Stonehenge and its Environs

Two new buildings will be built near Stonehenge, after plans for a pair of learning centres were given the go-ahead.

Campaigners have vowed to continue their fight against a proposed road tunnel on the A303 near Stonehenge.

More info :

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-68348523

Campaigners have lost a High Court challenge against renewed plans to build a road tunnel near Stonehenge.

Sadly more info :

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-68338484

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-67681822
Never ending story. Will somebody please get a grip and sort out this endless pit of money for lawyers and the legal hangers on. Disgraceful.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-66864254
The story that just keeps on keeping on.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-66843922

theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/07/stonehenge-exhibition-british-museum

The aim of the exhibition is to set Stonehenge into the context of an era during which there was great social and technological change. It will include the Nebra sky disc on loan from Halle Museum in Germany.

The government’s decision to approve the Stonehenge tunnel has been quashed following a judicial review.

The government will now need to consider what to do next.

Full text of the court’s judgment here:

stonehengealliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Save-Stonehenge-judgment-FINAL-CO-4844-2020-30-07-2021.pdf

A tourism boss has called for Stonehenge to be returned to Wales – so it can become an attraction for millions of visitors.

More info :

itv.com/news/wales/2021-03-10/give-stonehenge-back-calls-for-ancient-stone-circle-to-be-returned-to-wales

Exclusive: experts also find neolithic pottery and mysterious C-shaped enclosure at A303 excavation site

More info :

theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/04/archaeologist-unearth-bronze-age-graves-stonehenge-a303-tunnel-site

It has been bitterly debated for the past three decades, but the latest plans to partly bury the A303 in a tunnel beside Stonehenge may this week finally get approval from transport secretary Grant Shapps.

The £2.4bn scheme – which will see the traffic-choked road to the west country widened into a dual carriageway near the ancient site before shooting down a two-mile tunnel – has pitted archaeologists, local campaigners and even the nation’s druids against the combined might of Highways England, English Heritage and the National Trust.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/07/druids-face-defeat-as-bulldozers-get-set-for-stonehenge-bypass

Spot the howler in the headline!

Archaeologists have discovered a ring of prehistoric shafts, dug thousands of years ago near Stonehenge.

Fieldwork has revealed evidence of a 1.2 mile (2km) wide circle of large shafts measuring more than 10m in diameter and 5m in depth.

They surround the ancient settlement of Durrington Walls, two miles (3km) from Stonehenge.

Tests suggest the ground works are Neolithic and were excavated more than 4,500 years ago.

Experts believe the 20 or more shafts may have served as a boundary to a sacred area connected to the henge.

A team of academics from the universities of St Andrews, Birmingham, Warwick, Glasgow and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David worked on the project

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53132567

intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue55/4/index.html

Plans to dig a two-mile (3.2km) road tunnel near Stonehenge have been given the go ahead by the chancellor.

The A303, which often suffers from severe congestion, currently passes within a few hundred metres of the ancient monument.

The plan is to build a dual carriageway alternative out of sight of the World Heritage site but it is opposed by some archaeologists and environmentalists.

Rishi Sunak told the commons: “This government’s going to get it done.”

More: bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-51838402

Britain’s favourite monument is stuck in the middle of a bad-tempered row over road traffic. By Charlotte Higgins

Published: 06:00 Friday, 08 February 2019

Stonehenge, with the possible exception of Big Ben, is Britain’s most recognisable monument. As a symbol of the nation’s antiquity, it is our Parthenon, our pyramids – although, admittedly, less impressive. Neil MacGregor, the former director of the British Museum, recalls that when he took a group of Egyptian archaeologists to see it, they were baffled by our national devotion to the stones, which, compared to the refined surfaces of the pyramids, seemed to them like something hastily thrown up over a weekend.

More: theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/08/the-battle-for-the-future-of-stonehenge?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

“They are some of the oldest photographs ever taken of the ancient Stonehenge landmark and the book in which they are bound dates back to 1867. It’s a chronicle which until now has been lost in the archives of the national mapping agency Ordnance Survey.....”

ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/2018/06/150-year-old-stonehenge-photos-unearthed-summer-solstice

This weekend’s EH event:

theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/09/stonehenge-party-building-secrets-unearthed?CMP=share_btn_fb

A team of archaeologists believe they may have discovered a spot where some of the architects of Stonehenge gathered and camped.

The team have been investigating a causewayed enclosure – these are thought to be ancient meeting places or centres of trade – on army land at Larkhill close to Stonehenge.

They found an alignment of posts that matches the orientation of the circle at Stonehenge, leading to the theory that Larkhill could have been some sort of blueprint for the temple.

Si Cleggett, of Wessex Archaeology, conceded it was possible to suggest that any evidence of prehistoric settlement could be connected to the creation of Stonehenge.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/02/archaeologists-architects-camp-stonehenge-larkhill

For those who like to walk and cycle and it’s free...

The new Permissive Path at Stonehenge is finally open after a three-year delay waiting for the grass to grow strong enough to bear the weight of a few cyclists and pedestrians.
A group of pedestrians and cyclists from surrounding villages joined together to mark the re-opening of the route, accompanied by former Wiltshire councillor Ian West. He campaigned strongly against English Heritage for the path to be re-opened as specified in a planning agreement.
The right of way passes within a few feet of the Heal Stone and gives free access to the public. The path allows the public to use the old A344 road and the new path from Airman’s Corner roundabout to the A303 free of charge and without any passes.
“It allows you to take some beautiful photographs without having to have a local residents’ pass and then booking your appointment time along with other tourists,” said a jubilant Mr West. “The path opens up the old connection between Shrewton and West Amesbury, if you are brave enough to cross the A303, although the authorities deem it to be a safe crossing,” he added.
Horses are not permitted on the new path, which is part of the old road now grassed over, but they can go from the roundabout to By-Way 12, which passes close to the stones, to Larkhill in one direction and Druids Lodge in the other, free of charge and without passes. This opens up the access to the by-way and allows travel in both directions on horseback.

yourvalleynews.co.uk/frontpage-news/new-stonehenge-path-open-last/

In his letter to The Times (Saturday, 16 September) Mike Pitts, Editor of the British Archaeological magazine, writes –

theheritagetrust.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/we-will-learn-more-about-stonehenge/

A tunnel past Stonehenge will be dug largely along the route of the existing A303, the government has announced.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-41227359

“The issue is whether Stonehenge exists to provide a tourist experience, or whether it is something more significant, both historically and spiritually,” he says. “It has stood there for 4,500 years. And up to now, no one’s thought of injecting enormous quantities of concrete into the landscape and permanently disfiguring it.”

theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/25/stonehenge-tunnel-desecration-prehistoric-traffic-jams

Lots of paperwork here:
highwaysengland.citizenspace.com/cip/a303-stonehenge/

A tunnel is to be built under Stonehenge under plans announced by ministers, in a move that will reignite the controversy over improving major roads around the ancient site.

Chris Grayling said he was taking a “big decision” to transform the A303, one of the main arteries to the south-west and a notorious bottleneck for lorries and holidaymakers, as part of a £2bn investment.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/12/stonehenge-a303-tunnel-chris-grayling-world-heritage-site?CMP=share_btn_tw

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-35322444

Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust posted the above news link on FB this morning with the following statement:

“Two years ago today, the government lost its credibility here when, in a moment of pre election spin it pledged that a tunnel should be ploughed through the Stonehenge landscape so that public can no longer slow traffic down to see them, so that people in the West Country will vote for them and reap huge! benefits from saving 30 mins traffic delays on a Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Bank holidays and so that over the coming century arguably one of the most significant Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape in Europe if not the World will be desecrated and our past consigned to the past. Once a concrete structure replaces a cubic kilometre of chalk there is no return, the chalk lands and natural aquifers will be altered, water flows will change and unless maintained for perpetuity, once the tunnel comes to the end of its 125yr life design, it will become the biggest man made headache for future generations to deal with. If by some pure act of vandalism the Government manage to continue to deliver this outrageous ill conceived scheme, they and those who support it will be named, published and go down in history as the vandals who destroyed Stonehenge and Britain’s heritage.
The Trust will continue to support a southern bypass reroute that provides a sustainable long term solution for South Wiltshire, the living, as well as the dead. This alternative solution would do what the tunnel won’t do and open up fully the Stonehenge Landscape without destroying it. We hope when a public consultation is eventually launched, common sense prevails and credibility is restored.”

salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/14411283.Booze_banned_from_summer_solstice_at_Stonehenge_and___15_parking_charge_confirmed/?ref=fbshr

BOOZE will be banned from summer solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, English Heritage has confirmed.
And drivers will have to fork out £15 to park at the Stones, in a bid to reduce the number of cars at the event.
When the plans were unveiled in February it led to a “pay to pray policy” accusation from senior druid King Arthur Pendragon.
Bosses at Stonehenge say the reason behind introducing a £15 parking charge is encourage more people to car share and use public transport.
They also believe that banning alcohol will “reduce the risk to those attending and to the monument itself”. Drinking will not be allowed anywhere in the monument field.

Part of the reasons for the changes is the increase in numbers to Stonehenge for the summer solstice. In 2000, approximately 10,000 people attended while in 2014, the figure was close to 40,000. That same year, the stones were vandalised during both the summer and winter solstice celebrations.

Money raised from the new charges would go towards supporting £60,000 a year cost of maintaining the visitor centre car park. Kate Davies, Stonehenge’s General Manager, said: “Over the last 15 years we have seen a huge increase in the number of people celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge. We have limited parking facilities and we believe the parking charge will encourage more people to car share or travel by bus.

“We’ve also seen more drunken and disrespectful behaviour. Something has to be done or we risk losing what makes solstice at Stonehenge so special.
“These changes will help us to better look after both those attending the solstice and the ancient monument itself.
“Since we proposed these changes, we’ve had a lot of support from the public and from across all the different groups who help to organise the solstice celebrations.”

English Heritage also said it was mindful of how alcohol was used by some druids during ceremonial practice and would be consulting with the community on how moderate use of ritual alcohol.

ibtimes.co.uk/britains-superhenge-massive-4500-year-old-stone-monoliths-may-be-largest-prehistoric-monument-1518829

amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004AB01MW/ref=gb1h_img_c-2_7727_6704119f?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_t=701&pf_rd_s=center-new-2&pf_rd_r=1CC36S43Q5VRV383AF1J&pf_rd_i=20&pf_rd_p=643587727

It has been a place of pilgrimage for many centuries and a tourist attraction probably since Roman times.

But a new exhibition opening at Stonehenge on Friday tells the fascinating story of how the monument developed from a crumbling curiosity in Victorian times to one of the world’s most visited sites, drawing in more than 1 million people a year.

Over the past 15 years, the archeologist, broadcaster and writer, Julian Richards, has collected hundreds of books, souvenirs, postcards and pictures related to the prehistoric monument.

His “Stonehengiana” – as he terms it – ranges from lurid pink pottery adorned with a picture of the great circle to the earliest guidebooks with lovely black and white illustrations but some, frankly, odd conclusions about the history of the site.

The exhibition, called Wish You Were Here, also reveals how 20th century advertisers used the image of Stonehenge to sell everything from cars to beer and the fascination rock bands and comic writers have with the ancient stones.........

Keep reading on the link below...

theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/30/from-druidical-erection-to-spinal-tap-a-history-of-stonehenge-as-tourist-site

A planning application to provide more parking spaces and resurface the overflow car park at Stonehenge is to go before the local authority.

English Heritage said the work would create about 25 additional coach parking spaces and ensure high volumes of visitors can park in wet weather.

People had complained of inadequate transport facilities at the site when a new £27m visitor centre opened in 2014.

A shuttle bus scheme had proven unable to cope with the influx of visitors.

English Heritage said that over the course of the year it had looked at areas of the visitor experience that “need to be improved” and is now “taking steps to address them”.........

More to be found here: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-30708526

“Archaeologists working on a site near Stonehenge say they have found an untouched 6,000-year-old encampment which “could rewrite British history”.

David Jacques, from the University of Buckingham, made the discovery at Blick Mead in October, and said the carbon dating results had just been confirmed.

But he also raised concerns about possible damage to the site over plans to build a road tunnel past Stonehenge.

The Department of Transport said it would “consult before any building”.

The Blick Mead site is about 1.5 miles (2.4km) from Stonehenge and archaeologists said “scientifically tested charcoal” dug up from the site had “revealed that it dated from around 4000 BC”. ”

More on the BBC website here...

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-30540914

An excellent analysis by Kate Fielden(CPRE) in the Ecologist on that fraught subject of the tunnel by Stonehenge.

The government’s plans to tunnel the A303 under the Stonehenge World Heritage Site has one grievous flaw, writes Kate Fielden. The tunnel is too short, so huge portals and graded junctions at both ends would lie entirely within the WHS causing huge damage to landscape and wipe out archaeological remains...

See the article at:

theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2670978/stonehenge_world_heritage_site_at_risk_from_a303_tunnel_plans.html

Some of the most high status pieces of prehistoric ‘bling’, prized by Stonehenge’s Bronze Age social elite, are likely to have been made by children, according to new research.

An analysis of objects, found near the ancient stone circle, shows that the ultra-fine craftwork involved such tiny components that only children or myopic (short-sighted) adults could have made them.

The research into the human eyesight optics of micro-gold-working in the Bronze Age has considerable implications for more fully understanding the nature of society in Western Europe some 4000 years ago.

