Tag Archives for mini Stonehenge

Snowhenge Bristol

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photos by Phredd Groves, with permission

As some of you may know, Great Britain has been, um, blessed with snow this winter and although in many places they received no more than six inches, leave it to the resourceful English to fashion many kinds of snow creations from almost nothing! Including this snowhenge built by members of the University of Bristol’s Archaeology Department, including, in order as pictured above, Becca Pullen, Stuart Ladd, Sian Thomas, and Sean Clifford.

snowhenge-phredd-2As you can see here, although they did not make the henge circular, they did go to the trouble of making a bank, which is as good as a ditch and bank in this situation, we think. Wouldn’t want them digging up the university lawn!

Bravo for this crew of eager henge builders! Whatever important tasks they should have been performing, we’re glad we put them aside and turned to henging! May it become the fashion.

Score: 6½ druids for this brilliant henge made from gifts that fell from the heavens.

Theatre District Replica, Milton Keynes (now defunct)

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photos from the MK News

We are leaving this post up as a memorial, but it has come to our attention that this lovely and unique black clonehenge was destroyed along with other sculptures in the Science Garden to make way for the new Premier Inn. Alas,  smol friend, Clonehenge will remember you!

For a nice Flickr photo, see here. In the theatre district of the city of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, this sculpture stands in a park where a ferris wheel once stood.One article says, “It has been designed by Pauley landscapes to represent civilisation, mankind and the universe.”

mk-2A Stonehenge replica is certainly a thoughtful choice for that representation. There was some trouble, though, when local pagans objected to this secular use of the sacred image of Stonehenge (This is one of those incidents that sets the U.K. in a positive light compared to the States!) Ha, MK Pagans–take a look around Clonehenge. The world is lousy with secular replicas! The good thing is that they always generate interest in Stonehenge among people who didn’t know it before.

In the role of peacemaker, the local pagan priest offered assistance in aligning the circle and requested that a plaque about stone circles be posted by it. “ ‘I think it is fantastic, such a lovely thing to have,’ he added.” It looks as if  this replica could turn out to be even better than it was meant to be!

As for scoring, well, we don’t know the materials used or much else about it but we encourage the building of Stonehenge replicas in public spaces! Score: 7½ druids for the little Stonehenge in the park!

Was Stonehenge a Building? Bruce Bedlam’s model

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model and image by Bruce Bedlam, with permission

The above is a virtual model, of course, but it represents a real model that was made by the artist. Pictures of the real model can be seen here. The idea Mr. Bedlam has come up with is that Stonehenge is the remnant or foundation of what was once a large wooden building. For more about it and a good look at the model itself, you can view this video:

Of course the theory sounds wacky at first but it’s partly because we haven’t considered it before. If Woodhenge had a roof, why not Stonehenge? We are willing to add it to the list of possibilities.

And what of the model? The model of the stones before the wood was added is rather a nice replica of the original structure as it imagined to have been. We think this kind of speculation is fresh and fun and fully in the spirit of Clonehenge! Score: 8 druids for Bruce Bedlam’s model of Stonehenge as a wooden star! Now, what’s the deal with that crystal thing at the bottom of this page?!

Doghenge

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henging and photo by deadeyebart a.k.a. Brett, with permission

Okay, we’ve been weak on the silly stuff lately, so this is the antidote, a henge of plastic toy dogs and bones. Some might even argue that this is barely a henge at all, but you can tell it is one because it says so in clear letters. 😉 We chose this picture of Doghenge for the lighting but there’s a whole series of them as you can see here.

As some may remember, Brett is the same mad henger who brought us Pezhenge and Peephenge. He takes henging to the level of art–that kind of art some call conceptual. Doghenge is a loose interpretation of the henge concept with just enough hint at accurate detail to make it work.

We want to encourage more mad henging! Score for this conceptual henge, 6½ druids. How can we not like a henge that can aim its plastic howl at the moon?

Silver Charm, Add Stonehenge to your charm bracelet

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photo from justsimplycharming.com (warning–bright orange colour and large, dark print. Website may be annoying.)

We suppose the idea must be: If you were awestruck by this huge ancient monument, why not wear a teeny-tiny sterling silver version of it hanging from your wrist or around your neck? And you can’t blame this one on the States, friends. The website says clearly, All charms are made in the United Kingdom. So there.

We won’t linger on this one. We do find it amusing, but we can barely bring ourselves to give it 5 druids–and they would have to be the tiniest druids ever!

Spinal Tap, Our 100th Post!

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from the movie Spinal Tap

When you say Stonehenge replica, people say Spinal Tap. And something about dwarfs. This rock spoof movie has etched the idea of Stonehenge replicas into the public consciousness, for better or worse. We run into it everywhere in our searches, often from folks who think they are brilliantly original to think of it. *wink*

spinaltapAt least one real band did use a Stonehenge replica as a set back in the heyday of boomer rock, one so large that it didn’t fit into some venues. Which band? We’ve seen two or three mentioned but we’re told it was really Black Sabbath and that Ozzy Osborne is still paying for its storage in a New York warehouse. If we could get a picture, it could be a post of its own!  The story of the Spinal Tap replica is shown in the video below.

