4. Henges

During times of population growth there would have been constant efforts to expand the cultivated area by a slow process of tree felling and clearance. Work would have been continuous during daylight hours so nightfall may have been the only time for introspection. 

The complete lack of artificial light would have meant that the night sky provided a magical and astounding spectacle during clear weather. For this reason it has been suggested that star gazing was the first religion. Compounding this, it is known that the Neolithic period was beset by a nightly display of comets. Present day Cosmologists tell us that these were due to the collision and break up of asteroids.

The suspected fear of these nightly firework displays was added to the constant embedded fear of the forest and no doubt, because of the short life span, the constant fear of death. Fear of wild nature and the need for a more secure existence could have been the basic reason for the construction of Henges, a form of Temple only found in Britain.

Henges consisted of a circular ditch and external bank enclosing a ring of timber posts, with one or more entrances. The smaller versions are commonly around 25m in diameter. They were an attempt to create a special and sacred place apart from everyday life. They were ceremonial, ritual gathering places. No burials have been found in henges so this was not their purpose. They were primarily, according to Archaeologist Richard Bradley, community gathering places. People would walk some distance to them and feast on pork, as the evidence shows.

They may have enclosed pre-existing ceremonial sites that were seen to be ‘ritually charged’ that is, dangerous to people in some way. Also there has been conjecture that they were an early warning system against a feared attack by comets. Like the surrounding forest the night sky was full of terrors. The enclosing banks would have meant that you couldn’t see in and you couldn’t see out, thus focusing attention on the night sky.                                                                                           

Richard Bradley, Archaeologist and Academic

No doubt also, the intensely symbolic primitive imagination unfettered by any rational knowledge, would have created a magical aura around the circle, a shape unseen in nature except for the sun and full moon. The inside of a circle was special and magical, the outside not so. However, because, it is thought, that at that time the religious and the secular were not mentally separated the uses of henges could have included more mundane events, like markets and festivals.

The procession of time and of the seasons, heavenly movements of sun, moon and stars (and comets) were highly significant to pre-historic peoples, along with the fertility of people, animals and crops. All these concerns would be relevant to the creation and use of henges. 

There is no doubt that the Neolithic settlers in the Domas area would have found a site for, created, used and maintained a timber henge, somewhere in the locality. 

We do not know of course where this site was but we do know that (according to Bradley) that the site would have to have satisfied a major objective, which was to find a place well away from the daily routines at Domas.

In the Harley area the Wigwig to Domas track rounded a large natural four and a half metre high earth bank before leading on south to Domas. 

In the opposite direction from the settlement at Domas, the track going north would have risen through dense forest, finding a level top adjacent to what is now Harley.  Beyond this, the land to the north and west is level.  

Also, in the pre historic Neolithic and the Bronze ages, hills were of great religious significance and were revered as some sort of sacred landmark. For the early people of Harley and Domas, The Wrekin may have fulfilled that role as it could have been visible, subject to the tree cover. One village road aligns with the Wrekin. Whether this has any significance is conjectural.

One thing which we share with such early people is our imagination. It is fascinating to try to isolate from our artificial experience of life what we share with early people in our experience of the natural world. Professor Hoskins in his book ‘The Making of the English Landscape’ obviously finds this mental game very rewarding when faced with, for example, a coastal estuary which may not have changed significantly for millennia. 

Recently, in 2017, in Shrewsbury, whilst excavating the site of a tiny Greek Orthodox church, Archaeologists came upon two crumbling wooden posts, and were surprised to learn that carbon dating showed them to have been placed in the ground in 2033 BC, that is in the late Neolithic.

Close by, a further series of wooden posts were found of a similar date, which are thought to be the remains of a processional way. Remains were also found of an Anglo Saxon church. In addition, the dig revealed evidence from the Bronze Age, The Iron Age, The Roman period as well as the Anglo Saxon period and the Middle Ages.

This is regarded as the oldest known site of continuous worship in Britain. The only other site known to date from the late Neolithic is at Cranbourne Chase, Dorset, but this is a Norman ruin. Lead Archaeologist Janey Green  said it was a significant find.

The present church is signposted Orthodox Church, off Oteley Road between Weeping Cross roundabout and Meole Brace roundabout.

This find is a mere 10 miles from Harley giving proof that there was local activity of this kind in the late Neolithic period.