The map says tumulus at this spot and you'd assume it refers to the bigger hill in this picture but the Bronze Age burial mound is the little mound on the left. The chieftain burried there 3,500 years ago ruled over a tribe of farmers, who, armed with state of the art bronze axes, chopped down and cleared the huge oak forest which covered this part of Britain. The area remained deforested until William the Conqueror declared it to be his personal hunting ground - his New Forest.
The larger hill, in the center, is only seventy years old and is a WWII concrete submarine pen. This is 15 miles from the sea, built in 1941, at a cost of £250,000, to replicate the German Submarine pens. Various bombs were dropped on this target over the next few years and three (American) bombs hit, but the pens remained intact. After the war the submarine pens were covered with earth but the near-by bomb crater from, one of many 500lb bombs, was allowed to fill with water and make the round pond in the picture.
Eight years ago we inherited a dog called Sandy. He learnt to swim in this pond and we took him there a hundred times, through rain, shine and ice. Many years later, whilst building on his swimming skills in the River Avon, he sank and drowned. He was the best of dogs and went down wagging his tail. A lesson to us all.
Ashley Cross - zoom out from the Google map (link below) and you can still see the WWII targets marked out on the ground.