Many thanks to our readers and contributors for making our first 100 posts possible! Score for the Spinal Tap relica: 5 druids. It’s just a trilithon, after all!

[Note: after the next couple posts, we hope to slow down to just a few posts per week. Surely the number of replicas is not infinite! Right? Right!?]

Stonehenge and Golf–Why?

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photo by Jo Wallace

There’s an intriguing connection between golf and Stonehenge (remember Montana’s beautifulreplica?). A surprising number of regular golf courses are named Stonehenge and some crazy golf entrepreneurs feel the attraction as well. The golf course above is in Norfolk, U.K.  and is the only big red Stonehenge we have ever seen. The one below, at Stonehenge Golf Centre, is in Larkhill, Wiltshire.

stonehenge-mini-golThere’s a brilliant one in Thailand, too, the link to which we seem to have mislaid, so we’ll add it when we locate it again. Stonehenge shouldn’t feel special, though. Minigolf and crazy golf contribute other replicas as well favouring things like the Taj Mahal, the pyramids and the Sphinx.

We’ll give the first one 5 druids and the second the same. But we admit we would go out of our ways to play at either course. Meet you there at solstice!

Another Henge for Your Garden, out of Ohio

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photo and henge by Kelly Lawrence, with permission

Another day and another Stonehenge-for-sale, but what a difference a day makes! From Green Mantle Studio in the land of the Indian mounds comes this nice little fired, painted, and water-sealed Stonehenge. They are produced only when ordered, with individual care given to each piece.

Kelly, the artist, explains its origins: “One of my more popular pieces is a Dolmen Toad House which inspired one of my customers to commission me to make a full Stonehenge replica for his garden. He wanted it to represent the monument as it was not as it is today so there are 30 uprights and 30 lintels in the outer ring, 5 trilithons make up the horseshoe in the center and finally the set includes both an altar stone and a heel stone.”

The ditch and bank are up to you. And if you buy one of these, believe me, we’ll be around to make sure you follow through! We are pleased that the dolmen came first and that this replica was someone else’s request. We also approve of a lack of Easter Island heads on the site!

Scoring: 6½ druids for this pleasing American henge. It’s tempting–just to see the looks on our neighbors’ faces. Does it come in Extra Extra Large?

Tourist Trap, Proposed Stonehenge Model for Visitors’ Center, 1998

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photos from Stonehenge II proposal by Aleksandra Mir , more at link.

Posting two rather serious British-made Stonehenge models in a row may be a mistake but a permission we’d hoped for hasn’t come through. The two are very different.  Here “the proposal was to build a Stonehenge replica close to the original, to reduce the volume of pedestrian traffic and save this piece of cultural heritage from further destruction. To compensate for the necessary limited access to Stonehenge I, Stonehenge II would allow full access and promote a wide range of activities on its grounds.”

As you see, tourists would be encouraged to touch and enjoy the model if they wished. However, it seems to us that what tourists wish is to touch the ageless stones of the original, not false new stones, of whatever material.

stonehenge-mir-1This Stonehenge II has not been built, nor is it planned at this point. But as a model we must say that of all the miniatures this is most detailed and closest to the original. We even see Aubrey holes and certainly the ditch and bank, plus every stone correct in size and place. (We also enjoy the giant bird perched on one lintel.)

Scoring–well, keep in mind that we are looking at a model of a nonexistent replica, not a model of Stonehenge itself.  Still, we are forced to give this a good 8½ druids. Full sized, it woud have gotten the elusive 9½. But let’s face it–Peephenge and Cheese curl henge are a lot more fun!

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Henry Browne’s Cork Models–some real history

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photos from the website of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, U.K.

Society often mocks those who are obsessed, but time and time again they are the ones who accomplish much and who see the need for action in their field  long before others do. Such a man was Henry Browne, who lived from 1769 to 1839 and devoted his later years entirely to the study, chronicling and protection of Stonehenge.

The story of how he made his first cork Stonehenge replica is told in a footnote to page 77 of the book  Stonehenge and its Barrows, by William Long. He brought his tools and materials to the site and did all he could to imitate every aspect of the monument as it stood then, in the year 1824. He also made models of his idea of how Stonehenge looked originally.

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Browne may have been the first to notice that the lintels were kept in place with notches and grooves and the first to suppose that lintels originally went all the way around the outside circle. He was among the first to see that Stonehenge needed to be conserved and protected from tourists as well as local residents who broke up stones for building.

A photo of  a Browne model in the Haslemere Museum, taken by the distinguished gentleman from Surrey, Mr. Andy Burnham, originator and Grand Poobah of the highly esteemed Megalithic Portal, may be seen here. This humble blog is to the Megalithic Portal as a child’s wooden block Stonehenge replica is to Stonehenge itself and we are greatly in Mr. Burnham’s debt for providing such a resource!

As to score, well, this man did it right. 9½ druids for Mr. Browne’s models.  They are now, as Mr. Burnham says, precious artefacts themselves.