The Devil's Quoits

 prehistoric, henge, stone circle, bronze age

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The Devil's Quoits was one of Britains largest henge based stone circles. It was in a poor state of preservation prior to WW2 when it was flattened in the building of Stanton Harcourt airfield. Later in the 20th century the airfield was abandoned and the land use for sand and gravel extraction.

In a most unusual move the henge has been reconstructed as acurately as possible and the few remaining stones have been put in place. The site operators at the time of the reconstruction, Hansen PLC, have sold the mineral wrights to Waste Resourse Group Ltd. There are no clear arrangements for visiting the site. The best option, for an informal visit, is probably a visit in person to the site office and seek guidance from there.

The Devil's Quoits would have been related to the nearby complex of Uffington, The White Horse, the Ridgeway and its settlements and, further on, the Avebury complex. Travel between these would have involved crossing the Thames - quite posibly at Bablock Hythe.

Reference: Excavations at the Devil's Quoits, Stanton Harcourt, 1972-3 and 1988 (Thames Valley Landscapes Monograph) by Alistair Barclay et al.Oxford University School of Archaeology 1995. Oxford, UK. ISBN - 0947816844