[Stones] The Kennet Winterbourne

[Ric]

Could well be - there is a secondary spring off Waden
Hill, but i have never been able to find it?

what also intrigues me about the watercourses here is
where the two rivers meet North of Avebury, i believe
one is the Horslip - this meeting of rivers perhaps
held some significance for the Avebury people?

i had recently begun to wonder whether the 'ave-'
element in Avebury was not from proto-Celtic 'afon'
[pronounced "avon"], as a direct reference to the
importance of the river symbolism - and the number of
rivers - local to Avebury / Silbury: they seem to
define the landscape, in some degree?


--- littlestone <littlestone at supanet.com> wrote:

> trouble is - Winterbourne is more of a 'descriptive'
> than a name, meaning quite literally 'winter
> river'...
> 
> Good point (being a descriptive name), and by
> extension you could have the Kennet known as the
> Kennet by the locals as far upstream as Avebury
> Trusloe but also know as a winterbourne because it
> didn't flow continually throughout the year. If the
> strength of the river dropped away even further over
> the years (as Pete Reade says it had in his
> lifetime) the name Kennet may have gradually shifted
> downstream with it, finally ending up at the
> Swallowhead where it was given a new lease of life
> from the spring there. From the Anglo-Saxon period
> onwards, as the Kennet diminished in strength,
> perhaps the name Winterbourne came to prevail for
> the river and villages downstream.
> 
> If this is true it could be quite important as it
> shifts the Kennet upstream past Avebury Trusloe,
> through Avebury (re: the font there) and possibly
> even as far as Winterbourne Monkton. The figure in a
> birthing position on the font in the Church of St
> Mary Magdalene, plus the most likely etymology for
> the word Kennet, then begin to make sense.> 

it might be significant that the water-bearing fonts
at both Avebury and Winterbourne Monkton are decorated
with arcane symbolism?

Ric