Knowlton Church and Neolithic earthworks
Not many English parish churches stand in ruins, and fewer still occupy sites associated with prehistoric rituals.
Four thousand years separate the late Neolithic earthwork at Knowlton and the ruined Norman church that stands at its centre. The earthwork itself is just one part of a landscape which is one of the great Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial complexes in southern England.
The pairing of the henge and the church symbolises the transition from pagan to Christian worship, and is an unusual combination of a church within a Neolithic Henge.
Knowlton used to be a thriving Saxon village until all of the inhabitants of the village were killed by the Plague. The foundations of the village can be seen as earthworks in a field a few hundred yards to the west of the church.
Knowlton Church and Neolithic earthworks
Not many English parish churches stand in ruins, and fewer still occupy sites associated with prehistoric rituals.
Four thousand years separate the late Neolithic earthwork at Knowlton and the ruined Norman church that stands at its centre. The earthwork itself is just one part of a landscape which is one of the great Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial complexes in southern England.
The pairing of the henge and the church symbolises the transition from pagan to Christian worship, and is an unusual combination of a church within a Neolithic Henge.
Knowlton used to be a thriving Saxon village until all of the inhabitants of the village were killed by the Plague. The foundations of the village can be seen as earthworks in a field a few hundred yards to the west of the church.