not cool.  Not to mention the sheer level of alcohol consumption… I’m willing to bet even seasoned Oktoberfest veterans would have a hard time keeping up to some of the students here.  Apparently the first year marks do not count towards the overall GPA for a degree here so first year is basically a pass/fail system.  As long as you pass you are good to go.  Basically that means the first years can afford to do limited work during the semester, then cram like mad before exams and hope for the best. 

Seriously though, there is a whole section of Crewe flats occupied by first year English students and so far people from three of the dorms have been arrested and are basically waiting to be kicked out.  It’s been a little annoying for the rest of us because the fire alarm has been pulled three times in the last two weeks, always at three or four in the morning.  The first time it happened I guess the guys were having a party and some of them got into a fight… the fight escalated to throwing fire extinguishers at each other… a stained glass window worth 1000 pounds got smashed… and finally someone pulled the fire alarm to stop the fight.  

 Of course we didn’t know any of this at the time and were standing outside in the damp Sheffield air in the middle of the night in bare feet and PJs wondering what was going on.  It took twenty minutes for them to sort things out and turn off the alarm so we could go back to sleep and we still didn’t know what was going on until a couple days later when the damage in the main hall, including slashed couches and blood on the walls, was linked with the fire alarm incident.   Last week the fire alarm got pulled twice in one night… we’re assuming it’s the same guys, or friends of the same guys, mad about their imminent expulsion.   

To make it even more dramatic, the first night that the fire alarm was pulled was the night after the earthquake so we were all a little hyper-sensitized.  Honestly when the fire alarm first went off, in my half asleep state my first thought was, ”Oh no another earthquake!” 

In case you didn’t hear about the earthquake, it happened in the early morning of February 27.  Here is what teh BBC news said the next day:  

“The biggest earthquake in the UK for nearly 25 years has shaken homes across large parts of the country.  

People in Newcastle, Yorkshire, London, Cumbria, the Midlands, Norfolk and also parts of Wales, felt the tremor just before 0100 GMT. 

The British Geological Survey (BGS) said the epicentre of the 5.2 magnitude quake was near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire.  

Davie Galloway, seismologist for the BGS, said people had reported feeling the tremor from as far as Bangor in Northern Ireland to the west, Haarlem in Holland to the east, Plymouth to the south and Edinburgh to the north.”  

I was still awake and sitting in my room reading when it happened.  At first I thought it was someone trying to get into my room or maybe some construction going on or something, but pretty soon the radiator was rattling and everything was shaking enough that I figured it out.  I mean Crewe flats is a huge stone building so it would take something like an earthquake to make things shake that much.  It was pretty exciting though and it didn’t last long enough for me to get really scared or anything.  And of course everyone was talking about it the next day.   

Today the big news is the winter storm sweeping the country.  There were 82 mph winds and flooding in Cornwall yesterday.  The storm is expected to hit Northern England today, but it looks like Yorkshire won’t really be affected… which is a good thing because tonight is a Sheffield United vs Coventry football game!  

(I’ll try not to get into any fights with the Coventry first years!)

One of the things I appreciate most about the University of Sheffield is the Student’s Union.  Every weekend international students have the opportunity to take a trip to another part of the country, for a reasonable price.  On the 23rd of February I took a bus to Cambridge for the day with three of my flat mates. 

Cambridge is a university city consisiting of 31 different colleges and it is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world (second only to Oxford of course).   The University in Cambridge was actually started in 1209 by scholars from Oxford after a dispute with local townsfolk there.

Unfortunately I didn’t actually get to see any of the colleges from the inside, mainly because there were graduation ceremonies going on, however I did get to see Trinity College chapel and courtyard and many of the colleges from the outside while punting down the river Cam!  I was also able to walk around the magnificent courtyards of King’s college and even took a guided tour through King’s College Chapel, perhaps the most famous building there.  I took a lot of pictures (see facebook) and even bought a guide book with some information about the chapel. 

The following history is paraphrased from “A Guide to King’s College Chapel” by Josephine Warrior.  King’s College Chapel was begun in 1446 by King Henry VI who wanted it to be the biggest and most beautiful college chapel.   However, Henry VI never lived to see it completed.  His right to the throne was challenged in 1455 by Edward Duke of York, starting the Wars of Roses.  It did not end well for Henry VI who was taken prisoner in 1461 and murdered in the Tower of London in 1471.  Edward IV did little for the chapel and work on it only began again through Richard III who completed the first five bays, which are roofed with oak and lead.  Henry VII defeated and killed Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, but did not seriously invest in the chapel until 1508 when he was urged by his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort to complete the project.  He sent some money to pay for it in a chest (see facebook pics).  Henry VII was executed in 1509, but his executors supplied the money to finish the church.  By 1515 the main structure was complete and the stained glass windows were created under the supervision of King Henry VIII.  He was also responsible for the screen and much of the woodwork.  The glass windows are the most complete set of church windows surviving from the time of King Henry VIII!  And, not that I would recognize this, but apparently the glass and wookwork show a change in style from English Gothic to New Renaissance.  The chapel was finally completed in all its glory in 1547.  A quote from the guidebook says, “It took five kings, four master masons, and an army of craftsmen over a century to build King’s College Chapel.”  Below is a diagram of the elevation of the chapel over the years.

