day 12

Day 12

The Long Man, Wilmington

Saturday morning, I had accorded to go with my friend Katherine Bash to the Long Man in Wilmington. Katherine was somehow following the whole process of my project since the beginning, and her ideas are important to me. I had a good time with her even without showing specifically something finished. She is one of those persons that have an inspiring effect in the whole thing.

We met at Victoria Station and went to Eastbourne, way down south. Eastbourne was one the few places that Katherine know in the U.K., so I’ve been feeling a bit guilty when she mentioned it. She’d been at the city – which is a seaside boulevard, and at the Seven Sisters, a series of chalk cliffs not far from there. For my easy, she have never been to the long man and had no knowledge of it before. Even better.

We took the train to Polegate and a cab from there to Wilmington. It proved a good choice, as we get there so fast.

The Long Man is a chalk drawing at a hill side, depicting a man with two poles or in an alternative interpretation – and very poetic indeed- someone opening a gate. The graphic picture don’t allow too much precision, but it is not necessary: the Long Man is one of extreme fanciness.

The figure is quite long, a bit more of 69 meters, and it is considered the largest figure of its kind. It is not mentioned until the 17^th century, and in those old times it was a relief covered with grass. Today it is an inlaid drawing in the ground, made of regular shapes –looks like concrete, although I did not get so close to know, painted in white. The lines are scored by some of those concrete shapes in order to not slide from its position.

So one can imagine the much it has changed since then.

Modern interferences can be quite annoying for the ones which researches, as it never again will have the original appearance. To be strict no site excavated will ever be the same after being excavate, but some of interferences are quite strong. Enough is to remember the Newgrange façade and imagine if it ever been that way, despite of all the hard work and good will of the team working there.

Again, we don’t know how old is the Long Man. The site is one of the most astonishing I have seem, in one side a hill that is seem for miles in most direction you look at. A mountain chain at the left of the drawing links both places very clearly. Earthworks in the chalk are seem all around. A little flat top hill and ditch at the foot of the drawing is very connected to it.

At the other side of the mountain, there is a wonderful valley and it is very easy to spot the sea at no long distance from there. The whole mountain is made of chalk and it is indeed a very unusual, to say less. The white floor all around covered in green by the grass is a very strange sight. We’ve been wandering if the stones associate with the chalk could be useful for any industry, like fling for instance.



On the top of the hill, another very clear round ditch and barrel, several earthworks of all kinds. The Hill is the highest place in sight and is a very influential point in the landscape. And in the stone age it is clear that these points were to be used quite frequently, for ceremonial and later for settlements.

Looking at the map later, I could find some of the most visible Ley Lines ever. There are barrels, ditches, tumulus all along both the mountains. No doubt the Long Man , if is not an ancient figure, is placed in the right place to be one.

It was great to be with someone in this little field investigation. I believe Katherine enjoyed as much as me, and it was not the Eastbourne she knew, even though it was so close to it.