“The very finest gold work involved the making and positioning of literally tens of thousands of tiny individually-made components, each around a millimetre long and around a fifth of a millimetre wide,” said David Dawson, Director of the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes where the world’s finest prehistoric micro-gold working achievements are on display as part of a major permanent exhibition of Bronze Age gold treasures.

“Only children and teenagers, and those adults who had become myopic naturally or due to the nature of their work as children, would have been able to create and manufacture such tiny objects,” said a leading authority on the optics of the human eye, Ronald Rabbetts, who has been assessing the human eyesight implications of Bronze Age micro-gold-working – implications that are examined in detail in a BBC Two documentary ‘Operation Stonehenge’, this evening, Thursday.
“The implication is that there would almost certainly have been a small section of the Bronze Age artisan class who, often as a result of their childhood work, were myopic for their adult life. They would therefore have been unable to do any other work apart from the making of tiny artefacts and would have had to be supported by the community at large,” he said.

The Stonehenge area object with the largest number of ultra-small gold components is a dagger made in around 1900 BC – and now on display in Devizes’ Wiltshire Museum. Crafted more than 1100 years before the invention of the first magnifying glass, the dagger’s 12 centimetre long handle was adorned with up to 140,000 tiny gold studs – each around a millimetre long and around 0.2 of a millimetre in diameter. Even the heads of each stud are just a third of a millimetre wide. They were set, with great manual dexterity and remarkable skill, into the surface of the wooden dagger handle – with more than a thousand studs neatly embedded in each square centimetre.

The prehistoric gold micro-working process appears to have had at least four stages. First, Bronze Age craftsmen manufactured lengths of extremely fine gold wire, almost as fine as a human hair. Then they flattened the end of a piece of wire to create the first stud-head – and cut the wire with a very sharp flint or obsidian razor a mere millimetre below the head. This delicate procedure was then repeated literarily tens of thousands of times – to decorate just one dagger handle! Next, a tiny bronze awl with an extremely fine point was used to create minute holes in the dagger handle in which to position the studs. Then a thin layer of tree resin was rubbed over the surface as an adhesive to keep the studs in place.

Each stud was then carefully placed into its miniscule hole – probably with the help of a very fine pair of bone or wooden tweezers, because the studs are too small to have been placed in position directly by the artisan’s fingers.

“We estimate that the entire operation – wire manufacture, stud-making, hole-making, resin pasting and stud positioning – would have taken at least 2500 hours to complete,” said David Dawson.

The dagger – and another probably less decorated similar weapon found with it – are believed to be the only such ultra-fine micro-worked artefacts to have survived from the prehistoric period anywhere in the world. But the high level of skill involved suggests that it was not a one-off creation, but was instead probably a product of a wider micro-gold-working tradition in at least part of Bronze Age western Europe. It is likely that the tradition was centred in Brittany in what is now western France.

It is also conceivable that Bronze Age craftsmen used comparable micro-working skills to create ultra-fine textiles.

The gold-studded daggers were discovered in 1808 inside Bush Barrow, a substantial Bronze Age burial mound, located almost a thousand metres from Stonehenge. However, it is only now that the eyesight and other human implications of its manufacture have been examined in detail.

independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/stonehenges-most-intricate-archaeological-finds-were-probably-made-by-children-9738993.html

The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, is a four-year collaboration between a British team and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Austria that has produced the first detailed underground survey of the area surrounding Stonehenge, totaling more than four square miles. The results are astonishing. The researchers have found buried evidence of more than 15 previously unknown or poorly understood late Neolithic monuments: henges, barrows, segmented ditches, pits.

smithsonianmag.com/history/what-lies-beneath-Stonehenge-180952437/?page=1&no-ist

Another housing development!

Five Neolithic houses have been recreated at Stonehenge to reveal how the ancient monument’s builders would have lived 4,500 years ago.

The single-room, 5m (16ft) wide homes made of chalk and straw daub and wheat-thatching, are based on archaeological remains at nearby Durrington Walls.

Susan Greaney, from English Heritage, said the houses are the result of “archaeological evidence, educated guess work, and lots of physical work.”

The houses open to the public, later.

The “bright and airy” Neolithic homes are closely based on archaeological remains of houses, discovered just over a mile away from Stonehenge.

Dated to about the same time as the large sarsen stones were being erected, English Heritage said experts believe they may have housed the people involved with constructing the monument.

Excavations at Durrington Walls, not only uncovered the floors of houses but stake holes where walls had once stood – providing “valuable evidence” to their size and layout.

“We know for example, that each house contained a hearth and that puddled chalk was used to make the floor,” said a spokesman for English Heritage.

“And far from being dark and primitive, the homes were incredibly bright and airy spaces with white chalk walls and floors designed to reflect sunlight and capture the heat from the fire.”

‘Labour of love‘

Using authentic local materials including 20 tonnes of chalk, 5,000 rods of hazel and three tonnes of wheat straw, it has taken a team of 60 volunteers five months to re-create the homes.

Susan Greaney, a historian at English Heritage, said it had been a “labour of love” and an “incredible learning experience” for the volunteers.

“One of the things we’re trying to do at Stonehenge is to re-connect the ancient stones with the people that lived and worked in the surrounding landscape,” she said.

“Now visitors can step through the door of these houses and get a real sense of what everyday life might have been like when Stonehenge was built. ”

They are furnished with replica Neolithic axes, pottery and other artefacts.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-27656212

The Stonehenge Neolithic Houses – Latest pictures and background links

An English Heritage experimental archaeology project to build houses from 2500 BC at Stonehenge.

Follow their blog on twitter for updates! – twitter.com/NeolithicHouses

and get the whole story on wordpress – neolithichouses.wordpress.com/

Not sure if anyone has mentioned these, fancy having to go to Malta for the news.....

team of volunteers are recreating a piece of Neolithic history at Stonehenge in the UK.
They are building five houses to give an authentic glimpse of life at the time the World Heritage Site was constructed.
The 60-strong team – which includes a lawyer, teachers and a tour guide – are weaving hundreds of hazel rods through the main supporting stakes and thatching the roofs with hand-knotted wheat straw. Later, the walls will be covered with a daub of chalk, straw and water.
When completed in April, the three-month project will have used 20 tons of chalk as well as 5,000 rods of hazel and three tons of wheat straw.
The volunteers have also helped in the collection of the coppiced hazel, in some cases using prehistoric-style tools such as flint axes.
The houses, which are being constructed outside the newly-opened visitor centre, are closely based on the remains of Neolithic houses discovered in 2006 and 2007 just a mile from Stonehenge at Durrington Walls.
Radiocarbon dates have shown that these buildings dated from around the same time the large sarsen stones were being put up at Stonehenge, in approximately 2500BC.
Experts believe the original occupants might have been involved with the construction of, and celebrations at Stonehenge.
Remains of houses from the late Neolithic period are extremely rare in the British Isles, with others known only from Orkney and at a handful of other locations.
Those found at Durrington were remarkably well preserved and the excavation uncovered the floors of the houses and the stakeholes where the walls once stood, and provided valuable archaeological evidence for the size and layout of the recreated huts.
Each house contained a hearth. Puddled chalk was used to make the floor and the spacing of the upright stakes suggest that hazel of about seven year growth was used to weave the walls.
Susan Greaney, senior properties historian at English Heritage, said: “One of the things we’re trying to do at Stonehenge is to reconnect the ancient stones with the people that lived and worked in the surrounding landscape.
“We hope these houses will give visitors a real insight into what life was like at the time Stonehenge was built.
“They are the product of archaeological evidence, educated guess work, and a lot of hard physical work.”
English Heritage is currently looking for volunteers to work inside the completed houses which will be furnished with replica Neolithic artefacts and lit with fires.

timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140321/world/Neolithic-homes-at-Stonehenge.511549

What they have discovered sheds remarkable new light on the people who, some 5500 years ago, were building the great ritual monuments of what would become the sacred landscape of Stonehenge.

A leading forensic specialist has also used that prehistoric Briton’s skull to produce the most life-like, and arguably the most accurate, reconstruction of a specific individual’s face from British prehistory.

The new research gives a rare glimpse into upper class life back in the Neolithic.

Five and a half millennia ago, he was almost certainly a very prominent and powerful individual – and he is about to be thrust into the limelight once again. For his is the prehistoric face that will welcome literally millions of visitors from around the world to English Heritage’s new Stonehenge visitor centre after it opens tomorrow, Wednesday. The organisation estimates that around 1.2 million tourists from dozens of countries will ‘meet’ him as they explore the new visitor centre over the next 12 months.

The new scientific research has revealed, to an unprecedented degree, who this ‘face of prehistory’ really was.

He was born around 5500 years ago, well to the west or north-west of the Stonehenge area, probably in Wales (but conceivably in Devon or Brittany)

Aged two, he was taken east, presumably by his parents, to an area of chalk geology – probably Wiltshire (around the area that would, 500 years later, become the site of early Stonehenge). However, aged 9, he then moved back to the west (potentially to the area where he had been born) – and then, aged 11, he moved back east once more (again, potentially to the Stonehenge area).

Aged 12, 14 and 15, he travelled back and forth between east and west for short durations and at increased frequency. Scientists, analysing successive layers of the enamel in his teeth, have been able to work all this out by analysing the isotopic values of the chemical elements strontium (which changed according to underlying geology) and oxygen which reflected the sources of his drinking water.

He grew into a taller than average man, reaching an adult height of 172 centimetres. In Neolithic Britain, the average height for adult males was 165 centimetres, while in Britain today it is 176. He probably weighed around 76 kilos (12 stone) and had fairly slender build. Throughout his life, he seems to have consumed a much less coarse diet than was normal at the time . His teeth show much lighter wear than many other examples from the Neolithic. He also had a much higher percentage of meat and dairy produce in his diet than would probably have been normal at the time.

By analysing nitrogen isotope levels in his teeth, a scientific team at the University of Southampton, led by archaeologist Dr Alistair Pike, have worked out that he obtained 80-90% of his protein from animals – probably mainly cattle, sheep and deer.

A detailed osteological examination of his skeleton, carried out by English Heritage scientist, Dr Simon Mays, has revealed that he probably led a relatively peaceful life. The only visible injuries showed that he had damaged a knee ligament and torn a back thigh muscle – both injuries, potentially sustained at the same time, that would have put him out of action for no more than a few weeks.

There is also no evidence of severe illness – and an examination of hypoplasia (tooth enamel deformation) levels suggest that at least his childhood was free of nutritional stress or severe disease. Hypoplasia provides a record of stress through a person’s childhood and early teenage years.

But he seems to have died relatively young, probably in his late 20s or 30s. At present it is not known what caused his death.

However, he was probably given an impressive funeral – and certainly buried in a ritually very important location.

Initially his body was almost certainly covered by a turf mound but some years or decades later, this mound was massively enlarged to form a very substantial mausoleum – one of the grandest known from Neolithic Britain. He was the only individual buried there during his era – although a thousand or more years later, several more people were interred in less prominent locations within the monument.

This great mausoleum – 83 metres long and several metres high – was treated with substantial respect throughout most of prehistory – and can still be seen today some one and half miles west of Stonehenge. Fifteen hundred years after his death, his tomb became the key monument in a new cemetery for the Stonehenge elites of the early Bronze Age.

All the new evidence combines to suggest that he was a very important individual – a prominent member of the early Neolithic elite.

The research into his life has yielded a number of fascinating new revelations about that period of British prehistory.

First of all, it hints at the degree to which society was stratified by this time in prehistory. Far from being an egalitarian society, as many have tended to think, the evidence points in the opposite direction. Most early Neolithic people were not given such grand mausolea . The type of monument which was constructed over his grave (known to archaeologists as a long barrow) was primarily a place of ritual, not just a place associated with burial. By having one erected over him, he was being given a very special honour.

Of the 350 such long barrows known in Britain, it is estimated that 50% had no burials in them at all, that a further 25% had just one person buried in them – and that most of the remaining quarter had between five and 15 buried in each of them.

Secondly, it shows, arguably for the first time, that high social status in the early Neolithic was already a matter of heredity. The isotopic tests on the man’s teeth show quite clearly that his privileged high meat diet was already a key feature in his life during childhood.

Thirdly, the scientific investigation suggests that at least the elite of the period was associated with a very wide geographical area. In other words, they were not simply a local elite but, at the very least, a regional one. The fact that he seems to have moved back and forth between the west of Britain (probably Wales) and the southern chalklands (probably the Stonehenge area) every few years, at least during his childhood and teenage years, suggests that his family had important roles in both areas.

Given the ritual significance of the Stonehenge area, even at this early stage, it is possible that he and his father and other ancestors before him had been hereditary tribal or even conceivably pan-tribal priests or shamans in a possibly semi-nomadic society. It is also likely that such people also played roles in the secular governance of emerging political entities at the time.

independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/before-stonehenge--did-this-man-lord-it-over-wiltshires-sacred-landscape-9008683.html

HUNDREDS of treasures from the golden age of Stonehenge went on permanent display this week for the first time.

Worth a visit I think.

More here:
gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/towns/chippenhamheadlines/10741875.New_Devizes_galleries_celebrate_Stonehenge___s_gold_rush/

The Irish Independent reports that -

“A dig at the Blick Mead site, just a mile from Stonehenge, near Amesbury, Wiltshire, led to the discovery of a charred toad’s leg alongside small fish vertebrate bones of trout or salmon as well as burnt aurochs’ bones (the predecessor of cows).