The history of the chapel is fascinating to me (learning about all of the battles and changes in power makes me think of Shakespeare), but of course its even more amazing to just be there and to experience it. The stained glass windows and the high vaulted ceilings take your breath away.  There is a huge screen of dark oak which divides the Chapel into an Antechapel and Choir and on top of the screen is the largest pipe organ I have ever seen in my life with statues of angels playing golden horns.  The chapel is full of heraldic carvings and ornamentation from the Tudor age such as the Tudor rose (which incorporates the red rose of the House of Lancaster and the white rose of the House of York), the portcullis (the badge of the Beaufort family), the red dragon of cadwallader (for Henry VII’s father) and the greyhound (for his mother, Lady Beaufort).  Henry VII is known as Henry Tudor because he unified the houses of York and Lancaster by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter and heir of King Edward IV.  

One of the most amazing things to me was to see some of the ancient hymn books or Books of Hours that have been preserved from the 15th century.  All of the text and pictures and borders in them were done by hand!  I took a lot of pictures of the chapel and colleges, but if you want to see them you’ll have to visit my facebook page.  It takes far too long to try to upload them onto this blog.

After spending a couple of hours in the chapel we decided to visit Trinity College which is where Stephen Hawking studied astronomy and cosmology.  The chapel was modest in comparision, but the courtyards were beautiful.  Sometime along the way to Trinity, Elise and I were separated from our other flat mates and got lost in the mob of tourists.  However, as I mentioned before we made the most of it and went punting down the river Cam.  The weather was beautiful and we got to see the seven most famous colleges in Cambridge from the vantage point of our punt and with some interesting commentary by our very cute tour guide.  One of the most impressive colleges from the outside is St. John’s.  A lot of Harry Potter was filmed within its halls and corridors. Sadly we were unable to go inside, although I suppose we could have tried harder… (we did see an old man trying to climb over the walls to get inside!) 

One of the interesting thing about St. John’s is that it is supposed to be perfectly symmetrical.  Back in the day (I don’t remember dates) they used to try to maintain the symmetry of the building by making sure that all of the windows were closed at all times.  However in the spring and summer it would get too hot and the students would open their windows.  So the headmasters started fining students if they opened their windows and ruined the symmetry.  In order to get around this the students started opening windows that were symmetrical to each other, but eventually it became too complicated so they decided that they would all keep their windows open at all times so as not to ruin the symmetry.  The headmasters did not take very kindly to this as they said it looked shoddy to have all of the windows open.  In retaliation they implemented a new dress code… black robes, that the students had to wear at all times.  If a student was discovered on campus, not wearing his robe he would be fined.  For several years this was a huge source of income for the college!  Apparently the black robes are still in vogue because we passed a group of graduating students wearing them, with fur on the collars. 

We also learned about many other rivalries between the students and headmasters.  A few decades ago there was a group of students who called themselves the Night Climbers who were dedicated to causing mischief at night.  They would climb the walls and leave underwear at strategic points on the colleges in order to irritate the headmasters.  It got so bad that the professors started hiring other students to stand guard with beebee guns and shoot at them.  In retaliation to this the Night Climbers broke into one of the headmasters quarters, stole his car, a mini, dismantled it and strung it up by individual parts over bridges and around campus. This headmaster then implemented a rule that if anyone in a dorm was discovered to be a Night Climber, the entire dorm would be expelled.  In one year over a hundred students were expelled from St. Catherines College! 

After punting we didn’t have much time left, but we did take a half an hour look around the Fitzwilliam Museum which has paintings from the fourteenth century to the present day, as well as manuscripts, coins and antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Rome and Cyprus.  I wanted to take a picture with the heads of some Greek philosophers, but photography was prohibited.  However I did get a picture of the outside of the museum which is done in an imitation of Greek colonnades.  Elise and I ended our day in a small tea shop with a nice cup of Earl Grey and some scones.  We then had a difficult time finding the bus and almost contemplated purposely missing the bus and staying an extra night… there were just so many more things we wanted to do. 

Originally I was planning to send out mass emails to everyone, but in an attempt to simplify my life and ensure that everyone has equal access to my updates, I’ve decided to start blogging.  I think it will be easier than sending mass emails, especially because I find it odd trying to address an email to so many people. 

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy and filled with a lot of new experiences and adventures.   I haven’t had the motivation or time to try to keep everyone up to date on what’s been happening because I felt like I just really needed to be “here” and not try too hard to convey what’s been happening because it makes my life feel very split.  And in a sense it is… I mean I am separated from my close friends and family and yet I still want to communicate with them and maintain good connections, but its not an easy thing to do, especially when I am meeting so many people and creating good friendships here.  For a while I was feeling sort of guilty about my reluctance to sit down and write in-depth emails and keep everyone up-to-date, but a wise and close friend made a comment that really helped me to just relax and let it go.  She said,

“Right now you are going through something completely different than any of us, we know that you love us all, we all know that you care and want us to know what your doing because I mean, its neat right? But as friends, we know that you will not always have the time to email us, or maybe that you won’t want to.  When you come home, you can tell everyone all about your adventures and mishaps - dont worry about it now, while your out there. Focus on doing good in school, getting to experience a different culture, and keep in touch with a few selected people from Canada.  We can always pass on the words of you to other people.” 

So essentially that’s what I’ve settled on and I’m feeling pretty good about it.  However, there will be times when I experience things that I feel willing to share with everyone, or even just thoughts and ramblings that I feel like publishing and when I do, this blog will be the place to find them. 

Here is the mass email I sent out after my first week in England: