Creating Prehistory: Druids, Ley Hunters and Archaeologists in Pre-War Britain

322 Pages·2008·2.31 MB·English

by  Adam Stout

Praise for Creating Prehistory
‘Written in a sparkling, compelling and very accessible style, with a superb sense
of pace, drama, fun and irony, Creating Prehistory is a wonderfully courageous
and fl uent questioning of the nature of archaeology, based on a tremendous
amount of original research.’
Ronald Hutton, Bristol University
‘In Creating Prehistory Adam Stout offers a compelling account of the visions,
philosophies, rivalries and eccentricities shaping the British archaeological
landscape.’
David Matless, University of Nottingham
‘Adam Stout’s book is a thrilling and innovative contribution to the history of
archaeology. Stout makes the unprecedented move of placing the prehistoric
archaeology of the inter-war years alongside druids, ley-hunters and hyper-
diffusionists, investigating the social, political and historical conditions that affected
each. The results are both surprising and enlightening.’
Julian Thomas, University of Manchester
‘Creating Prehistory is an engagingly provocative contribution to current debates
on how the past is produced, in writing and illustration and on the ground in
excavation and preservation. It recovers the knowledge and imagination of lay,
often local, enthusiasts in pre-war Britain from the condescension of a new
archaeological establishment keen to enclose and police the boundaries of
prehistoric expertise. Thoroughly researched, from many previously untapped
sources, and accessibly and entertainingly written, Creating Prehistory will appeal
to a wide readership, interested in sites of antiquity and how those places have
been viewed and debated in the recent past.’
Stephen Daniels, University of Nottingham
‘Prehistory is a contentious affair, and Adam Stout’s story of just how competitive
narratives can get is illuminating in its exposure of archaeology’s dirty war against
visionaries.’
John Billingsley, Editor, Northern Earth
‘Adam Stout’s new book gives the inside story of British archaeology in the fi rst
half of the twentieth century. He brings to light the various groups and individuals,
especially the revived Order of Druids, who opposed the low-level, reductionist
view of Stonehenge and prehistoric culture that the authorities were insisting upon.
This is a new and well-told story about a controversy that is still going on.’
John Michell, author of The View Over Atlantis
Creating Prehistory: Druids, Ley Hunters and Archaeologists in Pre-War Britain Adam Stout
© 2008 Adam Stout ISBN: 978-1-405-15504-5
For M
(By God, she’s earned it)
CREATING
PREHISTORY
Druids, Ley Hunters and Archaeologists
in Pre-war Britain
ADAM STOUT
© 2008 by Adam Stout
BLACKWELL PUBLISHING
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First published 2008 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
1 2008
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stout, Adam.
Creating prehistory : Druids, ley hunters and archaeologists in pre-war Britain / Adam Stout.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-5504-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-4051-5505-2 (pbk. : alk.
paper) 1. Anthropology—Great Britain—History—20th century. 2. Archaeology—Great
Britain—History—20th century. 3. Prehistoric peoples—Great Britain. 4. Antiquities,
Prehistoric—Great Britain. 5. Great Britain—Antiquities. I. Title.
GN17.3.G7S86 2008
936.1—dc22
2007041746
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Power and the Past 1
Part I Disciplining the Past 7
1 Manufacturing the Past: The Victorian
Background 9
2 Establishing the Discipline 17
3 Containing the Amateurs 36
Part II Contesting Utopia 49
4 Making Progress 51
5 The Politics of Socialism 62
6 The Diffusion Heresy: Nurture and the Primitive 74
7 Establishing Diffusion 90
8 A Clash of Narratives: Diffusion and the
Archaeologists 102
vi Contents
Part III The Most Ancient Faith 113
9 The Esoteric Revival 115
10 The Universal Bond 122
11 Stonehenge: A Mecca of Celtic Idealism 137
Part IV Order and Civilization 155
12 The Aesthetics of Order 157
13 The Old Straight Track 173
14 The Straight Track Postal Club 190
15 Straight Track to Beyond 203
16 Visions of Civilization 215
Conclusion: Archaeology and Social Transformation 234
Notes 247
Bibliography 280