“According to the researchers from the University of Buckingham, the find, which dates back to between 6250BC and 7596BC, is the earliest evidence of a cooked toad or frog anywhere in the world and 8,000 years earlier than the French and even before the Czechs who recently claimed it as a traditional dish.”

More here – independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/toads-leg-found-at-blick-mead-dig-29661413.html

English Heritage announced today that the first phase of the long-awaited improvements to the setting and visitor experience of Stonehenge will be launched to the public on Wednesday, December 18.

Visitors will be welcomed at a new visitor building, located 2.1km (1.5 miles) to the west of Stonehenge.

For the first time ever at the site, they will be able to learn more about this complex monument in a stunning, museum-quality permanent exhibition curated by English Heritage experts.

A 360-degree virtual, immersive experience will let visitors ‘stand in the stones’ before they enter a gallery presenting the facts and theories surrounding the monument through various displays and nearly 300 prehistoric artefacts.

The archaeological finds on display are on loan from the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, and the Duckworth Collection, University of Cambridge. All were found inside the World Heritage Site and many are on public display for the first time.

Set in Stone? How our ancestors saw Stonehenge, will be the first special temporary exhibition. It will chart more than 800 years of ideas and debate – from 12th-century legends to radiocarbon dating reports in the 1950s – on who built Stonehenge and when, and features objects on loan from many national museums.

Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage, said: “English Heritage announced today that the first phase of the long-awaited improvements to the setting and visitor experience of Stonehenge will be launched to the public on Wednesday, December 18.

Visitors will be welcomed at a new visitor building, located 2.1km (1.5 miles) to the west of Stonehenge.

For the first time ever at the site, they will be able to learn more about this complex monument in a stunning, museum-quality permanent exhibition curated by English Heritage experts.

A 360-degree virtual, immersive experience will let visitors ‘stand in the stones’ before they enter a gallery presenting the facts and theories surrounding the monument through various displays and nearly 300 prehistoric artefacts.

The archaeological finds on display are on loan from the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, and the Duckworth Collection, University of Cambridge. All were found inside the World Heritage Site and many are on public display for the first time.

Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage, said: “This world famous monument, perpetually described as a mystery, finally has a place in which to tell its story.

“The exhibition will change the way people experience and think about Stonehenge forever – beyond the clichés and towards a meaningful inquiry into an extraordinary human achievement in the distant past. It will put at its centre the individuals associated with its creation and use, and I am very proud with what we have to unveil to the world in December.”

Visitors will have a heightened sense of anticipation when they arrive at the visitor building as Stonehenge is not immediately visible; it will only emerge slowly on the horizon during the 10-minute shuttle ride to the monument.

At the stones, there will be opportunities to walk and explore the surroundings of the monument including the Avenue, Stonehenge’s ancient processional approach, guided by new interpretation panels specially developed with the National Trust. The Avenue will have been reconnected to the stone circle after being severed by the A344 road for centuries, the whole area will be free of traffic, and newly sown grass will be establishing on the former route of the road.

The new visitor building, designed by leading practice Denton Corker Marshall, is reaching the final stages of construction and interior fit out has started. It is a low key structure featuring many enhancements over what is on offer now, including:

• an environmentally sensitive and fully accessible building with a high BREEAM rating (the industry standard assessment system for sustainable building design and construction). There are a number of green features such as an open loop ground source heating system, mixed mode ventilation and a treatment system for recycling grey water;
• dedicated education space;
• a bright and spacious café with indoor and outdoor seating for up to 260;
• a bigger shop;
• a visitors’ car park with space for 500 vehicles and 30 coaches;
• ample toilets, including disabled toilets;
• a pre-booked timed ticket system to help minimise queues and avoid over-crowdedness at peak times; and
• new, downloadable and hand held free audio guides in 10 languages

In Easter 2014, visitors can look forward to the opening of a group of reconstructed Neolithic houses. The Neolithic houses are the highlight of the outdoor gallery and will be built from January 2014 onwards by volunteers based on houses where the builders of Stonehenge may have lived, complete with furniture and fittings.

The final phase of the project – the restoration of the landscape around Stonehenge – will be completed in the summer of 2014. Work to demolish the existing facilities and return the area to grass will begin immediately after the new visitor centre has opened and will continue for a few months.

The £27-million Stonehenge Environmental Improvements Programme is the largest capital project ever undertaken by English Heritage.

It is financed almost entirely by Heritage Lottery Fund money (£10m), English Heritage commercial income and philanthropic donations including significant gifts from the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Linbury Trust and the Wolfson Foundation.

From December 18, entrance to Stonehenge will be managed through timed tickets and advance booking is strongly recommended. Online booking opens on December 2 at www.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehenge

gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/headlines/10706335._/

An ancient ceremonial pathway linking Stonehenge and the nearby River Avon has been unearthed during work to close the road alongside the monument.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-24077080

A proposal to display human remains at Stonehenge has been endorsed by English Heritage governors, despite a druid’s legal challenge.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-24055516

Plans have been unveiled for another Stonehenge stone circle to be built in Wiltshire using different-coloured stones from around the world.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-23094202

Work to permanently close a main road running alongside Stonehenge has started.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-23026522

“Six Saxon skeletons dating back more than 1,000 years and round barrows dating back to the Bronze Age 4,000 years ago have been discovered on a brownfield development site in Amesbury”

theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/skeletons-found-on-mansell-site

A druid leader is calling for fake, rather than real, human remains to be put on display at Stonehenge.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-22438232

A £27m project at Stonehenge to build a new visitor centre and close the road alongside the monument has begun.

The centre will replace existing buildings. After the closure of the A344, a shuttle service taking visitors to and from the stones will start.

The existing car and coach park next to Stonehenge will also be removed.

English Heritage said the work would “restore the dignity” of the stones’ setting and “minimise the intrusion of the modern world”.

The 3,500-year-old World Heritage site receives more than one million visitors a year.

English Heritage said the closure of the A344 would reunite the monument with The Avenue – its ancient processional approach. The stretch of road to be closed will be grassed over.

Stonehenge is believed to have been used as an important religious site by early Britons up to 4,000 years ago
Its stones are believed to be from Pont Saeson in Pembrokeshire – more than 240 miles (386 km) away
Recent pagan celebrations at the Henge began in the 20th Century
On Summer Solstice (Litha), the central Altar stone aligns with the Heel stone, the Slaughter stone and the rising sun to the north east
Read more about the history of Stonehenge
Find out more: BBC Religion Paganism

Head of Stonehenge Peter Carson said: “It’s a really fantastic day for Stonehenge.

“What this does is address a lot of concerns that people have had at Stonehenge for decades. It will remove the inadequate facilities and it will mean that we have an open landscape that people can explore.

“I’m absolutely delighted and it will transform the experience for those who visit in the future.”

When finished, the visitor centre will be situated at Airman’s Corner, about a mile-and-a-half (2.4km) west of the stones, and is expected to open in autumn 2013.

The centre will include exhibition and education facilities, a cafe, shop and toilets.

The area near the stone circle will be restored to grass in summer 2014.

A grade II listed Airman’s Cross memorial at Airman’s Corner was recently removed to make way for work to upgrade the road junction.

It has been put into temporary storage and will be re-sited in the grounds of the new visitor centre once work is completed.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-18782893

Building Stonehenge was a way to unify the people of Stone Age Britain, researchers have concluded.

Teams working on the Stonehenge Riverside Project believe the circle was built after a long period of conflict between east and west Britain.

Researchers also believe the stones, from southern England and west Wales, symbolize different communities.

Prof Mike Parker Pearson said building Stonehenge required everyone “to pull together” in “an act of unification”.

The Stonehenge Riverside Project (SRP) has been investigating the archaeology of Stonehenge and its landscape for the past 10 years.

In 2008, SRP researchers found that Stonehenge had been erected almost 500 years earlier than had originally been thought.

Now teams from the universities of Sheffield, Manchester, Southampton, Bournemouth and University College London, have concluded that when the stone circle was built “there was a growing island-wide culture”.

“The same styles of houses, pottery and other material forms were used from Orkney to the south coast – this was very different to the regionalism of previous centuries,” said Prof Parker Pearson, from University of Sheffield.

“Stonehenge itself was a massive undertaking, requiring the labour of thousands to move stones from as far away as west Wales, shaping them and erecting them.

“Just the work itself, requiring everyone literally to pull together, would have been an act of unification.”

Stonehenge may also have been built in a place that already had special significance for prehistoric Britons.

The SRP team found that its solstice-aligned avenue sits upon a series of natural landforms that, by chance, form an axis between the directions of midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset.

“When we stumbled across this extraordinary natural arrangement of the sun’s path being marked in the land, we realised that prehistoric people selected this place to build Stonehenge because of its pre-ordained significance,” said Mr Parker Pearson.

The winter solstice is also believed to have been of more significance to Britain’s Neolithic people
“This might explain why there are eight monuments in the Stonehenge area with solstitial alignments, a number unmatched anywhere else.

“Perhaps they saw this place as the centre of the world”.

Previous theories suggesting the great stone circle was inspired by ancient Egyptians or extra-terrestrials have been firmly rejected by researchers.

“All the architectural influences for Stonehenge can be found in previous monuments and buildings within Britain, with origins in Wales and Scotland,” said Mr Parker Pearson.

“In fact, Britain’s Neolithic people were isolated from the rest of Europe for centuries.

“Britain may have become unified but there was no interest in interacting with people across the Channel.

“Stonehenge appears to have been the last gasp of this Stone Age culture, which was isolated from Europe and from the new technologies of metal tools and the wheel.”

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-18550513

Not mind-blowing news but a start on altering the landscape of Stonehenge.....

By Hannah White.

A memorial at Airman’s Corner is set to be moved into storage on Monday so that the Stonehenge improvement project can begin.

The army’s Royal Engineers, based in Tidworth, are helping English Heritage to move Airman’s Cross, a Grade II listed memorial located in the middle of the junction at Airman’s Corner, into safe storage at Perham Down barracks.

The move comes ahead of work starting on a new Stonehenge visitor centre, which was granted planning permission by Wiltshire Council two years ago.

more at:

salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/9769345.Airman_s_Cross_to_move_ahead_of_Stonehenge_project/

english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/wellington-arch/exhibitions-at-the-arch/current-exhibition/

Writing in The Salisbury Journal yesterday Morwenna Blake reports that -

“A NEW museum in Amesbury will be opening its doors this weekend with an exhibition about the town during the Mesolithic era. Amesbury, 3,000 years before Stonehenge will be the first exhibition to be held at the town council’s museum at the Melor Hall, which it bought for the purpose last month. Town mayor Andy Rhind-Tutt, who has launched a project to pull the community together under the banner of Amesbury 2012, said: “I am delighted that we have been able to complete on the purchase of the Melor Hall and put on this first exhibition for Amesbury.

“Over the Easter weekend there will be presentations at the hall each day, with visiting archaeologists including Professor Tim Darvill from Bournemouth University and Julian Richards of the BBC’s Meet the Ancestor.”

Full article here – salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/9628296.Amesbury_museum_set_to_open_this_weekend/

“The Wiltshire Heritage Museum has been awarded £370,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to support plans to create a new gallery focusing on their outstanding Bronze Age archaeological collections. This will tell the story of the people who built and used the world renowned monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury. The new Prehistoric Galleries will provide an opportunity to display for the first time in generations the unique gold and amber finds from Wiltshire that date back to the Bronze Age, over 4,000 years ago. This was a time of shaman and priests, learning and culture and contacts across Europe. The Museum will be able to build on its existing learning and outreach programme, and inspire local people and visitors to become engaged and informed about the prehistoric landscapes of Wiltshire.

“The story to be told at the Museum forms part of an integrated approach to the interpretation of Stonehenge. The Stonehenge Museums Partnership links the Museum with new galleries being developed at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre by English Heritage and new galleries being planned at the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. English Heritage is supporting the project with a major grant to the Museum. Wiltshire Council have also helped behind the scenes.”

Further information at wiltshireheritage.org.uk/news/index.php?Action=8&id=150&page=0 See also a lunchtime talk about the Project by David Dawson, Director, Wiltshire Heritage Museum on Thursday, 12 April 2012 at wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=739&prev=1

Stonehenge tunnel idea resurrected
7:10am Tuesday 17th January 2012 By Annie Riddle

The idea of building a tunnel under Stonehenge has been resurrected by a consortium of council leaders from across the South West.

Wiltshire was among the authorities represented at a summit meeting to discuss A303 improvements, organised by Somerset County Council last week. They discussed ways to raise the £1billion needed to widen the remaining single lane sections of the road between Wiltshire and Devon. The tunnel, which would have cost more than £500million at the last count, is one of five separate schemes they believe are needed.

Somerset?€™s leader Ken Maddock believes there is scope to seek new funding in the light of Chancellor George Osborne?€™s autumn statement, which said that pension funds could be used to fund up to £20billion of infrastructure schemes.
He said: ?€œThis is a fabulous opportunity to put a joint bid together that will bring huge benefits to the whole of the West Country.?€

The 2.1km tunnel plans were shelved in 2007 after the government said the soaring cost was not justified.

salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/salisbury/salisburynews/9474384.Stonehenge_tunnel_idea_resurrected/

Plans to close a main road running past Stonehenge are to go ahead.

