Moth has weaved his magic and we now have this....
SILBURY FRONT PAGE
Silbury Hill
Silbury Hill in Wiltshire is Europe's greatest prehistoric mound and one of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage sites.
Built 4500 years ago and taking up to 18 million man hours to construct, it represents an effort that far outstrips Stonehenge and Avebury themselves. It is arguably the most spectacular legacy left by the ancient peoples of Britain.
Read more about Silbury Hill (LINK).
Silbury in peril
Each generation has a duty to care for our ancient heritage yet right now, under our watch, Silbury may be in peril as never before
In May 2000, it became known that an old excavation shaft has collapsed, leaving a gaping hole at the summit. This is now ringed by unsightly fencing. More internal collapses have taken place since. Nobody can say with authority when these cavities, supported only by porous chalk rubble, will get worse.
Since May 2000 there has been talking, investigation, and one shaft has been packed with polystyrene. And nothing else has been done. No date for repair has even been announced.
What can we do?
We at Heritage Action believe that enough is enough. If the Channel Tunnel can be built in 3 years, Silbury should have been made safe in far less time. We call upon English Heritage who are responsible for Silbury, to make what is happening public and to move to repair Silbury without any more delay.
Read more about our views (LINK).
Please help by signing our online worldwide petition (LINK).
Or print out and send this letter (LINK).
Or attend our 4th Anniversary Protest at Silbury in May 2004 (LINK). (Details to be added)
LINKED PAGE - MORE ABOUT SILBURY HILL
About Silbury Hill
There is much about Silbury that demands that it should be nurtured by the British public, beyond any other place.
To see Silbury for the first time is to understand. To suddenly become aware of its sheer size and unmistakable conical shape rising out of the placid and orderly Wiltshire countryside is an unforgettable experience. Such is the power of Silbury.
Silbury speaks, yet Silbury reveals nothing. Theories abound, excavations and surveys proliferate, but still, we in the modern world have no inkling of what Silbury is. A burial mound without a body? A temple to the stars? A symbolic deity?
Archaeology has revealed much about the past but Silbury is an ancient wonder that refuses to bow to modern science. Forty-five centuries ago it was built with passion, for a purpose, and more than that it will not share.
Instead it tantalises to the point of humiliation. It dominates a spacious flood plain. Yet it is built hard up against a natural hill that all but hides it from both the Ridgeway, at the edge of its builders' world, and Avebury Henge, their world's centre, just a mile away. But not quite. From both locations a mere sliver of its flattened summit is visible. Silbury, it appears, was inspired by modest megalomania.
As we speed through that small corner of Britain in our cars, our ancient ancestors speak to us directly as nowhere else, asserting that it is still their their country just as much as it is ours. Silbury, indisputably, proclaims itself to be a true wonder of the world.
Many people regard Silbury as the spiritual and emotional heart of Britain. Nobody who visits it can fail to be seduced by its mystery and power. It is our national treasure, worthy of the utmost care from each generation.
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