Annabel Pettigrew (Member no: 226)

Avebury

To cross the threshold at Avebury and walk around is to walk in another realm; a place so mystical that time stands still

My partner Rob and I have been visiting Sacred Sites together for the past decade. It’s our mission in life to visit as many sites as possible. There are sites in the UK that we have been to once, and sites that we always return to. Avebury is one of these that we constantly return to. It has this magical draw, a siren-like quality that pulls you in; the huge silent stones seem to radiate some sort of power, a warmth, a white noise. To cross the threshold at Avebury and walk around is to walk in another realm; a place so mystical that time stands still, you feel as if you are walking in another place, an area that might be other worldly; and you can never seem to get enough of it.

It links up with nearby Silbury Hill, a marvellous mystical mound. Silbury Hill became particularly important to me as it was my Dad’s favourite site; He was as obsessed with it as I was with Avebury. On the first day of the Winter Solstice in 2017, three months after he unexpectedly died, we decided to make a pilgrimage to Silbury Hill and Avebury to mark the occasion. We travelled before dawn to be there by sunrise; It was a grey, wet and cloudy day, and overcome with emotion at the sight of the mound I sobbed my way through daybreak. We made our way to Avebury, and entered the outer circle, starting in the South-West quarter, walking instinctively to the stone we now call ‘Our Stone’. Our Stone looks like the end of a great big shard or arrow that has fallen to Earth and embedded itself so far into the ground only the tail can now be seen. In awe of this stone I placed my hands upon it and turned around to find Rob on bended knee, ring in hand, trembling; He asked; ‘Will you marry me?’ 

Such is the significance of Our Stone, when we got married in 2019 we made a replica sculpture of it to have at the wedding. We placed it in a field in Rutland, where the Rutland Morris Men danced in front of it, and even made a small version out of icing to put on top of the cake. We commissioned a silversmith friend of ours to make our rings, using moulds we took of the texture of the stone’s surface, which means we wear part of the stone’s energy everyday. 

Our Stone is a place we make two pilgrimages a year to; One at Winter Solstice, and one on our wedding anniversary.