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tjj wrote:
Known by most people as the Swindon Stone
Stukeley described it as the "Diamond Stone"....it only gets called The Swindon Stone because of it's proximity to the Swindon approach road...A 4361.....(and no doubt the good yeomen of Swindon riding the tailcoats of the circle's reputation as a "claim to fame").How sad a beautiful stone like this is so close to heavy traffic....it can't do it any good at all...perhaps Swindon have "adopted" this stone and financially care for it's upkeep(and safety)...which then would indeed merit it being called after the city.
Never mind pro/anti cafes, shops and toilets etc campaigns....why not petition for a ringroad to take (major)traffic away from this ancient monument to ensure it lasts another 4000 or so years.

Resonox wrote:
Never mind pro/anti cafes, shops and toilets etc campaigns....why not petition for a ringroad to take (major)traffic away from this ancient monument to ensure it lasts another 4000 or so years.
Why not! Because a ring road would do massive, irreparable damage to the Wiltshire landscape and the surrounding archaeology - the Avebury World Heritage site is quite big after all. I agree its not ideal to have the road going through the stone circle though in its historical context it is only during the past 50/60 years that the lorries and untenable amounts of traffic have thundered through. There is also the A4 running between Silbury and WKLB with frequent accidents on that stretch of road because people drive too fast. At least they (mostly) slow down through Avebury.

I don't have an alternative solution, sorry.

Ah, well done Mr R – I did wonder if Stukeley had used it. Wonder if John Aubrey did as well - that would take it back to the 17th century at least.