Fyfield Down

Coordinates: 51°26′13″N 1°48′21″W / 51.43694°N 1.80574°W / 51.43694; -1.80574

Fyfield Down
Sarsen stones on Fyfield Down

Fyfield Down Fyfield Down shown within Wiltshire
OS grid reference	SU136709
List of places UK England Wiltshire

Fyfield Down (grid reference SU136709) is part of the Marlborough Downs, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of the village of Fyfield, Wiltshire. The down is a 325.3 hectare biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, notified in 1951. The down has the best assemblage of sarsen stones in England, known as the Grey Wethers.

The site is to be distinguished from another Fyfield Down also in Wiltshire, east of Pewsey and on the edge of Salisbury Plain, near another place called Fyfield. The two places are only about 9 miles (14 km) apart.

The Grey Wethers

The down has the best assemblage of sarsen stones in England. The stones are known here as the Grey Wethers, for their likeness to sheep when seen from a distance. They were noted by Col. Richard Symonds in his diary for 1644: "They call that place the Grey-wethers, because a far off they looke like a flock of sheepe."^[1] They support a nationally important lichen flora. An alternative name for this natural rock feature is Mother's Jam.^[2]

The polisher

On the west side of the down (grid reference SU12837150) is a recumbent sarsen stone with grooved markings.^[3] It is thought to be a prehistoric grinding bench for shaping, whetting, and polishing stone axe-heads, and is similar to other Neolithic and Bronze Age examples in France.^[3]

The Devil's Den

To the east is a prehistoric dolmen known as The Devil's Den (grid reference SU151697). It is the remains of a neolithic passage grave which was reconstructed in 1921.^[4]

References

↑ E. Herbert Stone, Stones of Stonehenge, 2003:50]).
↑ The Mother's Jam, www.themodernantiquarian.com, retrieved 21 May 2013
1 2 MONUMENT NO. 221769, Pastscape, retrieved 21 May 2013
↑ "Devils Den - Burial Chamber (Dolmen) in England". Retrieved 11 November 2012.

Sources

English Nature citation sheet for the site (accessed 21 August 2006)

External links

English Nature website (SSSI information)
Sarsen stones on Fyfield Down on geograph
Improvised music recorded on Fyfield Down

Biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire

Acres Farm Meadow River Avon System Baverstock Juniper Bank Bencroft Hill Meadows Bentley Wood Bincknoll Dip Woods Blackmoor Copse Botley Down Bowerchalke Downs Box Mine Bracknell Croft Bradley Woods Bratton Downs Brickworth Down and Dean Hill Brimsdown Hill Britford Water Meadows Burcombe Down Burderop Wood Calstone and Cherhill Downs Camp Down Chilmark Quarries Chickengrove Bottom Chilton Foliat Meadows Clattinger Farm Clearbury Down Cley Hill Cloatley Manor Farm Meadows Clout's Wood Coate Water Cockey Down Colerne Park and Monk's Wood The Coombes, Hinton Parva Cotswold Water Park Cranborne Chase Dank's Down and Truckle Hill Distillery Farm Meadows East Harnham Meadows Ebsbury Down Emmett Hill Meadows Figsbury Ring Fonthill Grottoes Fyfield Down Gallows Hill Goldborough Farm Meadows Great Cheverell Hill Great Yews Gutch Common Ham Hill Hang Wood Harries Ground, Rodbourne Haydon Meadow Heath Hill Farm Homington and Coombe Bissett Downs Honeybrook Farm Inwood, Warleigh Jones's Mill River Kennet Kennet and Lambourn Floodplain King's Play Hill Knapp and Barnett's Downs Knighton Downs and Wood Landford Bog Landford Heath Langley Wood and Homan's Copse Little Grubbins Meadow Long Knoll Loosehanger Copse and Meadows Lower Coombe and Ferne Brook Meadows Lower Woodford Water Meadows Midford Valley Woods Morgan's Hill The New Forest North Meadow, Cricklade Odstock Down Out Woods Parsonage Down Pewsey Downs Picket and Clanger Wood Piggledene Pike Corner Pincombe Down Porton Down Porton Meadows Prescombe Down Rack Hill Ravensroost Wood Restrop Farm and Brockhurst Wood Rotherley Downs Roundway Down and Covert Salisbury Plain Savernake Forest Scratchbury & Cotley Hills Silbury Hill Spye Park Starveall and Stony Down Steeple Langford Down Stockton Wood and Down Stoke Common Meadows Stratford Toney Down Sutton Lane Meadows Throope Down River Till Tytherington Down Upper Waterhay Meadow Upton Cow Down West Yatton Down Whiteparish Common Whitesheet Hill Win Green Down Winklebury Hill Winsley Mines Wylye and Church Dean Downs Yarnbury Castle

Neighbouring areas Avon Berkshire Dorset Gloucestershire Hampshire Oxfordshire Somerset

Geological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire

Bratton Downs Charnage Down Chalk Pit Chilmark Quarries Corsham Railway Cutting Dead Maid Quarry Dinton Quarry Dinton Railway Cutting Fyfield Down Great Quarry, Swindon Gripwood Quarry Kellaways - West Tytherton, River Avon Lady Down Quarry The New Forest Okus Quarry Old Town Railway Cutting, Swindon Piggledene Seend Cleeve Quarry Seend Ironstone Quarry and Road Cutting Stanton St. Quintin Quarry & Motorway Cutting Steeple Ashton Stert Brook Exposure Teffont Evias Quarry and Lane Cutting Upper Chicksgrove Quarry West Harnham Chalk Pit Westbury Ironstone Quarry Wootton Bassett Mud Spring

Neighbouring areas: Avon Berkshire Dorset Gloucestershire Hampshire Oxfordshire Somerset

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