English Heritage wants to stop traffic from travelling close to the stones and “restore the dignity” of the World Heritage Site by closing the A344.

The road from the A303 at Stonehenge Bottom to west of the visitor centre has already been approved for closure.

Now, following a public inquiry, Wiltshire Council has approved an independent inspector’s report to close the remaining section of road.

In June 2010 the council granted planning permission for a new visitors centre at Airman’s Corner, 1.5 miles (2km) west of Stonehenge.

And in November, roads minister Mike Penning approved plans to close an 879m (2,884ft) section of the A344 from its junction with the A303 at Stonehenge Bottom with a stopping up order.

Now the council has approved a traffic regulation order (TRO) for the remainder of the A344 to Airman’s Corner.

But proposals to close a number of byways around the ancient monument were refused.

Druid leader King Arthur Pendragon said the inspector’s recommendations and resulting council decision had “erred on the side of common sense”.

“I invited the inspector to recommend a modification to the order be made in that should the stopping up order be placed on the lower section of the A344 the remaining section of the metalled road be restricted by a traffic regulation order as requested.

“And he recommended that the proposed TRO be made with modification to the A344 only, leaving the byways in the World Heritage Site still open to all traffic, as they have been.”

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-16352307

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-15998526

Let’s have a dispassionate look at the latest Stonehenge news. The Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project (University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection) continues its geophysical survey. So what’s new?

The press release is titled “Discoveries provide evidence of a celestial procession at Stonehenge”, which is pretty much what all the journalists who reported it said (often just copying the release). It includes a “podflash” interview with Vince Gaffney, and there is a video visualisation of the theory here.

The Independent really went to town, using words like “extraordinary” and “massive”, suggesting the discoveries might “turn the accepted chronology of the Stonehenge landscape on its head”, and that “Stonehenge site’s sacred status is at least 500 years older than previously thought”. The project as a whole is going to “transform scholars’ understanding of the famous monument’s origins, history and meaning”. Golly.

I couldn’t see where all this came from, so I contacted the Birmingham University press office, who very kindly gave me these geophysics plots. As no other news media anywhere as far as I can see has used them, I thought it would be helpful to post them here. Then we can see what is being talked about.

I mostly leave it to others to look at these plots and comment on the interpretations (please do). What I will do here is describe what Birmingham team found, and add a bit of context.

They pick on two geophysical anomalies, which they call pits, just south of the northern line of the Cursus:

Click through to see the pics

mikepitts.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/view-from-the-heelstone/

From the Salisbury Journal

A Planning inspector has ruled that byways surrounding Stonehenge will remain open.

The decision follows inquiries into proposals to close the byways as well as parts of the A344 and the inspector has decided that although the road will close, the byways should remain open.

English Heritage plans to return the area to grass as part of plans for a new visitors’ centre at Airman’s Corner.

Planning inspector Alan Boyland said: “I accept that Wiltshire has a considerably greater length of byways than any other county. This is not however, in itself, a reason for allowing a further loss for recreational motor vehicle users.

“In this case, the loss of a further 7km, particularly given the strategic importance of those routes, and without similar alternative routes being available, would in my view be significantly detrimental to the current users.”

At the inquiry, Druid leader King Arthur Pendragon objected to the proposals to close the byways as he said it is a violation of his human rights not to be able to access the area, particularly during Pagan ceremonies such as celebrations of the solstices and equinox.

Mr Pendragon said: “It appears that the inspector has erred on the side of common sense and found himself in agreement with the points made.”

The new visitor centre has got planning permission and despite funding problems English Heritage hopes the it can be completed by 2013.

Another piece of the jigsaw being slotted into the prehistory of Stonehenge. David Keys in The Independent writes.........

Ancient site may have been place of worship 500 years before the first stone was erected

Extraordinary new discoveries are shedding new light on why Britain’s most famous ancient site, Stonehenge, was built – and when.

Current research is now suggesting that Stonehenge may already have been an important sacred site at least 500 years before the first Stone circle was erected – and that the sanctity of its location may have determined the layout of key aspects of the surrounding sacred landscape.

What’s more, the new investigation – being carried out by archaeologists from the universities’ of Birmingham, Bradford and Vienna – massively increases the evidence linking Stonehenge to pre-historic solar religious beliefs. It increases the likelihood that the site was originally and primarily associated with sun worship

The investigations have also enabled archaeologists to putatively reconstruct the detailed route of a possible religious procession or other ritual event which they suspect may have taken place annually to the north of Stonehenge.

That putative pre-historic religious ‘procession’ (or, more specifically, the evidence suggesting its route) has implications for understanding Stonehenge’s prehistoric religious function – and suggests that the significance of the site Stonehenge now occupies emerged earlier than has previously been appreciated.

The crucial new archaeological evidence was discovered during on-going survey work around Stonehenge in which archaeologists have been ‘x-raying’ the ground, using ground-penetrating radar and other geophysical investigative techniques. As the archaeological team from Birmingham and Vienna were using these high-tech systems to map the interior of a major prehistoric enclosure (the so-called ‘Cursus’) near Stonehenge, they discovered two great pits, one towards the enclosure’s eastern end, the other nearer its western end.

When they modelled the relationship between these newly-discovered Cursus pits and Stonehenge on their computer system, they realised that, viewed from the so-called ‘Heel Stone’ at Stonehenge, the pits were aligned with sunrise and sunset on the longest day of the year – the summer solstice (midsummer’s day). The chances of those two alignments being purely coincidental are extremely low.

The archaeologists then began to speculate as to what sort of ritual or ceremonial activity might have been carried out at and between the two pits. In many areas of the world, ancient religious and other ceremonies sometimes involved ceremonially processing round the perimeters of monuments. The archaeologists therefore thought it possible that the prehistoric celebrants at the Cursus might have perambulated between the two pits by processing around the perimeter of the Cursus.

Initially this was pure speculation – but then it was realized that there was, potentially a way of trying to test the idea. On midsummer’s day there are in fact three key alignments – not just sunrise and sunset, but also midday (the highest point the sun reaches in its annual cycle). For at noon the key alignment should be due south.

One way to test the ‘procession’ theory (or at least its route) was for the archaeologists to demonstrate that the midway point on that route had indeed a special relationship with Stonehenge (just as the two pits – the start and end point of the route – had). The ‘eureka moment’ came when the computer calculations revealed that the midway point (the noon point) on the route aligned directly with the centre of Stonehenge, which was precisely due south.

This realization that the sun hovering over the site of Stonehenge at its highest point in the year appears to have been of great importance to prehistoric people, is itself of potential significance. For it suggests that the site’s association with the veneration of the sun was perhaps even greater than previously realized.

But the discovery of the Cursus pits, the discovery of the solar alignments and of the putative ‘processional’ route, reveals something else as well – something that could potentially turn the accepted chronology of the Stonehenge landscape on its head.

For decades, modern archaeology has held that Stonehenge was a relative latecomer to the area – and that the other large monument in that landscape – the Cursus – pre-dated it by up to 500 years.

However, the implication of the new evidence is that, in a sense, the story may have been the other way round, i.e. that the site of Stonehenge was sacred before the Cursus was built, says Birmingham archaeologist, Dr. Henry Chapman, who has been modelling the alignments on the computerized reconstructions of the Stonehenge landscape

The argument for this is simple, yet persuasive. Because the ‘due south’ noon alignment of the ‘procession’ route’s mid-point could not occur if the Cursus itself had different dimensions, the design of that monument has to have been conceived specifically to attain that mid-point alignment with the centre of Stonehenge.

What’s more, if that is so, the Stonehenge Heel Stone location had to have been of ritual significance before the Cursus pits were dug (because their alignments are as perceived specifically from the Heel Stone).

Those two facts, when taken together, therefore imply that the site, later occupied by the stones of Stonehenge, was already sacred before construction work began on the Cursus. Unless the midday alignment is a pure coincidence (which is unlikely), it would imply that the Stonehenge site’s sacred status is at least 500 years older than previously thought – a fact which raises an intriguing possibility.

For 45 years ago, archaeologists found an 8000 BC Mesolithic (’Middle’ Stone Age) ritual site in what is now Stonehenge’s car park. The five thousand year gap between that Mesolithic sacred site and Stonehenge itself meant that most archaeologists thought that ‘sacred’ continuity between the two was inherently unlikely. But, with the new discoveries, the time gap has potentially narrowed. Indeed, it’s not known for how long the site of Stonehenge was sacred prior to the construction of the Cursus. So, very long term traditions of geographical sanctity in relation to Britain’s and the world’s best known ancient monument, may now need to be considered.

The University of Birmingham Stonehenge area survey – the largest of its type ever carried out anywhere in the world – will take a further two years to complete, says Professor Vince Gaffney, the director the project.

Virtually every square meter in a five square mile area surrounding the world most famous pre-historic monument will be examined geophysically to a depth of up to two metres, he says.

It’s anticipated that dozens, potentially hundreds of previously unknown sites will be discovered as a result of the operation.

The ongoing discoveries in Stonehenge’s sacred prehistoric landscape – being made by Birmingham’s archaeologists and colleagues from the University of Vienna’s Ludwig Boltzmann Institute – are expected to transform scholars’ understanding of the famous monument’s origins, history and meaning.

independent.co.uk/life-style/history/secret-history-of-stonehenge-revealed-6268237.html

Plans to close a main road running past Stonehenge have been backed by the government following a public inquiry.

English Heritage wanted to stop traffic from travelling close to the stones and “restore the dignity” of the World Heritage Site by closing the A344.
Following a public inquiry, an independent inspector recommended part of the road could be closed off.
Roads minister Mike Penning has approved the plans and £3.5m will be used to improve nearby roads.

In June 2010 Wiltshire Council granted planning permission for a new visitors centre at Airman’s Corner, 1.5 miles (2km) west of Stonehenge.
At the public inquiry, opponents claimed the plans would give English Heritage a monopoly on access to the site.
The scheme will see an 879 metre section of the A344 from its junction with the A303 closed.
Part of the B3086 from its junction with the A344 will also be closed and “increased capacity” added at Longbarrow Crossroads.

A decision over the remainder of the A344 and other byways will be decided by Wiltshire Council.

“This is an important contribution to improve the setting of the monument and ensure its preservation as an iconic World Heritage Site,” said Mr Penning.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-15540031

heritageaction.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/news-stonehenge-evidently-cursed-r/

Discover the Stonehenge Landscape

Tue 19 July 11.00–16.00

Discover the Stonehenge landscape with Neolithic expert and National Trust archaeologist Dr. Nick Snashall.

Join Nick on this day out to explore the Stonehenge landscape and find out about the latest exciting discoveries. This is part of the Festival of British Archaeology–look out for complementary walks running in the Avebury half of the World Heritage Site this week.

Meet at the Stonehenge car park (not NT) by the National Trust map panel on the grassy area of the main car park. A parking charge applies for non-members of English Heritage or the National Trust.Please dress for the weather and wear stout footwear. Bring a packed lunch and a drink. Access is by pedestrian and farm gates; terrain is mostly grassland with some trackways and is often uneven underfoot. Cattle and sheep graze the gently sloping downs.

Accompanied older children welcome – Young Archaeologist Club (YAC) members free. Dogs on leads welcome. All tickets £15

==========================

Monuments of the Stonehenge Landscape

Thu 21 & Mon 25 July 18.30–21.00

Explore the monuments of the Stonehenge landscape with Sonia Heywood – you’ll soon discover that they’re much more than simple earthworks.

They have a 4,000 year history that tells us much about our past. Our four mile walk will take us on a journey from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age. Part of the Festival of British Archaeology, this walk is run in partnership with Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum–accompanying artefact handling sessions are available at the museum. Places strictly limited.

Meeting at the Stonehenge car park (not NT) by the bright green National Trust information panel. A car parking charge applies for non-members of the Trust or English Heritage.

Dress for the weather and wear stout footwear. Bring sunscreen, a hat and a cooling drink, as there’s little shade up on the downs. Access is by pedestrian gates; most terrain is grassland, often uneven underfoot. Cattle and sheep graze the gently sloping downs. Please note, we may be crossing the A344 road, at your own risk. Accompanied children welcome–YACs free. Dogs on leads welcome.

This walk is run in partnership with Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum–accompanying artefact handling sessions are available at the museum, priced £6, or £5 if booked alongside this walk. Children £1 (YACs free).

Contact the Museum on 01722 233151 or see www.salisburymuseum.org.uk for information and to book.

================

Summer Landscape Walk

Wed 27 July 14.00–18.00

Discover the landscape, its archaeology – from prehistory to the last century – and its varied wildlife.

This is a walk of about three and a half miles around Stonehenge Down, the great henge of Durrington Walls, the route of the former military railway and King Barrow Ridge.

Meeting at the Stonehenge car park (not NT) by the National Trust map panel, on the grassy area of the main car park. A car parking charge applies for non-members of the Trust or English Heritage.

Dress for the weather and wear stout footwear. Bring sunscreen, a hat and a cooling drink, as there’s little shade up on the downs. Access is by pedestrian and farm gates; the terrain is mostly grassland and trackways, often uneven underfoot. Cattle and sheep graze the gently sloping downs.

Adults £4, children free. Accompanied children welcome, free. Dogs on leads welcome.

