Stonehenge has long been interpreted as a place of coming together, whether for the Neolithic ceremonies that may have taken place among its stones 4,000 years ago, or amid the festival atmosphere of modern solstice celebrations. Rather less well-known, though, are the Victorian gatherings that saw huge crowds flocking to the Salisbury Plain site to enjoy the spectacle of masses of vibrant dahlias. Held between 1842 and 1845, these events combined the fun of a village fête with competitions offering prestigious prizes to particularly skilled gardeners, and attracted thousands of eager attendees. Despite their success, though, they ran for just four years, and today have faded from popular memory.
After coming across newspaper clippings mentioning the 1840s dahlia shows, English Heritage thought it would be interesting to share this lesser-known part of Stonehenge’s recent history – and in September they achieved their aim of bringing a dahlia festival back to the site, teaming up with historian Brian Edwards, who has carried out extensive research into the Victorian shows, to create a special three-day exhibition that took place at the end of the month. When I went to this event, dozens of flowers were on display inside the Stonehenge Visitor Centre, grown by local members of the National Dahlia Society and accompanied by information boards telling the story of the Victorian festivals. Meanwhile, a multicoloured meadow had blossomed around the reconstructed Neolithic houses that stand outside, at the heart of which was a giant floral sculpture of a trilithon, under which visitors in dahlia headdresses were excitedly posing for selfies. The modern exhibition was certainly a striking tribute to its Victorian predecessor, and during my trip Brian Edwards described what it would have been like to attend one of the 19th-century events.
‘Let’s imagine you’re an ordinary person heading to one of the festivals,’ he said. ‘You’ve walked up from Salisbury – a very early start – and as you move across the Plain you can see all the other people herding towards the stones. There are lots of other people on foot, people on horseback, people packed into carriages, gigs, and farm carts. These events were so popular that, a local newspaper reported at the time, on festival days it was not possible to get a carriage anywhere in Salisbury after noon. As you got nearer you would see canvas marquees – one of which offered formal dining for 160 people, the other housing the competition displays – and booths, and you would hear music from the band, probably popular favourites and patriotic airs.’ The smell of food would have added to the atmosphere, he added – though, while you might have expected the air also to be heavy with the fragrance of flowers, dahlia blooms generally do not have a scent.
Finding Eden and fighting extinction