Environment Editor Tony Henderson visits an area where prehistoric voices can still be plainly heard. ********* Fanning out from the edge of the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland is the Milfield Plain, a fertile area crossed by the rivers Till and Glen. It is the third component of a spiritual landscape which includes the hillforts of the Cheviots, the sacred 1,000ft Yeavering Bell with its twin summits and an Anglo-Saxon palace site at its base. The Milfield Plain near Wooler is special in its own right, not least because it is one of the best prehistoric landscapes in the country. Evidence for some of the earliest agriculture in Northern England from around 6,000 years ago has been found there. It also happens to have one of the most dense concentrations of henge monuments in Britain. So far nine henges have been discovered on the Milfield Plain, with most dating from around 4,500 years ago. Henges are ritual, circular monuments formed by an outer mound or bank and an inner ditch with one or two entrances. Sometimes they contained an inner feature of burials and stone or wooden uprights. The plain attracted people from the Stone Age onwards. As the Ice Age sheets melted, large volumes of gravel were washed down from the Cheviot Hills and spread out like a river delta. The glacial meltwaters formed a large lake extending over what is now the floodplain of the Till and the Glen. As the lake eventually drained away, people moved in to exploit the abundant natural resources. They began to rear livestock and grow food plants to supplement hunting and fishing. Newcastle University archaeologist Clive Waddington has carried out extensive research and excavation on Milfield Plain. He says: "The area is clearly a focus for the earliest inhabitants because of the fertile soil and also because they had access to a wide range of resources." These included different types of stone, such as the hard volcanic Cheviot rock for axes, and flint from the gravels for tools. There were salmon in the rivers, deer and wild cattle in the varying woodlands and birds such as swans, ducks and geese. "The plain is also in the rain shadow of the Cheviots and so has a lower annual rainfall and longer hours of sunshine," says Clive. The climate generally was better than today. Dr Malcolm Aylett, now retired but who was a GP in Wooler for 25 years, is former chairman of the Border Archaeological Society. He says: "The plain would have been rich in food and the living would have been quite easy. "It would have been a comfortable life for the times. "It is, arguably, one of the most important and richest sites archaeologically in England. "From the top of the hills, its origin as a vast lake is so obvious." Society vice chairman Barrie Evans, from Berwick, tells how members hired an aircraft to fly over the area. "The henges stood out like huge signposts," he says. By building the henges, says Clive, people laid a spiritual and ritual layer on the landscape. The henges are in a line across the plain, and probably served as a processional way or sacred route. The first, Milfield North, is aligned on Yeavering Bell and nearby Humbleton Hill, which are the most prominent hills on the edge of the Cheviots. Clive estimates that it would have taken a full day to process through the henges to Yeavering Bell - the site of the last henge - and back again. In outlying areas such as Duddo, Doddington Moor and Threestone Burn, there are stone circles. The Duddo circle has a number of standing stones which have been sculpted by centuries of wind and rain. There is speculation that the circles and henges were used at different times of the year. "If you lived in what is now Berwick, for example, everyone would have known about and gone to Milfield at least once in their lives, or perhaps every year. "It was the big centre of gravity," says Clive. "What is so special is that so much of this landscape is still intact. It is one of the best possible laboratories in which to try and understand what all this was about." Bronze Age finds, including swords and axes, have come from the plain area and after the Anglo-Saxon palace site at the foot of Yeavering Bell was destroyed by fire when the Northumbrians were defeated in battles, a new and similar power centre was built at Maelmin near the modern village of Milfield. Reconstructions of the Milfield North henge and a hut shelter from up to 10,000 years ago which was excavated at the coast at Howick have been created at the Maelmin heritage trail site. Part of the work on the henge was carried out by Clive and a team of volunteers using the tools of the time, such as stone axes, digging sticks and the shoulder blades of cattle as primitive shovels. Another insight into prehistoric life in the area was provided by an investigation undertaken by Border Archaeological Society members at a pear-shaped cairn on the side of Scald Hill at nearby Langleeford. Barrie says: "There is a lot of pink andesite rock and quartz in there and it would have gleamed on the flanks of the hill. "It would have said: `This land is ours'." Page 2: Rock art in its most spectacular form | 