===================

Storywalking with the Ancients

Thu 28 July 18.30–20.30

Adventure through time with storyteller Lizzie Bryant, telling stories inspired by the Stonehenge landscape–from ancient mythic landforms to man-made earthworks. Hear exciting stories from times before Stonehenge to the time of the first aeroplanes taking flight.

Meet at the Stonehenge Car Park (not NT) by the National Trust map panel on the grassy area of the main car park.
Please dress suitably for adventuring across the open downs and fields.
We recommend sunscreen and you may like to bring a drink and a snack.
Access is by pedestrian and farm gates; terrain is mostly grassland with some trackways and is often uneven underfoot.
Cattle and sheep graze the gently sloping downs.

Adults £4, accompanied children welcome, free. Dogs on leads welcome.

For more details and to book any of the four events listed above.......

Location: Stonehenge car park SP4 7DE. Directions sent on booking.
Org: National Trust, Stonehenge Landscape
Name: Lucy
Tel: 01980 664780
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stonehengelandscape

Mon 18 to Wed 20 July 09.00–12.00 & 18.00–21.00

Six guided walks from Durrington Walls to Stonehenge with a focus on photographing the archaeology we encounter.

These guided walks will explore the landscape around Stonehenge while taking photographs of the monuments en route. We will begin at Durrington Walls and walk via the eastern end of the Stonehenge Cursus and King’s Barrow Ridge to meet the Avenue where we will then walk towards Stonehenge. The walk will take you on a journey through Stonehenge’s prehistoric landscape to approach the stones along the same route as Neolithic worshippers.

There will be plenty of opportunities to photograph along the way with tips on composition and light. No experience of photography is needed and any type of camera can be used. Please bring your camera, suitable walking clothes and boots, drink and snack. Spaces are limited on each walk so that each member of the group will have plenty of opportunity for questions and photographic advice.

Free, please book.

Location: Woodhenge car park. Wilts & Dorset services 5, 6 & 16. 1.5 miles north of Amesbury, signposted off the A345 immediately south of Durrington.

Org: inHeritage
Name: Bill Bevan
Tel: 0114 2345411
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.billbevanphotography.co.uk

Lovely article in the Guardian today by Hugh Thomson about ‘The Great Stones Way’ walk

A new walking path links Britain’s two greatest prehistoric sites, Avebury and Stonehenge, and is as epic as the Inca Trail.

The Great Stones Way is one of those ideas so obvious it seems amazing that no one has thought of it before: a 38-mile walking trail to link England’s two greatest prehistoric sites, Avebury and Stonehenge, crossing a landscape covered with Neolithic monuments.

But like any project involving the English countryside, it’s not as straightforward as it might seem. The steering group has had to secure permission from landowners and the MoD, who use much of Salisbury Plain for training. They hope to have the whole trail open within a year, but for now are trialling a 14-mile southern stretch, having secured agreement from the MoD and parish councils. The “Plain & Avon” section leads from the iron age hill fort of Casterley Camp on Salisbury Plain down the Avon valley to Stonehenge. Walkers are being encouraged to test the route, and detailed directions can be found on the Friends of the Ridgeway website.

It’s an area all but the boldest have avoided: negotiating the MoD areas needed careful planning. Few walkers come here and not a single garage or shop along the Avon valley sells local maps. The Great Stones Way should change that.

What makes the prospect of the Great Stones Way so exciting is the sense that for more than a millennium, between around 3000 and 2000BC, the area it crosses was the scene of frenzied Neolithic building activity, with henges, burial barrows and processional avenues criss-crossing the route.

At Casterley Camp, high on Salisbury Plain, it takes me a while to realise what is strange about the landscape, as wild and empty as anywhere in southern England, and with a large burial mound directly ahead. Then it hits me: this is perfect high grazing country, but there’s not a single sheep. Maybe they have read the MoD notice which points out that “’projectile’ means any shot or shell or other missile or any portion thereof”, and that over much of what you can see you’re liable to be hit by one. You can also be arrested without a warrant. But the trail cleverly and legally threads its way past the firing ranges towards a delightful and ancient droving road that plunges down between cow parsley to an old farm.
Read the full article here ..

guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/may/14/stonehenge-avebury-great-stones-way-walking-trail

ridgewayfriends.org.uk/

“This project will provide a united historic environment research agenda and strategy for the Avebury and Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The two parts of the World Heritage Site currently have separate research frameworks that were created at different times and in different formats. The project will update and harmonise the existing frameworks to create a single research framework comprising a resource assessment and a single research strategy with a five-year currency.”

More here – wessexarch.co.uk/projects/wiltshire/stonehenge-avebury-rrf

Not to be confused with the Woodhenge discovered in 1925 (see english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/woodhenge/ ) this Woodhenge was only discovered in July of this year. It “...was hailed as one of the most important archaeological finds for decades. But now experts are at loggerheads after claims that what was thought to be a Neolithic temple was a rather more humble affair – in fact the remains of a wooden fence.”

More here – heritageaction.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/woodhenge-just-a-farmers-fence/

This is good news for people who like to walk in ancient landscapes. Its own website is under construction, meanwhile ...

visitwiltshire.co.uk/site/the-great-stones-way

heritageaction.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/evening-walks-to-stonehenge-and-a-big-question/

I know this has been covered before and affects wider than Stonehenge but it’s interesting to see that EH’s approach to photo rights is getting wider exposure (pun intended).

techdirt.com/articles/20101020/04044411496/english-heritage-organization-claiming-it-holds-effective-copyright-on-any-and-all-photos-of-stonehenge.shtml

yro.slashdot.org/story/10/10/21/0019257/All-Your-Stonehenge-Photos-Are-Belong-To-England

3 walks you may be interested in:

Walks in the Stonehenge Landscape

Dates: 9 October 2010, 30 October 2010 and 13 November 2010

Price: Adult £3
Stonehenge Landscape

On an afternoon stroll up on the downs, find out about ancient peoples, hidden histories, wildlife and the changing landscape. Discover what lies beyond the stone circle.

----------------------------------------

Explore the landscape with your DSLR camera

Dates: 16 October 2010 10:30am

Price: All £28
Stonehenge Landscape

Explore the Stonehenge landscape on an intermediate photography workshop, with professional photographer Mark Philpott. Learn how to get the best from your DSLR camera and be inspired by King Barrow Ridge, its ancient mounds and earthworks and its diverse wildlife. Workshop size limited to allow Mark to give lots of one-to-one help and there will be the opportunity to share photos and receive constructive feedback.

----------------------------------------

Autumn photography walk

Dates: 23 October 2010 3:00pm

Price: All £4
Stonehenge Landscape

An evening walk to capture the colours of autumn. Join photography expert Mark Philpott and a National Trust guide on an autumnal evening walk around the Stonehenge landscape. Mark will show you how to capture evocative vistas and the changing seasons in a landscape rich in archaeology and wildlife.

----------------------------------------

nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-events/w-events-find_event.htm?propertyID=323

“According to the Salisbury Journal the project might go ahead – but not till 2013.

“The newspaper says that on Thursday English Heritage project development manager Martin Harvey updated councillors and members of the public on progress made and quotes him as saying “If all goes well with the remainder of this year, we believe we can still start work on the site in 2012 and open for business the following year.“”

More here –
heritageaction.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/stonehenge-visitors-centre-to-go-ahead-but-not-till-after-the-olympics/

thetourismcompany.com/project.asp?type=2&projectid=1182

Feasibility study for a Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site web presence

The Tourism Company have been commissioned by English Heritage to look at how they could improve the online presence of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. At present, information is spread across a number of different websites run by a variety of organisations that have a stake in the World Heritage Site. The result is a fragmented online presence that is hard for users to navigate around. English Heritage has asked us to look at whether it would be feasible to create a more joined-up approach to presenting the World Heritage Site online, with one option being to create a centralised website. Our work involves consultation within English Heritage and amongst the World Heritage Site partners. It also includes the compilation of case study material from comparable multi-stakeholder web projects around the UK and from abroad.

heritageaction.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/another-henge-found-half-a-mile-from-stonehenge/

Archaeologists are carrying out a virtual excavation of Stonehenge to discover what the area looked like when the monument was built.

The multi-million pound Euro study will map the terrain and its buried archaeological remains with pinpoint accuracy, organisers claim.

The millions of measurements will then be analysed and incorporated into gaming technology to produce 2D and 3D images.

The research will take three years.

Equipment will be spread over an area spanning 4km this year and a total of 14km over the next three years.

Project leader Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University on Birmingham, said: “We aim to unlock the mysteries of Stonehenge and show people exactly what the local area looked like during the time the monument was created.

“The results of this work will be a digital chart of the ‘invisible’ Stonehenge landscape, a seamless map linking one of the world’s most famous monuments with the buried archaeology that surrounds it.”

Dr Christopher Gaffney, from the University of Bradford, said: “Rather than looking at typically small discrete areas we intend to cover the whole of the World Heritage Site.

“We will do this using emerging technology that allows us to pull large banks of sensors behind a quad bike and using real time GPS to locate the measurements.”

The study is funded by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology, in Vienna, and the University of Birmingham, and is assisted by the National Trust and English Heritage.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-10689609

Thu 29 July 11.00-15.30
Start point TBC; directions will be sent on booking

Join a Neolithic expert and archaeologist on this walk of around 8 miles through the Stonehenge landscape. Booking essential.

National Trust – 01980 664780
[email protected]
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stonehengelandscape

STATEMENT – THE FUTURE OF THE STONEHENGE ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
At their meeting on 29th and 30th June, English Heritage Commissioners discussed the future
of the Stonehenge Environmental Improvement Project following the Government’s decision
on 17 June to withdraw Government funding
Commissioners decided that over the Summer/Autumn, English Heritage should continue to
explore alternative funding from non-Government sources. In the meantime, as the planning
process is so nearly completed, the organisation will use money raised from private sources
to complete the final few planning stages, without making irreversible financial commitment
to the scheme’s future.
Completing the planning stages ensures a tidy and cost-efficient break-point between
preparation and implementation of the scheme. It also allows more time to explore
alternative funding. Having worked for so many years to achieve the desperately needed
transformation of Stonehenge, Commissioners are very anxious that every possible avenue is
pursued.........

https://www.stonehengevisitorce[...]ioners-decision-final-june.pdf

The Stonehenge Campsite still has a limited number of pitches available for this years Summer Solstice celebration but those who wish to book have been advised to do so before the end of the month.

Site Manager, William Grant, has asked those who hold the Summer Solstice celebration sacred, pagan or not, to book their pitches now in order to avoid disappointment nearer to the June 19th deadline. This years Glastonbury festival has been brought forward to the beginning of June and informed sources believe revellers who usually attend the Somerset event may flood Wiltshire’s traditional pagan meeting spots as a result.

“We will be providing a bus service directly from the campsite to Stonehenge at 1am, and then bringing the campers back to site at 9 am, this year” said Mr. Grant. “Although the campsite is only 2 miles from Stonehenge on the footpaths, it can prove too far for the children to walk both there and back, so we have decided to provide transport as part of our 4 day Summer Solstice camping rally between 19-22 June. The price will be £10 per person per night”. “We have become very popular, very quickly and you must make a £25 deposit if you want us to save you a place” said William.

The Stonehenge Campsite, one of Wiltshire’s best undiscovered secrets, has enjoyed brilliant reviews since opening a year ago.
Set within a fully landscaped area, the 3 acre campsite has an excellent heated utility block providing piping hot showers together with a hot water dish washing area. Two purpose built fire pits have been carefully placed within the enclosure and firewood is always for sale to those who wish to commune around a traditional camp fire at night.

Lying a stones throw from the centre of Berwick St James, the 9 Acre smallholding is home to a flock of jacob sheep and some very gentle horses. Free range eggs are available from the chickens and the extensively stocked Berwick Farm Shop and villages’ Boot Inn are 10 mins walk away.

For more information and to book a pitch, visit the Stonehenge Campsite website stonehengecampsite.co.uk/

Chance

The consultation on the proposed Prohibition of Driving at Stonehenge World Heritage Site is currently available, but will close on 15th february 2010.

wiltshire.gov.uk/council/consultations/troconsultations/trostonehengeprohibitionondriving.htm

Comments are invited from interested parties on the proposal for a Prohibition of Driving at Stonehenge World Heritage Site details of which are set out in the documents at the Wiltshire County Council web site.

Documents available include the Proposed Order, Press Notice, Statement of Reasons, and the following Site Notices
– A344, Amesbury BOAT 11, Amesbury BOAT 12, Berwick St James BOAT 11, Durrington BOAT 10, Wilsford cum Lake BOAT 1, Wilsford cum Lake BOAT 2, Woodford BOAT 16

Background and more information
For more information on the TRO proposals in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, including background, main considerations for Wiltshire Council and the report on informal pre-consultations with stakeholders, see the report entitled “Stonehenge – Proposed Traffic Regulation Order”, which can be found at https://194.72.162.210/documents/dscgi/ds.py/View/Collection-1800

“English Heritage has welcomed yesterday’s decision by Wiltshire Council’s planning committee to approve plans for a new visitor centre for Stonehenge.”

