On Friday 15th July, Dr Janet Pennington will be giving an illustrated talk about Chanctonbury Ring on the South Downs. It has been an iconic landmark for Sussex inhabitants and visitors for more than two hundred years.
The ring of trees, most of which were destroyed by the great storm of 1987 and replanted in 1990, covers another ring, the c.750 BC (Late Bronze Age) earthwork, or hill fort. This earlier Ring, which contains the remains of a Romano-Celtic and Romano-British temple complex, has a very special atmosphere that draws people to it.
Set within a much older landscape, it also attracted sixteen-year-old Charles Goring of Wiston House, who planted his beeches and other trees around the perimeter in 1760, ‘on some auspicious day’, as his poem of 1828 reveals.
This richly illustrated talk reveals the history of the area, a murder on the hill in 1330, the tree species involved over the centuries and a spate of literary outpourings about Chanctonbury Ring by nineteenth and twentieth century novelists, poets and travel writers.
Do join us to listen, watch and ask your questions with our expert and engaging speaker, Dr Janet Pennington. She is one of our favourite regular speakers, and as she says herself, “I suppose all my talks are my favourites, but this one is top of the list, in every way.”
Don’t miss it!
Shoreham Centre, 7.00pm, Friday 15th July.
(£2 members £3 non-members, on the door).
Do we need to pre-book for the presentation please?
No, you will not need to pre-book.
Hi – roughly how long is the talk please. We love Chanctonbury Ring – very special place – we will be 6 people thanks for putting this on.
The talk will last about an hour. It will start at 7pm and there will be time for questions and answers before we end the meeting around 8.30pm.
I’d love to hear this talk but I’m unfortunately not able to attend. Will it be recorded and shared?
Thanks
Sorry that you will not be able to come, and unfortunately it will not be recorded.