News TIMEWATCH.ORG MEDIA RELEASE - 10/09/2007 Huge Labyrinth walk ceremony will herald the launch of new Thornborough restoration campaign Thornborough Henges to be target of Restoration campaign More the 500 candles will be used to create a massive labyrinth at Thornborough’s Central Henge as part of the opening ceremony for TimeWatch’s new campaign to restore Thorborough’s ancient cursus. Heritage campaign Group TimeWatch has announced that the group is to launch a new campaign aimed at restoring what the group is calling the “sacred Landscape” of Thornborough Henges. To kick off the campaign, and in recognition of the ancient site’s ritual purpose, TimeWatch have invited local religious and spiritual groups to participate in a ceremony of good fortune for the campaign. The ceremony will begin at 7pm on Saturday 22 nd September and will involve pagan, Christian and people from other faiths who all agree that restoring one of Yorkshires oldest and largest ritual monuments is an important next step for the campaign. The ceremony will last for two hours and will include a partial walk of the cursus and story telling. “In recognising the religious origins for the mighty monuments at Thornborough, we also recognise that no particular group has ownership of these structures; they belong to us all and we invite all-comers to come and help us begin the task of restoration by taking part in this spectacular ceremony” Said TimeWatch Chairman George Chaplin. After more than five years of campaigning against quarrying at Thornborough, and following the planning ruling that the important archaeology surrounding the henges had to be protected TimeWatch have announced that it is time to begin restoring parts of the site that have been previously ruined. “Thornborough Cursus is potentially the oldest major monument in the world aligned to the Constellation Orion. It is also the largest monument at Thornborough; almost a mile long” Said Mr Chaplin “On the 22 nd of September we will be launching an entirely new campaign to restore the section that has been quarried back to its original state. We believe that this move will be positive for all involved since it will return the land back to original quality. The Cursus at Thornborough is thought to have been built around 3,500BC, some five hundred years before the henges. It is a fifty meter wide strip of land, almost a mile long that was cleared in order to create a ceremonial causeway that some think of as a “spirit path” for the soul to return to the heavens. Thornborough’s cursus has been compared to the shaft within the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid in Giza. This was also aligned to Orion and emanates from the central pyramid of three structures that mirror Orion’s Belt. This too has been equated to a spirit path – a passageway for the soul of the pharaoh to travel to Orion. “We think we can best protect Thornborough by helping to promote it as a unique site of international importance. Restoring the cursus will greatly help with this and will have local and regional environmental and economic benefits” Said Mr Chaplin.   Events TimeWatch regularly put on public talks and displays to highlight the importance of the Thornborough Henges As part of our Thornborough Campaign, we hope to organise a series of events aimed at raising a deeper understanding of the importance of Thornborough. with the wider public. We have speakers willing to travel countrywide, who can provide interesting audio visual presentations, why not invite us along to speak at your club or society? We also regularly attend festivals and other public gatherings, perhaps you organise one and would allow to come and host a stall? "Thornborough Henges are a neolithic marvel, britains largest ritual gathering site from Neolithic times, and yet is only a small part of a vast complex of huge monuments that straddles more than twenty miles of North Yorkshire." If you are running a conference, meeting or festival and would like to support Thornborough by giving us space please email our events coordinator events@Timewatch.org Dates 2008 - Beltane at Thornborough - Last year as many as five hundred people attended the beltane festivities at Thornborough's Central Henge. 2008 - Thornborough Music Festival - Held at Grewelthorpe in support of the Thornborough restoration campaign.