More here -

andoveradvertiser.co.uk/news/4864607.English_Heritage_welcomes_Stonehenge_Vistor_Centre_decision/

The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society has written to Judy Howles the Area Development Officer at Wiltshire Council in Salisbury with the following comments:
*****
(25 November 2009)
Stonehenge Visitor Centre Planning Application: S/2009/1527/FULL

We write to comment on the Application. This covering letter provides an overview of our response
(attached) with reference to that document.
The Society has supported the preservation and presentation of Stonehenge for over a century (Section 2).
The Society agreed a formal position on the Stonehenge Visitor centre at its AGM in October 2009 and support for that position and concerns about the proposed site are specified in Sections 4, 5 and 6. In summary the Society welcomed the positive step forward taken by English Heritage in preparing proposals for a new Visitor Centre, but would prefer the Visitor Centre to be located outside the World Heritage Site and on brownfield land. There are a number of aspects that we welcome and warmly support including:

• the closure and grassing-over of the A344
• the removal of visitor facilities and car parking from the vicinity of Stonehenge
• the proposal for a new visitor transit route that will not require the construction of new roads within the World Heritage Site
• the closure to certain motorised vehicles of Byways 11 and 12
We have a number of concerns and make suggestions which we feel will improve the scheme and address some of the issues that we raise in our response:

• Additional screening of the proposed visitor facilities
• Reduction in the height of the visitor centre building
• Minimising the long term impact of the visitor centre by retaining existing slopes
• Minimising light pollution

We suggest that the application is accepted in part, but that a decision is deferred to allow Council Officers to negotiate amendments along the lines we suggest above, so that the scheme may proceed without substantial delay.
********
Apologies if this is ‘old news’ but some may not be aware of it.

The Grauniad have a front page story today about a “black hole” in funding at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport which threatens funding promised to a number of major arts and culture projects – including building the new Stonehenge visitors’ centre.

The proportion of the £25m Stonehenge budget which is actually going to come from the DCMS is not clear, but it appears to be the cheapest of the various projects listed in the article. That, and the fact that some wiseguy in Whitehall linked it to the holy of holies, the 2012 Olympics(TM) probably makes it safer than most. Fingers crossed (or not, if you are an indomitable local older lady with photocopied road plans to hand out).

Ever wondered why you can never find one when you need one?

Pagan police officers in some areas are being allowed to take as many as eight days leave a year for events such as the summer solstice and Halloween.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8154812.stm

Most people will probably have seen the advert but I thought I’d post this as I’d be gutted if I hadn’t heard and missed it.

It’s on this Monday night on channel 4 and incorporates all the findings and new theories from the last 6 years of digs by the Stonehenge Riverside Project run by Mike Parker Pearson, Julian Thomas and Colin Richards.

timeteam.k1z.com/

From an article published on the BBC News web site on 13th May 2009:

A £25m plan to revitalise the world-renowned Stonehenge in Wiltshire, including diverting a nearby road, has been announced by the government.

Also included in the plan from the Stonehenge Programme Board are proposals for a new visitor centre at nearby Airman’s Corner.

Read the full article...

From the Telegraph:

“Plans to build a £20 million pound visitor centre at Stonehenge in time for the 2012 Olympics are under threat because of a major row between Britain’s two leading heritage organisations.

The National Trust and English Heritage, who are part of a committee set up to ensure the centre is built in time for the games, have clashed over the proposed location for the new building.

English Heritage, the government body, which is responsible for the day to day running of the World Heritage site wants to build the new visitor centre and car park on a piece of land known as the Fargo plantation.

But the National Trust, which owns a large chunk of the land surrounding the 5,000-year-old site is refusing to support the proposal because it says that the installation of such a significant construction would breach the site’s World Heritage status.

It wants to build the centre on a site called Airman’s Cross which is further away from the stones. Under this proposal visitors would be ferried to the stones via a new transit system.

The row is a major blow for the Government which announced last year that a new centre would be built in time for the expected influx of visitors in 2012.

Barbara Follett, the Heritage Minister had been expected to announce the proposed location last week but has now postponed the decision to January because of the deadlock.

Supporters of the new centre are adamant that if it is to be built on time than a planning application must be lodged with Salisbury Council within the first three months of next year.

If both heritage bodies fail to reach a compromise than either side could force a planning inquiry which would add further delays to the proposals.

Supporters of the new proposal believe that the money for the project will not be forthcoming if it can’t be completed in time for the games.”

Tourists who complain about the fence put up around Stonehenge in the Seventies should spare a thought for their Neolithic ancestors... they couldn’t even see the site because of a huge wooden barrier.

Archaeologists have found traces of the 20ft-high timber fence that snaked almost two miles across Salisbury Plain and hid sacred ceremonies from unworthy locals more than 5,000 years ago.

Now trenches have been dug along the line researchers believe the palisade took as it stretched from the east of the ancient stone circle, past the Heel Stone, to the west before heading south.

And experts believe that the time and energy taken to construct such a barrier, which has no other practical or defensive use, meant that it was designed to hide religious ceremonies from prying eyes.

Dr Josh Pollard, of Bristol University, who is co-director of the dig, said: ‘The construction must have taken a lot of manpower.

‘The palisade is an open structure which would not have been defensive and was too high to be practical for controlling livestock.

‘It certainly wasn’t for hunting herded animals and so, like everything else in this ceremonial landscape, we have to believe it must have had a religious significance.

‘The most plausible explanation is that it was built at huge cost to the community to screen the environs of Stonehenge from view. Basically, we think it was to keep the lower classes from seeing what exactly their rulers and the priestly class were doing.

‘Perhaps we should call Michael Eavis in from the Glastonbury Festival as a consultant because the huge metal fence erected there every year is the nearest modern equivalent.‘

Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology Magazine and author of the book Hengeworld, said: ‘This is a fantastic insight into what the landscape would have looked like. This huge wooden palisade would have snaked across the landscape, blotting out views to Stonehenge from one side. The other side was the ceremonial route to the Henge from the River Avon and would have been shielded by the contours.

‘The palisade would have heightened the mystery of whatever ceremonies were performed and it would have endowed those who were privy to those secrets with more power and prestige. In modern terms, you had to be invited or have a ticket to get in.

‘We hope to learn more about the structure, which we lose track of on the other side of the main A303 trunk road because any remains were obliterated by the construction of a wartime airfield.‘

Meanwhile, another team of scientists led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University is working on a collection of partly cremated bones found at Stonehenge in the Thirties by amateur archaeologists.

Taken from the Daily Mail;

tinyurl.com/6z8gkq

There is a public consultation which all can participate in.

Please go to stonehengeconsultation.org and read through the documents containing the proposals, and use the feedback form to give your opinion.

“Stonehenge is perhaps England’s most famous and important ancient monument, inscribed with Avebury as a World Heritage Site in 1986. The need to care for it properly has been recognised for many years, as has the need to improve its landscape setting and its presentation to visitors.

Publication of the World Heritage Site Management Plan in 2000 was an important step forward; at its heart was a vision of Stonehenge surrounded by open grassland. Two major projects were planned to support this: to remove the roads from around Stonehenge by placing the A303 in a tunnel, and to relocate visitor facilities to a new centre away from the Stones. Public Inquiries were held into each, and the outcomes reviewed at length.

Although the Government decided that the A303 road improvements were unaffordable, it has made a commitment in December 2007 to review the Management Plan as the overarching strategic document for the Site, and to complete environmental improvements at Stonehenge, including new visitor facilities, in time for the 2012 Olympics.

This work includes examination of the case for closing the A303/ A344 junction to improve the setting of Stonehenge. A new Stonehenge Project Board, chaired by the Ministers for Culture and for Transport, has been set up to oversee this work.

These proposals are now the subject of a three month public consultation until 17 October 2008.”

HAVE YOUR SAY
(stonehengeconsultation.org /haveyoursaygrey.html)

You can read more about this consultation by viewing the pages of this website, downloading literature in PDF formats (see right hand column) and by visiting the public exhibition (see: stonehengeconsultation.org /publicexhibition.html).

After reading through the proposals, have you say by completing the electronic feedback forms indicated below:

WHS Management Plan Feedback form: stonehengeconsultation.org /haveyoursaywhspl.html

Environmental Improvements Feedback form: stonehengeconsultation.org /haveyoursayoptio.html

Thanks!

From Thisiswiltshire

A SENIOR druid is gaining worldwide attention as his protest at Stonehenge continues into its second month.

Demonstrating on behalf of the Council of British Druid Orders, King Arthur Pendragon has vowed to remain at the site, living in his caravan, until the historic site is opened fully to the public.

He said: “I’ve been here five weeks now. I’m very cold and very wet but I’m staying here.”

“I’m getting a lot of response from foreign tourists. They agree with me and say it’s too expensive.”

Pendragon, 54, has been camping close to the World Heritage Site since the Summer Solstice on June 21 and is hoping his protests will encourage the Government to remove the fences around the monument, build a tunnel under the A303 and grass over the A344.

He said: “The thing that really annoys me is that not only have they spent so much money on public inquiries and doing nothing with it, but it is a sacred site. It’s not a cash-cow.”

A public inquiry was set up in 2004 to look at ways of improving the traffic flow in and around the Stonehenge area.

Among the many options that were discussed were a new dual carriageway and a 2.1km bored tunnel.

The plans were scrapped in December last year after ministers decided the costs, which had spiralled from £223m to £470, could not be justified.

Excavations at the ancient monument Stonehenge reveal it was used as a cemetery at the time it was created just after 3000 BC.

Many archaeologists had previously thought people had been buried at the site between 2700 and 2600 BC.

This was before the larger stones were put in place.

The new dates give strong clues about the original purpose of the monument and show that its use as a cemetery went on for more than 500 years.

“It’s now clear that burials were a major component of Stonehenge in all its main stages,” said Mike Parker Pearson, archaeology professor at the University of Sheffield, whose team has been excavating the Wiltshire site.

“Stonehenge was a place of burial from its beginning to its zenith in the mid third millennium BC.

“The cremation burial dating to Stonehenge’s sarsen stones (the larger stones) phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument’s use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead.”

The earliest cremation burial dated – a small pile of burned bones and teeth – came from a pit around Stonehenge’s edge known as the Aubrey Holes and dates to 3030-2880 BC.

The second burial, from the ditch surrounding Stonehenge, is that of an adult and dates to 2930-2870 BC.

The most recent cremation, Professor Parker Pearson said, came from the ditch’s northern side and was of a 25-year-old woman.

This dates from 2570-2340 B.C, around the time the first arrangements of sarsen stones appeared at Stonehenge.

Another 49 cremation burials were dug up at Stonehenge during the 1920s, but all were put back in the ground because they were thought to be of no scientific value.

Archaeologists estimate that up to 240 people were buried within Stonehenge, all as cremation deposits.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/7425959.stm

From The Architects’ Journal:

English Heritage (EH) has confirmed it is looking at resuscitating previous visitor-centre proposals following the recent demise of Denton Corker Marshall’s (DCM) £67 million scheme.

A spokeswoman for EH told the AJ: ‘We are looking at all the old schemes and a [Cullinan] scheme is a possibility.

She added: ‘We have to move fast and we are looking at what we already have.‘

Robin Nicholson, practice director at Edward Cullinan Architects, said: ‘As soon as the other scheme (DCM) began to move into the sand we wrote to EH saying to them that there was no doubt that Larkhill is the best site – whoever does it.

‘The site is 1km north of the stones and the great thing is that you can see Stonehenge from the roof of the building but you can’t see the building from the stones.

EH wants the centre to be up and running by 2012 to cater for the expected invasion of tourists arriving on the back of the London Olympics. EH will have ‘critical meetings in late January and February’ with stakeholders and representatives from UNESCO.

The full article

The label “national disgrace” has for too long been attached to our national icon. But now the failure to deal with it after so many years is creating the appearance of a national humiliation.

The most recent scheme (the Stonehenge Project) was cancelled by the government in December 2007. Quite properly in our view since it aimed to improve the immediate setting of the stones but at the cost of vast collateral damage to the wider surrounding landscape and was consequently strongly opposed by most archaeological and heritage bodies. (For more, see our previous Summary and our Journal article, Stonehenge Saved). The government has also made clear that no other large scale schemes are to be considered.

However, this means the way is now clear for the programme of smaller-scale but urgently needed improvements long called for by the Stonehenge Alliance, Save Stonehenge and others. We have termed it Achievable Stonehenge......

heritageaction.org/?page=heritagealerts_stonehenge

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/7130666.stm

“No-one with any sense wanted a tunnel, a flyover, a dual carriageway, and two whacking great interchanges here”

Chris Woodford, Save Stonehenge spokesman

English Heritage said it is very disappointed plans for a 2.1km bored tunnel taking traffic away from Stonehenge have been shelved.
The announcement, made in a parliamentary statement, concluded the £540m for the proposed tunnel scheme could not be justified.

English Heritage said it was encouraged the setting of the stones and a visitor centre were still a priority.

The cost of the 2.1km-long (1.3 mile) scheme had soared from £223m.
After careful consideration, we have now concluded that, due to significant environmental constraints across the whole of the World Heritage Site, there are no acceptable alternatives to the 2.1km bored tunnel scheme.

“The government recognises the importance of the A303 Stonehenge improvement scheme and that the announcement would come as a considerable disappointment for the project’s supporters.”

He said the Highways Agency would investigate possible small-scale improvements to the A303 as part of its overall stewardship of the route.
The tunnel scheme was deemed the best alternative scheme for an area which suffers major traffic hold-ups.

The decision was welcomed by the Save Stonehenge organisation.

Spokesman Chris Woodford said that only a 1.3-mile section of the proposed 7.7-mile route would have been underground and that the decision “was the only sensible outcome”.

