Thornborough Henges

A selection of links concerning the development proposals for the area around the Thornborough henge complex

Thornborough Henge

Friends of Thornborough
A local voluntary group set up as a focus for residents unhappy with the effects of open-cast quarrying in their area. Lots of information and opinion about the proposed quarry development and the arguments against it.

The Neolithic Monument complex of Thornborough
A detailed site provided by the Thornborough Project at Newcastle University, including a wide range of archaeological background material such as fieldwalking and excavation results. Also contains reports of the desktop assessment, geophysical and topographic surveys and other reports in their Publications section.

The Nosterfield Project
A site illustrating the results of an archaeological evaluation carried out by Mike Griffiths & Associates since 1995 in the area around Tarmac's Nosterfield Quarry (next to the Thornborough henges). The site includes a lot of information about what has been done by the archaeologists and some of the conclusions drawn. The final phase of the evaluation was completed in September 2004.

Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund
Information about the fund which is used to tackle the environmental impacts of aggregate (sand, gravel and crushed rock) extraction in England. English Heritage is one of the agencies tasked with distributing the funds. (Similar arrangements exist in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).

Tarmac
According to their website, Tarmac is the leading supplier of building materials - they also own the quarries around Thornborough. They maintain a website devoted to the Nosterfield quarry proposals which includes a series of press releases.

English Heritage National Monuments records for Thornborough
The English online NMR contains some basic information about the various elements which comprise the Thornborough complex, including access to some fine aerial photographs of the sites provided via Multimap.

The Modern Antiquarian
The website based on Julian Cope's book of the same name contains a range of information about Thornborough, including news items, images, fieldnotes, etc.

Recent Fieldwork at the Neolithic monument complex at Thornborough
A short note by Jan Harding in Past, the newsletter of the Prehistoric Society, outlining some of the results of archaeological work undertaken at Thornborough in 1997.

Diggers threaten ancient monument
An article in the Guardian newspaper about resistance to Tarmac's plans to extend the quarries around Thornborough

BBC News
The BBC has carried several news items over the years concerning Thornborough, including:

  • and search for the most recent updates ...

The Northern Echo
This local newspapers contains regular stories on the Thornborough situation - for example:

  • Quarry firm offers henges land to nation in surprise move
    • (July 2005)
  • 10,000 say 'do not extend quarry'
    • (July 2005)
  • Quarry group's war of words with protestors
    • (June 2005)
  • Experts probe Iron Age horse burials
    • (October 2004)
  • Is it time to man our henges?
    • (September 2004)
  • Archaeologists hit out over 'savage threat' to landmark
    • (September 2004)
  • Bid to increase quarrying runs into a barrow-load of trouble
    • (July 2004)

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