On 19 June, 2000, a planning application was submitted by Cherhill Parish Council for the erection of a new bus shelter that was designed by Julian Taylor, a local architect.
The pen drawings on the plan show the shelter much as it finally turned out, with thatched roofing, large section oak timbers and seating, and a clockface of Roman numerals to be inserted into the paving.
Permission was granted on 8 August, 2000, with the Gazette and Herald reporting that work was due to commence on the £12,000 project during the weekend of 7-8 October 2000
(1). At the time the work started, only £7,500 of funds had been collected. Work was ongoing in January 2001, with the installation of the thatched roof, but the sundial, seating, and planting was still to be completed
(2).
I'm not sure when the shelter was actually completed, but I imagine that for the users of the bus shelter, it was very welcome as only a garden shed had been made available in the interim.
The shelter was eventually completed and contains a time capsule under the sarsen in the centre of the clock face. I am not sure if the time capsule has a retrieval date, or when it was decided for a sarsen to be included in the design (as it's not specificed in the design).
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| Millenium Sundial. |
It was suggested that this sarsen may have
cup marks, which are a form of prehistoric art, which intrigued me and I started to investigate.Firstly I spoke to Dave Grafton, who was the Chair of the Parish Council at the time. He advised that the stone was chosen from a selection of stones that had been cleared from farm land in the 1960s, and that no inspection with regard to cup marks had been made.
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| Sarsen stone of the sundial. |
I then spoke to archaeologist, Jim Gunter, who very kindly visited the shelter when working in Avebury. He told me:
"There seem to be supposed cup-marks on at least 3 sides but many of them
are very deep holes and smooth, unlike humanly pecked cups. The "cups"
were also of many sizes not of a regular size as normally found. One
or two are worthy of further examination under a magnifying glass to see
if there are any signs of pecking, but to me it looks all too natural.
I was unable to find any sign of polishing areas so wouldn't count this
as a polissoir."
So, it looks like the marks on this stone were probably made by plant roots prior to the sand hardening and creating the stone.
The addition of a sarsen stone, along with the thatch, really ties the bus shelter with the history of the surrounding area and creates a unique and well executed building. One for Cherhill to be proud of and one I always glance at, with admiration, when passing.
References:
1: The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. 2018. Bus shelter arriving soon | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/7396166.Bus_shelter_arriving_soon/. [Accessed 06 July 2018].
2: The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. 2018. All slow for thatch appeal | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/7390192.All_slow_for_thatch_appeal/. [Accessed 06 July 2018].
This book, published in 2004, was supported by subscribers and authored by prior Calne English teacher, Dee La Vardera. It uses the extensive Francis Frith back catalogue, which includes any photographs of Calne and the local area. The majority of the photographs are from the 1950s and 1960s, but some do go back many decades prior to that as well as up to 2003, with some taken by the author.
