Oh come off it tsc – more essential? Of course protecting, monitoring and educating Joe about "little" sites is essential but Silbury, as the largest manmade structure in Europe, is in a monumental complexity class of it’s own and rightly deserves super protecting, monitoring and the better education of its present guardians – ie the present generation. Ditto Avebury. If new houses and disrespect (in the form of tat, fast-food outlets, climbing on stones, etc, etc etc) are allowed at these two iconic sites what chance do other little sites stand.

I go along however with those who rightly mention the destruction of Silbury for ‘academic’ reasons – it’s akin to the Japanese legitimizing their whaling activities for ‘research purposes’ – cobblers with a capital C!