WellowTumulus

England proud and ancient
MY country which still is
Riding high though rocky
It’s lost some of its fizz
The EU unelected have
Lessened it’s fortunes
But referenda taken
It’s all there in the runes
Our history is a long one
These green and precious lands
Have withstood many invaders
Some with filthy hands
Who tried to break our spirit
With their fascist darkly power
But with statesmen of the old school
We showed the bastards how

Our history is a long one
From the Neolithic age
We still have wonderful relics
Built by many a sage
Farmers rich with knowledge
Hopeful their elite
Could be laid to rest in barrows
To inspire and to complete
The history and destiny
Of those who followed they
Needed to remember
The ancestors whose way
Was to protect and safeguard
The green and precious land
And so they set to work to build
These barrows all by hand

No internet no motor cars
Just painstakingly, they
Would use their muscles and use their gristle
Their hard graft day on day
No special gloves or tools
But with their will and their resolve
Respect was their great quality
For with that thought we evolve
Life was hard made harder
By the difficulties of being
No electric light no gas
no energy but spirit
The human mind on mass
In Wellow still a hamlet
Of Somerset by name
Still beautiful as ever
With its ancient claim to fame

5 miles south of Bath
A Severn-Cotswold tomb
Hand worked out of soil and stone
Larger slabs per room
Came from quite a while away
So clearly quite a stint
But hearts and minds were adamant
They had their true blueprint
And so they built this monument
With gristle and with brawn
For them a work of majesty
With muscles strained and torn
They carried on in earnest
30 metres long 15 metres wide
And 10 feet high it did belong
In the annals of those people
Principled and right
Stoney Littleton long barrow
Hand built in sunlight

A shrine in fact to those
Respected ancients of the land
Who worked their guts out
And their minds were there
To understand
The ways of agriculture
The means to feed and be
successful as a people
In England where good and free
John Skinner excavated
The site and what he found
1816-17 protected by the ground
This testament to the ancestors
True tribal respect
What is a lasting memorial
For all to recollect
Their thoughts
And be inspired to follow
On where they were
A tumulus of ancientness
Perhaps to be a spur

To anybody seeing it
This monument of soul
Beautifully crafted
The ancient farming role
Twinhoe, Oxmead Baggridge
And part of Midford too
Still included in the parish
And worthy of of a view
Still in the Cotswold Area
Of Natural Beauty they
With their long long history
Can help to make your day
Go and see the packhorse bridge
Over the Wellow Brook
Sit there think back of when
The long barrow was built
Just try to look

Around the site the woods
The green
Imagine for a while
It’s evocative reminding
What must have been the style
Then of all those builders
Who worked the earth and sod
With every expectation
To be closer to their god
Farmers yes maybe so
But had the foresight to see
Into the future beyond the stars
Where now yes we be
Closer to an apocalypse
How we ourselves destroy
Everything that man had come to respect
And to enjoy

The land the precious land
On which our food was grown
And we
Poison and cover with concrete
Doing it Constantly
Destroying without thinking
Ahead for those who might
Think of us as ancestors
Who guaranteed to blight
Their future and it’s happening
And perhaps what we can do
Is have the mindset of the ancients
And tread lightly
That’s my view