Silbury Hill forum 180 room
Image by juswin
Silbury Hill

It's been Quangoed!

close
more_vert
nigelswift N
nigelswift Sep 21, 2003 12:06:25
Replying to Pete G

I read somewhere that the Open Aspect issue wasn’t intended and arose from insufficient detail on a zoning plan, but can't confirm that.

What annoys me is that it’s hard to imagine Skanska taking such a long time if they were working for a “proper” client, surely? Is there an agreed contract price or has it been left open-ended? This is EH, so let’s guess. Guessing is all we can do as all Silbury discussions in their minutes are barred from public release.

Also, IMHO they’ll come up with the obvious solution that was there from the start: pumping in a rock aggregate paste of similar bearing strength to fill all the voids. It’s totally tried and tested by Ove Arup on the collapsing limestone caverns under the West Midlands, and it’s really quick – Moth’s single week is about right as they have mobile units to make it on site. It’s totally un-intrusive since it simply replaces fresh air, not archaeology, and they could colour it red for the benefit of posterity. EH had a junket to Sweden to study a new method but that would be against there own guidelines which require the exclusive use of non-experimental methods, so the trip and the delay, both of which I paid for, along with their annual Xmas dinners, are a bloody cheek.

M Moth
Moth Sep 21, 2003 12:29:54
Replying to nigelswift

Ummm. I actually meant it should've taken em a week from when the problem was discovered to decide what to do.

They could've had another week to actually do it - I'm feeling generous :^)

love

Moth

P Pete G
Pete G Sep 21, 2003 12:36:32
Replying to nigelswift

The open aspect was at final appeal last week, Lord A was the only one allowed to lodge a complaint.
It has now gone to an inquiry.
Skanska have finished. EH are tendering the work out.
Dave Field was supposed to has his report finished by July but there is still no sign of it.
At the first demo one of the old locals suggested that we get a conveyor from a quarry and use it to take buckets of chalk to the top of the hill. It would take 2 days at most.
I dread to think what EH will do when they decide to fix the hill forever! Probably pour concrete into it!
PeteG
Ps. Just to show how clued up EH are, Amanda Chadburn (Inspector of ancient monuments and in charge of Silbury) got excited when she tried to tell us that she has found a brand new stone circle that no-one knows about near East kennet long barrow. We pointed out that Terry Meadon had published about it in his book and that Neil Mortimor had written about it in 3rd Stone and that AD Passmore wrote about it for WAM in the 1930's!