The Official Blog of P J Cadavori: Is this the oldest ghost in Britain?

Imagine... 3000 years ago the stone age had given way to the bronze age. Thanks to immigration from Europe the stone age Britons had learnt how to combine tin with copper to make better tools and weapons. Such skills were well known throughout Europe and were readily adopted in Southern England where both commodities were found in abundance.

At the same time, what are now quiet rural backwaters were in those days bustling communities. There were scores of farming households with out-houses to construct pottery, weapons and textiles. There were small burial sites dotting the countryside and the movement of people was common with ceremonial religious practices emerging. My recent blog about Stonehenge gives a few insights into this.

But there were storm clouds elsewhere. Many of the near eastern empires were collapsing and there was constant warfare throughout the mediterranean. So there was mass migration to calmer areas such as Southern England.

Bottlebush Down, Dorset

One such place is in Dorset, south of Salisbury and is now called Bottlebush Down. There was a large community there in about 1000 BC where the warriors had constructed a defensive earthworks called the Cursus. This was about 6 miles long and had 2 parallel ditches about 100 yards apart. It is believed that it housed a garrison to stem the invasions of newcomers from the south and east.

In modern times, this is where a lone horseman has been seen, galloping along the Cursus, to disappear where there is an isolated burial mound. He can be dated because in 1924 an eminent archaeologist Mr R Clay, a bronze age specialist, who was excavating a bronze age site nearby, saw the horseman who rode alongside his car for about 100 yards.

“The horse was smallish with a long tail and mane. It had neither bridle nor stirrups. The rider had bare legs, a long flowing cloak and was holding some sort of weapon over his head".”

Mr Clay, with his expert knowledge identified the rider as late bronze age; about 600 BC. And that is not all. The rider has been seen over the centuries by farmers, tourists and passers-by, always at dusk. So this lone horseman, about 2600 years old, is probably our oldest ghost.

But it does beg the question where are all his contemporaries? Perhaps ghosts do, after all, have a finite life and this one is spectacular for his longevity.

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