Hello Goffick,
I promised myself I wouldn't ever enter into any exchanges onSilbury again as usually end up feeling like an uninvited guest at a party but as you have expressed your personal oppinion then perhaps I can too.

I was out by Silbury on Saturday as well. I spent some time looking from the top of Waden Hill and deliberately didn't take any pictures as it felt a bit like photoographing a friend when they are under the weather. The HA pictures seem to have been taken from the road (or layby), from where I was looking the base of the hill, understandably, looked much like a building site. The top obviously had evidence of the the ongoing work and yes there is a discernable slump. The surfaces of the sides seemed to be a barren brown instead of green but I guess that's a winter thing (the ground was still frozen that morning). I didn't see any rubbish in the river - I'm not saying it wasn't there, I just didn't see it.

To comment any further probably is unhelpful but my 'personal view' is that yes, English Heritage may have taken too long to act, on that I cannot disagree but perhaps someone there knew what we are now finding out. Silbury CAN'T be properly repaired. By tunnelling into it nearly half a century ago and in the previous century, the 'tomb raiders' effectively destroyed the foundation of the structure - it is like a building with it's corner-stones removed. English Heritage can only repair and patch it up the best they can. The project-workers have probably risked life and limb at times during that process and their efforts should be praised rather than derided. The original knowledge and skills it took to build Silbury (which was apparently completely dry within before the tunnelling) have disappeared in the mists of time.

Silbury can never be as it was and will stand (which hopefully it will continue to do) as an indictment to the folly of the unwise 20th century, the most environmentally destructive hitherto.

best wishes as ever

June