Index 305
List of Illustrations
1 O G S Crawford in 1936. 21
2 Grigson’s ‘fl ower of all periodicals’. 24
3 Mortimer Wheeler’s autobiography, published in 1956. 28
4 Gordon Childe (right) and Stuart Piggott at Dorchester-on-
Thames, 1946. 30
5 Grahame Clark in 1950. 34
6 The discovery of ‘Piltdown Man’ in 1912, lent credence
to the racial theories of Arthur Keith. 76
7 W H R Rivers (left) and Grafton Elliot Smith at Maghull
Military Hospital, 1915. 80
8 ‘Before the coming of civilisation there was a real
“Golden Age” of peace and goodwill’. 86
9 Elliot Smith (left) and W J Perry, with Perry’s wife
and daughter. 88
10 The Universal Bond at the Stonehenge Summer Solstice, 1913.
‘The Passing through the Gate’, Macgregor Reid in the lead. 128
11 ‘Worshippers before the gnomen’. 129
12 Service in the circle. 129
13 ‘Before the Surrender Stone (Mahayoni). The Appeal unto
The Great Mother is raised by the contrite heart’. 130
14 The Universalist cosmos: Stonehenge to the left, the
religions of the book to the right, and a multi-faith trilithon
in the centre. 132
viii List of Illustrations
15 The controversial Stonehenge turnstile, seen here in
the 1920s. 143
16 Sale of The New Life and Druid Journal at Stonehenge
was banned. 147
17 Hermetic interlude. The Pendragon: Offi cial Organ of the
Ancient Order of Druid Hermetists, Midsummer 1939. 150
18 The Dream: Heywood Sumner’s uncluttered vision. 161
19 The Reality: caretakers’ cottages at the crossroads,
aerodrome in the background and – horror of horrors –
a transport café. 161
20 The Nightmare: ‘Stonehenge in 1930? A dreadful vision of
what might happen if the present appeal were to fail’ 162
21 Alfred Watkins. 174
22 Frontispiece to Early British Trackways. ‘A Glade on a Ley’
links pictures of Castle Tomen, Radnor Forest, with the
Four Stones near New Radnor. A composite of Watkins’
own photographs. 176
23 Ellis Martin’s fi nely-designed map cover for the Ordnance
Survey’s 1/″ series invokes the romance of the road. 179
2
24 The Ley Hunter’s Manual. Alfred Watkins woos the walkers. 185
25 Members of the Straight Track Club gather around Alfred
Watkins at Wellington, near Hereford, during their 1933
Annual Meeting. 195
26 The Straight Track Club in action. Climbing Pont Hendre
castle mound, Longtown, Herefordshire in 1933. 197
27 ‘Proof by spade’. Alfred Watkins’ photograph of a
‘stoned trackway’ found in a Hereford sewer cutting. 208
28 Eccentric Mirror Images: ‘Tracks to Badbury Camp’. 209
29 ‘A Typical Roman Road: The Road from Chichester
to Bitterne, near Southampton’. 209
30 A ley hunter’s vision: ‘Midwinter Sunrise on Grey Hill’,
by Fred Hando. 212
31 Mortimer Wheeler (left) welcoming O G S Crawford to
Maiden Castle, 1934. 219
32 Digging for Victory: part of the ‘war cemetery’ at
Maiden Castle. 222
33 The bronze bull with two human torsos, whose discovery
at Maiden Castle unsettled John Cowper Powys. 230
Acknowledgements
Most of the research for this book was undertaken for my doctorate, and
I’d like to start by thanking the Arts and Humanities Research Council
(it was a ‘Board’ then) for the three-year grant that made the project
possible. Gratitude galore to pretty much everyone in the Department of
Archaeology & Anthropology at the University of Wales, Lampeter, that
hotbed of heretics, for instruction, inspiration and beer: in particular my
three excellent supervisors, Mark Pluciennik, Paul Rainbird and Andrew
Fleming, all of whom supplied wise counsel and encouragement which I
sometimes took. Special thanks also to Jeremy Harte, Kitty Hauser, David
Austin, Geoff Sawers, Adrian Blamires, Margaret-Mary Archer, Tim Hill,
Julian Thomas, Cornelius Holtorf, David Matless, four anonymous
reviewers and above all Ronald Hutton, all of whom have read large
chunks of the manuscript and have given me really useful feedback. Their
comments and encouragement have helped me to shape and improve the
book, but I hereby exonerate them from any automatic taint of sympathy
with my conclusions.
This project has been many years in the making and it would be daft
to try to thank everyone who’s ever played a part: I’d be bound to upset
someone by leaving them out. In general terms, I’d like to thank the many
librarians, curators and archivists who’ve had to deal with me; and all the
people who live their lives out of bounds and dream of other ways of
being.