Good point to raise Littlestone, as you say we musn't get bogged in detail, but as this is interesting - the figures by the way are 450,000 estimated pa to Avebury at present, and the visitors to the AK museum were in 1997 fewer than the 14,000 that entered the Great Barn (Museum of Rural Life) I was told it was just over half that figure but I am not certain that was accurate.

The visitors to the museum at Avebury when I was a volunteer ranged from a % entered because it was raining to some returning having seen Avebury and specifically came back to visit the museum. The average visitor stay at Stonehenge at present is less than 30 minutes - and it is EH's aim to increase that not just by forcing people through the visitor centre but using the land train, both of which I feel is wrong as the majority of people that visit Avebury do not even bother to visit WKLB let alone expand out into the surrounds. Taking this point together with the fact that entry numbers to the museums at Avebury, Devizes, and Salisbury have fallen drastically over the last decade - we must question what the public want from museums in the future, and whilst I have no objection (in truth it is my favourite solution) to the Wiltshire Heritage Museum moving to Stonehenge, what is it that we should tell the public when they get there. The trouble most museums find when forcing people through somewhere is the visitors spend all their time in the shop and not looking at the exhibits - that is a real sdanger at Stonehenge despite what EH says.

Sorry this is jumbled as I am in a dash.

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