“Christmas has come early for Stonehenge. No-one with any sense wanted a tunnel, a flyover, a dual carriageway, and two whacking great interchanges here.

“It’s just not acceptable to build 1950s-style motorways in places like this anymore,” he said.

Denise Carlo, of the Campaign for Better Transport (formerly Transport 2000), said: “We’ve been saying for years that the plan to build a tunnel and road through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site would be an environmental and financial disaster.”

But shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said: “Stonehenge’s World Heritage status will be in jeopardy if this problem remains unsolved.”

Ms Villiers said the United Nations’ cultural arm Unesco had called on the government in July to explain its lack of progress on the scheme, which was announced in 1998.

“Why has this government taken 10 years only to come back to square one? This is one of the most notorious traffic bottlenecks in the country, it impacts on great swathes of the south west who will feel betrayed by this announcement.

“One of our greatest cultural icons has been left in limbo for a decade as a result of this government’s total inability to make a decision or deliver on their very clear promises.”

Winterbourne Stoke’s bypass is also threatened
Plans for a tunnel taking traffic away from Stonehenge are likely to be scrapped within days.
The BBC has learned the government believes the tunnel’s cost of £510m is too expensive.

Transport correspondent Paul Clifton said an announcement was due next week which will “almost certainly spell the end of the tunnel”.

He said Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly would announce another review of the options, the 10th such review to date.

ALTERNATIVES TO THE TUNNEL
A northern route – which would have a junction with the A360 then go south of Larkhill and rejoin A303 at the Countess roundabout at Amesbury. It would involve a cut-and-cover tunnel
A southern route – which would have a junction with the A360 then go south of Stonehenge before rejoining the A303
A cut-and-cover tunnel – like the first tunnel scheme – but closer to the surface than a bored tunnel
A partial solution – which would include closing the A344 at its junction with the A303 and offer options for the end of the Winterbourne Stoke bypass

English Heritage has refused to comment on the story until the government makes an official announcement.

A Department of Transport spokesperson would only say: “An announcement will be made in due course”.

The 1.3 mile (2.09km) tunnel was recommended after a public inquiry in 2004 but was put on hold by the Department for Transport (DfT) when its costs rose to £510m.

The DfT insisted on re-examining some of the options the public inquiry ruled out.

Four options to protect the World Heritage site and provide a bypass for the nearby village of Winterbourne Stoke had previously been unveiled by the Highways Agency in February 2006.

They included a “cut and cover” tunnel, which is cheaper than a deep-bore passage and involves creating a shallow channel and covering it with a roof and a bypass to the north or south and changes to the Countess Roundabout.

News the tunnel is now unlikely to be built has a knock-on effect for the people of Winterbourne Stoke which has the A303 as its main street and had been promised a bypass as part of the wider plan.

Councillor Ian West, who lives in the village, said: “We should be challenging them now to disconnect the two objects because Winterbourne Stoke is still suffering from over 30,000 vehicles a day thundering through it.

“We went through the public inquiry and there were no contentious issues on the line so what we want now is it disconnected then let’s do Winterbourne Stoke and they can argue about Stonehenge for another century if they wish.”

To date the total amount spent on the A303 Stonehenge Improvement from the time the scheme entered the roads programme in the late 1990s is £19m.

The cost of the public inquiry which was held in 2004 was £3m.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/7103371.stm

Archaeologists working near Stonehenge have uncovered what they believe is the largest Neolithic settlement ever discovered in Northern Europe.

Remains of an estimated 300 houses are thought to survive under earthworks 3km (2 miles) from the famous stone rings, and 10 have been excavated so far.

But there could have been double that total according to the archaeologist leading the work.

“What is really exciting is realising just how big the village for the Stonehenge builders was,” says Professor Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University.

Allowing four per house, he estimates there could have been room for more than 2,000 people.

Analysis of the houses has also showed that some were higher status than others. This is the first evidence for social difference and hierarchy at the time of Stonehenge, indicating that the organisation of labour for moving and raising the stones was not egalitarian.

The settlement is buried beneath the bank of Durrington Walls, a great circular ditched enclosure.

Durrington Walls holds clues to the Stonehenge story
Geophysical survey and excavation work have revealed that the ditch and bank had been constructed in large sections, probably by separate work gangs.

A find of dozens of antler picks in one section of ditch gives some idea of the size of these work parties.

“From the number of antler picks left in the bottom of one section – 57 – if you allow two people with one pick plus a team of basketeers carrying the rubble away and you’ve got to have the sandwich makers as well.

“This suggests a minimum team size of 200. If the 22 sections of Durrington’s ditch were all dug at the same time, that’s a work force of thousands.”

The settlement beneath Durrington Walls dates from around the time of the construction of Stonehenge’s sarsen stones, about 2600 to 2500 BC.

For Mike Parker Pearson, the new evidence throws an important light on how Neolithic society worked – how people organised themselves to build mega-structures.

Bone and other artefacts are being dug up
Apply this to Stonehenge, and he believes there were groups of about 200-400 people working under a clan head, responsible for completing individual sections of the overall monument.

“It’s possible that most of Southern Britain may have been involved at one stage or another,” Parker Pearson says.

Other evidence from cow and pig bones found on the site suggests that people were coming into the area on a seasonal basis.

“This was a temporary settlement,” he says. “They were not doing basic daily chores, not grinding corn, not raising animals. There were no baby pigs and cows. It looks like the livestock had been brought in.”

And there is also evidence of feasting at Durrington Neolithic village such as bones still connected together.

“This is the sort of thing you are expecting at feasting occasions – discarded but still-edible joints of meat – when everyone has got enough to eat.”

So far, only a fraction of the area has been excavated
The team has also found a tantalising artefact: a piece of chalk with cut marks that Parker Pearson believes was made by a copper axe.

He is not surprised at the evidence – as copper working in neighbouring parts of mainland Europe dates back to 3000 BC – but it would be the first evidence from Britain before 2400 BC.

The theory is also supported by the almost total absence of evidence of stone or flint axes in the village.

The current excavations at Stonehenge began four years ago and are part of a 10-year project.

Secrets of Stonehenge is on BBC Radio 4 at 2000 GMT on Monday, 5 November.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7078578.stm

“The Stonehenge Riverside Project, which begins on Sunday, aims to understand the purposes of Stonehenge between 2000 and 3000BC.

The archaeological excavations are pursuing a hypothesis that Neolithic Durrington Walls was the land of the living’ and Stonehenge the land of the dead,’ linked by a transitional journey along the River Avon.

As part of this exciting project, young people aged 16-25 are being invited to get involved through a youth volunteering project, which develops opportunities in the heritage and conservation sector in the south west”.

The excavations take place from August 19 to September 14, 10am to 4pm. Entry is free to the public and guided tours will be available throughout. On the Special Open Days August 25-27 and 8-9 September, there will be demonstrations of prehistoric cookery, archery, flint knapping and pottery by re-enactors.

Anyone interested can contact Hannah Mayell at [email protected] or on 07825034252.

salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/salisbury/salisburynews/display.var.1623431.0.dig_will_unearth_henges_secrets.php

English Heritage is urging as many people as possible to vote for Stonehenge to ensure it becomes one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

“Stonehenge represents something particularly special in our nation’s history, ” said Mr Carson.

But not special enough to warrant a special approach to it’s problems, eh?

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/6759503.stm

English Heritage’s Appeal against refusal of planning permission for its new Stonehenge visitor centre has been allowed and planning permission granted by the Secretary of State, subject to 58 conditions and a Section 106 Agreement between Salisbury District Council and the applicant. This is absolutely no surprise to objectors to a scheme that is part of what has become a very expensive Stonehenge Project led by the Government acting as both promoter and decision-maker....

savestonehenge.org.uk/rescue102.html

Plans for vast irreversible changes to the surroundings of our national icon “in time for the Olympics” are fully in place. Most heritage and archaeological bodies, with the extraordinary exception of English Heritage, are totally opposed to them. Yet final government confirmation may be imminent......

the rest of the article can be read here;

heritageaction.org/?page=heritagealerts_stonehenge

“English Heritage today welcomed the Government’s decision to grant planning permission for new visitor facilities at Stonehenge.”

Full story:
Wiltshire Times
English Heritage

Archaeologists say they have found a huge ancient settlement used by the people who built Stonehenge.
Excavations at Durrington Walls, near the legendary Salisbury Plain monument, uncovered remains of ancient houses.

People seem to have occupied the sites seasonally, using them for ritual feasting and funeral ceremonies.

In ancient times, this settlement would have housed hundreds of people, making it the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain.

The dwellings date back to 2,600-2,500 BC, the same period that Stonehenge was built.

“In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards,” said archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University.

He said he based this on the fact that houses have exactly the same layout as Neolithic houses at Skara Brae in Orkney, which have survived intact because – unlike these dwellings – they were made of stone.

The researchers have excavated eight dwellings in total that belonged to the Durrington settlement. But they have identified many other probable dwellings using geophysical surveying equipment.

The archaeologists think there could have been at least one hundred houses.

Each one would have measured about 5m (16ft) square: “fairly pokey”, according to Professor Parker Pearson.

Full story >

Saturday 9th December 2006

A lecture re-assessing the local and regional associations of Stonehenge, by Prof. Mike Parker Pearson, Professor of Archaeology at Sheffield University.

This is a fundraising lecture in aid of the Wiltshire Heritage Museum.

The Stonehenge Riverside Project is exploring and re-interpreting the archaeological evidence of the landscape around Stonehenge, Woodhenge and Durrington Walls. As a result of these investigations new theories regarding the purpose of Stonehenge have been put forward. One of these suggests that Stonehenge was linked via avenues and the River Avon to Durrington Walls, a Neolithic monument with timber circles, as part of a funerary and processional route. Stonehenge may, therefore, have been built not for the living but to commemorate the ancestors, their permanence being materialised in stone.

Prof Parker-Pearson is Professor of Archaeology at Sheffield University and as one of the team-leaders of the project is closely involved with the excavations that have taken place at Durrington Walls over the past few summers. He is an internationally renowned expert in the archaeology of death and also specialises in the later prehistory of Britain and northern Europe. He has published more than 10 books and over 100 academic papers on a variety of topics.

This lecture will be held at Devizes Town Hall.

Visit www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events to find out more.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/5072664.stm

Hopes rise for “an end to Stonehenge neglect”

Campaigners for early improvements to the surroundings of Stonehenge have expressed delight that a number of high profile organisations have now called for the same thing.

“Everyone who has visited Stonehenge knows what a mess the surroundings are” said George Chaplin of Timewatch. “There is a lot to do, yet there has been nothing but talking and arguing for years. But it struck us that some first steps could be taken almost straight away, particularly closing part of the side road that runs right past the stones, and that everyone would agree about that. So we got together with Heritage Action and launched a call for “Achievable Stonehenge”, obvious improvements that could be started very soon without waiting for the longer term issues to be finalised.”

“It seems we really struck a chord” said fellow campaigner Nigel Swift of Heritage Action. “Everyone seems to think it is a great idea and this week the whole concept has had a huge boost. A group of major heritage organisations like the National Trust, the Council for British Archaeology, Friends of the Earth and lots of others have issued a joint press release calling for the same approach.”

“The government is due to make an announcement about the whole Stonehenge issue this summer” added Mr Swift. “They are running a public consultation to gauge opinion and it looks as if the public is very clear about this issue at least and definitely wants the job tackled in two stages with the first stage made a matter of urgency. We are hoping that a huge number of people will sign our petition. If we can achieve that, then together with the call from the other organisations, the government will be sent a message that can’t be ignored.”

The “Stop the Neglect of Stonehenge” campaign and petition can be seen at heritageaction.org/?page=heritagealerts_stonehenge

Heritage Action have illustrated the simplicity of their idea by releasing “before” and “after” photographs of Stonehenge.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4639116.stm

New plans for Stonehenge bypass
A government transport minister has been outlining possible options for the A303 road around historic Stonehenge.
It follows a decision in July 2005 to review plans – now estimated to cost £510m – to bore a tunnel at the site.
Stephen Ladyman said in addition to the tunnel, the viability of a bypass to the north or south or a ‘cut and cover’ tunnel would be examined.
He said: “The Government is committed to improving the A303 past the World Heritage Site at Stonehenge.”
He added: “I hope that everyone with an interest in this important issue will take this opportunity to contribute to the review process.”
David Lammy of the Highways Agency added: “This review is an important stage in our work. We need to find a solution for the A303 past Stonehenge that is right for the setting of the stones and right for the historic landscape which surrounds them.”
The public consultation period runs from 23 January to 24 April 2006, with public exhibitions being held in Salisbury on 9-11 February 2006 and in London on 17-18 February 2006.
Alternatives to the underground road tunnel at the site could threaten the recovery of one of Britain’s rarest birds – the stone curlew – the RSPB has warned.

rspb.org.uk/action/stonehenge.asp

The RSPB says that the two proposed overground routes would destroy nesting and roosting sites of the stone curlew, which only has two UK strongholds.

“The southern route would destroy two-thirds of the RSPB’s Normanton Down Reserve and split the remainder, reducing its value to wildlife. The reserve is part of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site and boasts Britain’s most important Bronze Age barrow cemetery. The site is also an invaluable feeding ground for stone-curlews before they leave on migration. Last year 19 birds were seen together, using the area as a direct result of improved habitat management.

