Project Timescape

• One of the earliest pictures of the Wittenham Clumps is a pencil sketch made by the 30 year old J.M.W. Turner during his 1805 sketching tour along the Thames Valley. It shows Shillingford Bridge with the two Clumps in the background, both clearly capped by low trees.
• More than a hundred years ago, the Oxford photographer Henry Taunt (1842-1922) photographed many local scenes. His photos can be found on the English Heritage Viewfinder website.
• The best-known artist associated with the Clumps is Paul Nash (1889-1946). Nash used to visit the Clumps when his family joined his cousins, the Wells family, at their home 'Sinodun House' near Wallingford for September shooting parties.
• There is an oral tradition preserved in Little Wittenham that a treasure of some kind was buried years ago at a spot called the Money Pit, in a trench on the east side of Castle Hill. It is said to be guarded by a phantom raven.
• Two poets who lived locally are buried in Poets Corner, Westminster Abbey. They are Matthew Prior (1664-1721) and John Masefield (1878-1967).
• It has been suggested that the Clumps lie on a ley line (an alignment of sacred sites) crossing southern England from St Michaels Mount in Cornwall, via Glastonbury and Avebury, to the Norfolk coast.

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