really good news you were in contact with mr Strother, its good to make friends with the landowners, you don’t always have to do it, but it does make life a little bit easier sometimes..lol.

good to see the carvings look like new ones..you seem to have the nose!

good work..

BTW I spoke to Lance Strother today on the phone and he was very positive and very sympathetic – obviously has a strong sense of stewardship of the sites on his land. Enjoyed talking with him very much – he said no problems with my revisiting Fowberry Mains Park site – apart from cows which are about to calve in that field. I did see cows yesterday but they were almost half a mile distant – he said he would tell his son that I might revisit today.

1. I didn’t go near the North Plantation site because Stan’s books said this was a private woodland and there was a ‘private – no access’ sign on the gate there.
( I only saw this because I parked nearby to visit Weetwood Moor.) I didn’t go anywhere near the Fowberry Excavation site – if that is in the North Plantation.

2. I dind’t go near the Fowberry Enclosures – largely because, even with Stan’s description. I couldn’t understand where they were.

I only visited the contiguous Fowberry Mains Park group which are all very close to each other – spanning a 15 yard section of the quarried scarp edge which runs alongside a public right of way very close to the farm itself. This is the group which Stan Beckensall denotes as Fowberry Mains Park in his graphic Plate 72 on page 65 of his book ‘Prehistoric Rock Art in Northumberland’.

I just zoomed in using Flash Earth and the reference is:
Latitude 55deg 32′ 34.7″ North
Longitude 1 deg 57′ 24.7″ West

It would help my paranoia if you tell me this central Fowberry Mains Park group IS on public access land.

Cheers

Graham

This rock was very close to the main motifs – not more than 20 yards away – I just continued uphill along the same line of the outcrop and then turned ‘inland’ away from the outcrop maybe 20 yards and it was just lying there. I only pulled back about 3 inches of turf on one edge – the stone was wet with damp over half the surface.

sorry Lance…(i blame Suz she told me twas Len, lol)

I thought rock 3 at the excavation site seemed close?…

do you have the grid refs for the panel Graham?

As Hob says, it is maybe best keeping clear of Fowberry until you speak to Mr Strother.

I’d echo Brian’s sentiments about getting Lance Strother’s permission though. I think the Fowberry Mains field is now one of those open access areas, so technically, you’d not need permission to go having a look:
http://tinyurl.com/9pkma

But when it’s turf lifting time, Mr Strother gets quite irate. There are a few places around the F Mains panels where you can see the turf never grew back, and Lance is very protective of ‘his’ carvings. He’s a nice fella, but he takes his stewardship of these panels seriously.

I hope that all doesn’t sound too negative. It’s just one of those things. Keep on with the good stuff Graham.

I am not totally certain but it looks like it could be this one,
Fowberry Excavation site – Rock 3

http://rockart.ncl.ac.uk/panel_image_view.asp?imageid=4321&pi=183

Good stuff Graham, just a word of warning though, be very careful when looking over the land around Fowberry, it is on private land, the land owner is not too keen on people being on his land without permission, especially when looking for rock art. It took Jan and Gus a number of attempts to be allowed onto the land.. Just a little advice, speak to the land owner is this case, the guy happens to own a lot of the land around the Wooler area, and we don’t want to piss the guy off, if you know what i mean.

A lot of landowners are okay, but the odd one you need to be careful with, and this is one of those, a Mr Lance Strother.

Glad to see you have got the bug though Graham.

Brian