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"achievABLE STONEHENGE"

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Littlestone L
Littlestone Feb 11, 2006 19:14:47
Replying to PeterH

Bet you'd have preferred to have left Sutton Hoo still in 'earth's grip' Peter ;-)

But yes, I'd forgotten about Sutton Hoo - actually, it's the one place that springs to mind where the visitor centre <i>surpasses</i> the actual site.

I trekked out to see the Sutton Hoo barrows one scorching hot day a couple of years ago - it's about half an hour there and back and there's no shade and no cover and I nearly fainted from the heat! Other than a few mounds in a field that's it. The visitor centre by comparison has an audio-video room where you can hear Old English being spoken; see a reconstruction of part of the boat and its interior; see both replicas and some of the original objects found within the barrow; take in various displays (a great one that I remember went into some detail on the superb quality of Anglo-Saxon steel - they'd developed the folded steel technique some six hundred years before Japanese swordsmiths managed it) and after all that I went for a nice cold drink in the adjacent NT restaurant.

Sutton Hoo is not the Valley of the Kings (which is still worthwhile slogging out to see with or without a visitor centre). I'd say Stonehenge falls somewhere between the two. Every site is different and probably requires a different approach :-)

N nigelswift
nigelswift Feb 12, 2006 08:49:03
Replying to Littlestone

"Every site is different and probably requires a different approach"

I agree. And perhaps the approach should also reflect the times. At this time, and for the foreseeable future, when we're overdue an economic downturn, I think Achievable Stonehenge should have great regard to financial moderation (without allowing Stonehenge to suffer, obviously).

As Mrs T.'s greatest adversary, I do nevertheless wonder whether a big element of private enterprise (subject to regulation and a decent rent) might not deliver many of the best services - extending for instance to parking, retail, food, security and transport to the stones.

To grant planning permission is to create a very valuable asset out of nothing. To get a piece of that asset, private firms might be persuaded to pay a premium in exchange for a lease to run their food or retail operation - in other words, private enterprise would pay not only to construct their own food outlet but would also provide the money for building the interpretation centre.

I feel the further away from £60 million and the closer to zero the scheme can get, the more attractive and achievable Achievable Stonehenge will appear.