Journal
Location Information
With each of the places I visited my lovely husband accompanied me. I also planned, risked assessed before visiting and checked the weather reports. I took various photographic equipment, took lots of warm clothing, a good pair of walking boots and sundries!
Photoshoot Writeups
Date: 9th – 12th September 2022
Location: Grosnez & St Ouens – Jersey
I visited this in early September.
Even though the project is about Neolithic sites I was made aware that Jersey has Neolithic sites all over the island. For this reason, I used my images because I have ancestral links to this area and have a strong connection to this place.
The weather in Jersey was incredible and perfect for photography.
On a personal level, I find sunsets and sunrises very spiritual. If you have the sun and the moon, also represent a spiritual side of me and are very relevant to me. Also being by a beach and being by the water is calming.
My images include shells and pebbles on the beach, landscapes and water.
Date: 22nd November 2022
Location: Trellech, Monmouthshire
Not visited this previously and around an hour from where I live. The location being Trellech connects England to Wales and I believe it brought the areas together. There is no car park close by so parking is around a five-minute walk away located on a very fast road.
I visited this site early this morning, it was extremely cold and the sun was quite nice so I just wanted to capture the sunlight on them. Unlike the burial chamber I have visited, this site contains three standing stones on a field close to the main road. One stone looks like it is falling down. Comparing them to Stonehenge, these standing stones are like the Held Stone. The landscape there was not just flat, it was hilly, there were dips in the earth and it was unusual. The shadows in comparison to Tinkinswood were minimal so I took images at different angles.
If I am totally honest it did not go wow to me, The site seems like a place that has been forgotten in the process of the local environment which is disappointing,
Date: 22nd November 2022
Location: Goldcliff, Newport
I have visited this area and site previously however I did not know it was a Neolithic site.
Goldcliff is a seawall and it is an estuary. The weather was variable during this visit from cold one minute, then sunny and cloudy the next.
It needed risk assessed on-site at a very regular period. The conditions were very muddy and as you walked on it you could sink very easily. For this reason, I had to re-evaluate my position of where I captured the shots and stayed on the edge rather than going closer to my chosen location.
There are no stone circles at this site however there is a beach and water. It looks like a pagoda – wooden posts dotted everywhere, some with seaweed, and rock formations and this could possibly have been a site where Neolithic people lived. It is inconclusive how the land and sea were at the time of the Neolithic people. It could have been the pathway to Stonehenge due to the area being flat and a source of materials, but this is questionable.
I captured various images such as seaweed, rocks, and landscapes. It was a disappointing visit due to the beach being not suitable to access where I wanted to get to. I decided during this visit to change the project to neolithic sites, not just stone circles and standing stones. So despite everything this site actually helped me change the project for the better.
Date: 22nd November 2022
Location: Tinkinswood, Dyffryn
I have visited this location before on a few occasions as it is local to me. Visiting here previously I have enjoyed hours of meditation and lots of thinking time. It is a burial ground and is still used for rituals during the winter and summer solstices. I find this neolithic site very peaceful and as one of the first sites I ever visited in the United Kingdom I must admit it is a special place to me. The site itself is protected and respected by different communities.
To access it you would be in the car park close by and follow the pathways across a few fields to get there. The day I visited the weather was lovely and sunny. At different times during the day, there can be a lot of shadowing at the site, possibly because of the time of year. When you approach it there is a very large rock that looks like a shelter, above two other rocks. On one of the vertical rocks, there’s an excavation plaque showing that the site has been excavated, this shows the date of 1912. From my research, the site was covered in grass and soil prior to the excavation. If they had a chance to excavate further, they would probably find other rock formations but nothing has been agreed for further work here. To the back, is another small stone circle consisting of an inner circle of very small stones which may have been used for cooking and keeping warm. Beyond that space, there is a wooded area which they may have utilised.
I took various images at different angles, the sunlight caused issues at times. What upsets me most about this site is that there are lots of pylons in the area. This does not seem right, they could have tried to avoid putting the cables in this area. I decided to not take the pylons out as I feel the project could focus on the evolution of a site and its modern-day impact.
Date: 22nd November 2022
Location: St Lythan’s, Wenvoe
This particular neolithic site is located around a mile from TinkinsWood, I have not visited this site previously.
There is no car park by this site and it is located by the side of a main road, through a gate. The Chamber can be seen from the gate and is at the very top of a hill. Nothing else is around the site; it is on its own and bigger than Harold’s Stones and Tinkin’s Wood.
I visited it very late in the afternoon so although sunset was captured, it was also used to capture shadows. It consisted of three pillars and one huge pillar on the top, could go into it and if you look through the gap in between the two back pillars you could see the sunlight coming through.
I captured this one differently and at this point considered processing my images in black and white for more impact. Unlike the other sites I had visited I felt some angled shots would give a great aspect to the image looking up at the main stone on the canopy.
