dear Notd

I was a kid growing up in Swindon when Broome Manor - said posh houses were built. I've never really thought about the origins of those stones but I always presumed they'd come from a quarry. The ones at Coate would be too knobbly (technical term, that) and weathered for the sort of thing that appears at the entrance to housing estates and science parks nowadays. My partner's a town planner and tells me that there's quite a choice when it comes to installing fake standing stones - a number of quarries do this quite profitably. Pop standing stones are a bit of a pet hate of mine http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/browse.php?site_id=2604
but I must confess I can't help yearning for a dolmen in my front garden.

On the subject of Coate - I remember reading either on this board or elsewhere that the remaining stones had be carted off to pave Cricklade High Street.

On the subject of a TMA get together I'm up for a meet at Avebury since it's only a couple of hours from Cardiff for me. Not so handy for others though. I guess the best thing to do is to post up if you're intending to visit anywhere specific on the board and arrange one-off meets on an ad-hoc basis. I do like the idea of a megalithic friends (re)united though - especially after looking at the web profiles ;-)

Rgds,

RbD