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Evergreen Dazed E
Evergreen Dazed Aug 29, 2012 18:41:38
Replying to Littlestone

Littlestone wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
It's the little wooden steps provided to help you over the wire that make me chuckle. ;)
Doesn’t make me chuckle, any more than the hammers that were once given out at Stonehenge to take a bit of it home. Burn ‘em next time you see them and use the ash as some kind of tat offering.
I happen not to agree with people freely clambering all over the monument, I think any right minded person would understand the potential damage that could be caused if you multiply one persons desire to climb by thousands, especially given the hills recent history.
However.. some people will climb the hill, despite this. I honestly think that to maintain the atmosphere of the place we need to accept that it's going to happen and if you catch somebody doing it or read something on a forum, perhaps the best and only thing to be done is to try to persuade them not to do it again.

I know some here get very irate about this subject but really, what else can be done? Would you like to see some sort of fine imposed? It won't make any difference to somebody who is determined. It may put off the casual climber but how many in number are they?
A huge great horrible fence? Still won't stop it and just spoils it for everybody else.

I'm asking - What would you like to see done to fix this issue?

S Sanctuary
Sanctuary Aug 29, 2012 19:16:37
Replying to Evergreen Dazed

Evergreen Dazed wrote:
Littlestone wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
It's the little wooden steps provided to help you over the wire that make me chuckle. ;)
Doesn’t make me chuckle, any more than the hammers that were once given out at Stonehenge to take a bit of it home. Burn ‘em next time you see them and use the ash as some kind of tat offering.
I happen not to agree with people freely clambering all over the monument, I think any right minded person would understand the potential damage that could be caused if you multiply one persons desire to climb by thousands, especially given the hills recent history.
However.. some people will climb the hill, despite this. I honestly think that to maintain the atmosphere of the place we need to accept that it's going to happen and if you catch somebody doing it or read something on a forum, perhaps the best and only thing to be done is to try to persuade them not to do it again.

I know some here get very irate about this subject but really, what else can be done? Would you like to see some sort of fine imposed? It won't make any difference to somebody who is determined. It may put off the casual climber but how many in number are they?
A huge great horrible fence? Still won't stop it and just spoils it for everybody else.

I'm asking - What would you like to see done to fix this issue?

As long as some people, for commercial reasons, can gain access to the hill, then any objections to others climbing it falls flat, so it has to become the same for everyone unless for a scientific non commercial reason. I feel that is why people are not taken to court because too many precedants have already been created.

T thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 29, 2012 19:48:30
Replying to Evergreen Dazed

Evergreen Dazed wrote:
Littlestone wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
It's the little wooden steps provided to help you over the wire that make me chuckle. ;)
Doesn’t make me chuckle, any more than the hammers that were once given out at Stonehenge to take a bit of it home. Burn ‘em next time you see them and use the ash as some kind of tat offering.
I happen not to agree with people freely clambering all over the monument, I think any right minded person would understand the potential damage that could be caused if you multiply one persons desire to climb by thousands, especially given the hills recent history.
However.. some people will climb the hill, despite this. I honestly think that to maintain the atmosphere of the place we need to accept that it's going to happen and if you catch somebody doing it or read something on a forum, perhaps the best and only thing to be done is to try to persuade them not to do it again.

I know some here get very irate about this subject but really, what else can be done? Would you like to see some sort of fine imposed? It won't make any difference to somebody who is determined. It may put off the casual climber but how many in number are they?
A huge great horrible fence? Still won't stop it and just spoils it for everybody else.

I'm asking - What would you like to see done to fix this issue?

Bulldoze the hill flat. Nothing to climb then.

L Littlestone
Littlestone Aug 30, 2012 08:05:02
Replying to Evergreen Dazed

I'm asking - What would you like to see done to fix this issue?
Fixed? Probably never, there are too many plonkers in the world. Discouraged? Perhaps best achieved by not taking lightly comments, videos etc by those who still think it’s a bit of a chuckle and a bit of a lark (or their god-given right) to climb Silbury when it damn well isn’t - and to continue hammering that point home whenever and wherever necessary (regardless of some of the bollocks that gets thrown back at you from some quarters).

Reminder: it’s not so very long ago that English Heritage planned to leave a time capsule in Silbury – one hell of a harebrain/totally-against-acceptable-conservation-practices if ever there was one (and a plan supported by some stoneheads who should have known a darn-site better). That plan by English Heritage was effectively stopped by a letter from Lord Avebury to the press, not to mention the unwavering action of some here and several long debates on these pages (scroll back a couple of years to find them).

So ask not what I would do (I’ve spent 50 goddam years of my life saving a bit of the world’s heritage and deserve a break :-) ask yourself what you and your generation (if it’s a younger one) will do. Thankfully there are some younger voices of sanity even on this short thread so not all is lost.

S Sanctuary
Sanctuary Aug 30, 2012 08:26:53
Replying to Evergreen Dazed

Evergreen Dazed wrote:
Littlestone wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
It's the little wooden steps provided to help you over the wire that make me chuckle. ;)
Doesn’t make me chuckle, any more than the hammers that were once given out at Stonehenge to take a bit of it home. Burn ‘em next time you see them and use the ash as some kind of tat offering.
I happen not to agree with people freely clambering all over the monument, I think any right minded person would understand the potential damage that could be caused if you multiply one persons desire to climb by thousands, especially given the hills recent history.
However.. some people will climb the hill, despite this. I honestly think that to maintain the atmosphere of the place we need to accept that it's going to happen and if you catch somebody doing it or read something on a forum, perhaps the best and only thing to be done is to try to persuade them not to do it again.

I know some here get very irate about this subject but really, what else can be done? Would you like to see some sort of fine imposed? It won't make any difference to somebody who is determined. It may put off the casual climber but how many in number are they?
A huge great horrible fence? Still won't stop it and just spoils it for everybody else.

I'm asking - What would you like to see done to fix this issue?

Well IMO it has to be either totally excluded from the public ot opened up to them in a controlled way. We've been here before as LS correctly says, over and over in fact. When I was in my 20's there was a recognised 'path' that everyone used. It wasn't an official path but one that had been formed by the public and officialdom alike. What Bladup said and what I've said in the past is true...it is the official digs that have really put Silbury under threat, not Joe Public. When Prof Atkinson begun his dig he publically commented that the hill was showing no signs of wear and tear even after 4,000+ years.
I would love to walk to the top again but I'd like to be welcomed not warned off. The path, which can still be traced in parts, could be sympathetically re-instated with a surface that would be durable and maintained as and when. Don't charge people or it will only encourage the louts who won't pay anyway but still climb. If an official path is provided the remaining hill is very unlikely to suffer anymore damage...until the archaeo's decide to poke around inside again of course that is! Mind you, H&S would poke their noses in and have something to say about it I wouldn't wonder!