The northern option would run close to the Salisbury Plain Special Protection Area (SPA), a site protected by European wildlife laws. The road scheme would damage the potential of that land for increasing stone-curlew numbers.

Stonehenge lies close to the SPA, which together with Porton Down and Normanton Down forms north-west Europe’s largest network of chalk grassland. Corn bunting, skylark and lapwing are amongst declining birds using the area together with butterflies such as the grizzled skipper, one of several disappearing chalkland specialists. The harebell and dropwort are amongst thriving plants that are rare elsewhere.

The RSPB believes the government should not consider the northern or southern over-ground routes as viable options and hopes that the review process will lead to the adoption of route less damaging for the area’s wildlife.

from www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk 15 October 2005

A team of archaeologists from Sheffield University have revealed significant new insights into the role of Stonehenge after discovering a prehistoric ceremonial road. The team, also from four other universities, discovered the avenue.

It proves there was a walkway between a henge (a circular momument) at Durrington Walls, and the River Avon, three miles away, blowing a hole in the theory the standing stones at Stonehenge were a one-off feature.

The new find supports the team’s theory that Stonehenge was in fact just one part of a much larger complex of stone and timber circles linked by ceremonial avenues to the river.

Radiocarbon dates indicate the henge was in use at the same time as the sarsen stones were erected at Stonehenge. The newly-discovered roadway, with its rammed flint surface, is wider than most modern roads and more substantial than any other Neolithic track in Europe.

It runs for about 100 metres (328ft) from the timber circle within the great henge to the river. Analysis has shown that the avenue was heavily trampled by prehistoric feet, and archaeologists have unearthed numerous finds along its edge.

Prof Mike Parker Pearson, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Archaeology, believes Stonehenge and Durrington Walls, together with its adjacent site of Woodhenge, were linked by the river to form a single complex.

He has suggested the entire complex was a funerary monument. The work was filmed for a Channel 4 Time Team special, to be screened next year.

From the article in ‘This Is Wiltshire‘
thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/salisbury/news/SALIS_NEWS4.html

An English Heritage spokesman said: “We believe the grounds for refusal are ones that can easily be addressed and we will be discussing with Salisbury district council when to resubmit the scheme.”

Salisbury MP Robert Key said it was important that meetings to resolve concerns about the scheme were held quickly, to ensure the funding remained in place: “There is a worry that, if there continues to be this time-slippage, the lottery funding for the project will be allocated to the Olympic Games, which would love to get its hands on these millions of pounds,” he said.

The Heritage Lottery Fund says it will stick by this project for the time being, but something must be resolved. “If English Heritage does appeal against the council’s decision, it could take up to a year and Salisbury district council – and therefore the council taxpayer – could be facing a bill of £500,000. “It will save a lot of time and money if these issues can be resolved and the plans are resubmitted.”

The National Trust echoed the view, adding that the fundamental solution to Stonehenge’s problems was “resolving the current stranglehold of the A303 and A344”. Fiona Reynolds, director-general of the trust, said: “English Heritage’s plans are only one part of the vision to reunite the stones with their landscape and improve the experience for visitors.”

The district council said English Heritage had failed to demonstrate that the height, width and length of the land train and track would not have an adverse impact on residents, the world heritage site and archaeology. The council committee was also concerned about the impact on the flow of traffic on the A303.

“Plans for a £67m visitor centre at Stonehenge have been turned down over worries about the environment.
Salisbury District Council said the decision to refuse the plan was exacerbated by government plans to review upgrades to the nearby A303.”

Full BBC story at:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/4719555.stm

________________________________________________________

Update: English Heitage to re-submit plans

“English Heritage is very surprised and disappointed by this decision......
We believe that the grounds for refusal are ones which can easily be addressed and will be discussing with Salisbury District Council when to re-submit the scheme.”

Press release:
english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.5437

The Council for British Archaeology (CBA) has responded to news that the proposed tunnelling of a main road past Stonehenge is to be reviewed after its estimated cost doubled. The CBA hopes the Government will reconsider the whole scheme.

“We were strongly opposed to the planned tunnel,” said Mike Heyworth, Director of the CBA. “Now it sounds as if they’re going to kick it into the long grass.”

A statement from the CBA confirmed that it remains: “resolutely opposed to the proposals for a short tunnel, which removes the A303 from the immediate vicinity of the stones but only at the cost of major damage to the rest of the World Heritage Site. The CBA believes that it is essential to look beyond the area visible from Stonehenge itself, as its prehistoric builders so clearly did, to appreciate the extraordinary landscape of ceremonial and funerary monuments around it.”

Mike Heyworth explained that for the CBA, the most pressing issue is the closure of the A344 (which runs right by the stones) and the relocation of the visitor centre. He believes there are other options that haven’t been explored, in particular a new surface route outside the World Heritage Site, which the CBA will be strongly pushing for.

He commented: “It is ironic that the Government has made this announcement during National Archaeology Week ... The CBA urges the Government to use the forthcoming review to seek a world class solution for a world class archaeological landscape.”

taken from the article by Caroline Lewis
at the 24hr Museum website
24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART29513.html

The “national disgrace” of Stonehenge is back where it started. After decades of argument and millions spent, the government yesterday went back to the drawing board on the traffic-choked roads which strangle the world heritage site.
Supporters and opponents of the tunnel were equally stunned. The Campaign to Protect Rural England, noting the approved proposal for a new 50-mile toll motorway beside the M6, said: “The government’s green credentials have withered in the heat.”

English Heritage, whose new, Australian-designed visitor centre is dependent on resolving the roads issue, said it understood concern over costs.“However, we continue to believe that the proposed road scheme represents the best value for money for achieving all the desired improvements while offering protection to the underlying archaeology.”

The National Trust, owner of thousands of acres of surrounding farmland, has called for a much longer tunnel. It said the review “should not in any way diminish the quality of the long-awaited project, or delay it substantially”.

Mike Pitts, an archaeologist who has excavated at Stonehenge, and written about the site, said: “This is terrible news. In the wake of winning the London bid for the Olympics, it hardly encourages belief in the government’s support for grand projects.”

from the article by
Maev Kennedy in The Guardian
guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1532745,00.html

Roads Minister Dr Stephen Ladyman today announced that a detailed review of the options to ease congestion on the A303 and improve the setting around Stonehenge is to be carried out.

The review is necessary because there has been a very substantial increase in the estimated costs of the proposed Stonehenge tunnel since the scheme went to Public Inquiry.

Following recent detailed site survey work carried out by the Highways Agency the estimated costs of the scheme have risen from £284m when the draft Orders were published in 2003 to some £470m. This significant increase on original costs is due to two main factors; very large quantities of phosphatic (soft, weak) chalk and a high water table, with the groundwater potentially rising to the surface at times of heavy rainfall. These factors would significantly complicate the tunnelling process and extend the overall construction period of the scheme.

Dr Stephen Ladyman said:

“The increase in scheme costs represents a significant change to the basis on which the Government originally decided to progress this scheme. Our recognition of the importance of Stonehenge as a World Heritage Site remains unchanged but given the scale of the cost increase we have to re-examine whether the scheme still represents value for money and if it remains the best option for delivering the desired improvements”.

The Government plans to carry out a detailed review of the options, consulting relevant environmental interests including, in particular, English Heritage and the National Trust, before taking a final decision on the Inspector’s Report. The review will also consider the implications of delaying the Stonehenge scheme for the delivery of improvements proposed for other single carriageway sections of the A303 further to the west. We will make an announcement on the way forward as soon as possible.

more at the DoT website:
dft.gov.uk/pns/displaypn.cgi?pn_id=2005_0081

The controversial tunnel under Stonehenge was dubbed “the new Bath Spa” by campaigners yesterday after the cost of the project soared to £223million. The Department for Transport (DfT) said the previous figure of £193million had ignored the cost of buying and preparing the land for the tunnel, designed to hide the A303, which passes near the ancient Wiltshire monument.

Stonehenge campaigners said the project was looking more and more like the disastrously overpriced Bath Spa and Millennium Dome projects.

The cost of the mile-long tunnel was originally put at £183million in 2002, but Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman yesterday said “some further increase in costs is now anticipated”.

The “Save Stonehenge” group said delays and price increases could lead Ministers to abandon plans for the road altogether.

And druid leader King Arthur Pendragon – who led a pagan service at the monument at Tuesday’s solstice festival – warned that the “biggest protest in Europe” would be staged if the Government rejected the tunnel in favour of a cheaper option.

He said the Government could opt for a “cut and cover” tunnel, which would involve sinking the road then adding a roof, rather than boring a tunnel.

“If the Government did that, it would devastate so much archaeology – they could expect the biggest protest in Europe, ” he said.

“Stonehenge is up there with the pyramids in Egypt for cultural significance, so they have to get it right. But they also have to get on with it – the longer they take the more it will cost and the less chance they will build the road at all.

“It is being handled like the Millennium Dome – needless bureaucracy making what is already a very expensive project into an unattainable one.”

Chris Woodford, of Save Stonehenge, said: “It is increasingly likely the Government will not approve the tunnel. If the price goes up much more it will simply not be affordable. You can imagine the Government thinking this is a Millennium Dome-type white elephant and giving up on the project.”

The planning inspector’s report on last year’s public inquiry into the road was completed in January, but the DfT has still to decide whether to approve the tunnel.

Added to this, plans for a new £57million visitor centre have been submitted to Salisbury District Council by English Heritage. These are the subject of another planning inquiry, but if DfT rejects the tunnel then there is no hope for the visitor centre.

Terence Meaden, of the Stonehenge Society, said the bureaucracy was holding up the project and adding to the cost.

He said: “Nowadays, everybody gets consulted and there are so many bodies and committees sticking their noses in. There are similarities with the Bath Spa situation.”

But David Batchelor, an archaeologist for English Heritage, played down concerns about the project. He said: “It would be nice if the process went forward faster, but it takes time and we have to accept that.”

article at the Western Daily Press website
westpress.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=146278&command=displayContent&sourceNode=146274&contentPK=12705772

Revisions to the Stonehenge planning application and environmental statement are now available for viewing and comment. Online at Salisbury District Council’s website:
salisbury.gov.uk/stonehenge/
where the revisions (including answers to questions/clarifications people and organisations have posed) are at
salisbury.gov.uk/stonehenge/ application/report/s2004-0001-supplementary-information.pdf

THE government will face “international outrage” if the green light is given for the dual carriageway to be constructed near Stonehenge, according to a survey by the Save Stonehenge group. The group claims that a new survey shows people from all parts of the world are opposed to the Stonehenge road scheme.

Group member Chris Woodford said: “Our survey suggests there is overwhelming international opposition to the British government’s plans to construct a new section of dual carriageway – a four-lane highway – only partly in a tunnel, through the world-famous heritage site.”

The group has been publicising the plans on a website, which also includes an interactive message board where readers can post their views. The group claims that, between March 2001 and October 2004, readers from 18 countries have left more than 300 written comments, and only 12 have supported the plan.

Mr Woodford said: “Most of the comments express anger, shock, shame and outrage. Almost all call for the British government to explore other solutions that do not involve damaging road construction inside the World Heritage site. Stonehenge is not just a World Heritage site, it is a world icon. People throughout the world revere and respect this place.

“We believe transport secretary Alistair Darling is considering giving the green light to a road scheme that will bulldoze a new, four-lane highway right through the middle of it*. If he does, as our survey very clearly shows, he will experience the full force of international outrage and concerted opposition every step of the way.”

[*presumably not actually through Stonehenge itself.]

from thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/amesbury/news/AMES_NEWS6.html

and you may wish to view the site at
savestonehenge.org.uk/

Salisbury district council is urging people to comment on the Stonehenge visitor centre planning application before the public consultation comes to an end next Wednesday.

Already, more than 250 people have written to the council with their views on English Heritage’s plans.

On top of that, a week-long exhibition held at Amesbury library, where people could view a model of the proposed visitor centre and ask Salisbury district council’s case officer, David Milton, questions about the scheme, attracted about 350 residents.

The scheme from English Heritage, plans for a single-storey visitor centre alongside Countess Road in Amesbury, is one of the biggest and most eagerly awaited planning applications ever submitted to Salisbury district council.

The model of the proposed visitor centre can be viewed at the council offices in Bourne Hill.

Copies of the application are also available for inspection at Bourne Hill, the planning office in Wyndham Road and Amesbury library.

Alternatively, plans can be viewed on the council’s dedicated Stonehenge pages at www.salisbury.gov.uk.

From This Is Wiltshire:
thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/amesbury/news/AMES_NEWS3.html

Plans for a £67.5m visitors’ centre, which will help rejuvenate facilities at Stonehenge, have been unveiled.

The proposals, submitted by English Heritage, are for a single-storey building two miles from the stones.

Around 750,000 people visit Stonehenge each year, but the site’s facilities have been slammed by critics who have called them “a national disgrace”.

Sir Neil Cossons, chairman of English Heritage, said: “Until now, we have let our ancestors down.”

He added: “If successful, this planning application will allow us to remove the worst excesses of the modern day and create a seamless downland landscape.”

‘Inspiring and uplifting‘

The proposed new centre is the product of three years’ work by English Heritage.

It will be built just outside the World Heritage site and will contain exhibitions, educational facilities and a cafe.

A new land train will take visitors on a 25-minute journey from the centre to the stones, via a series of drop-off points across the site.

The plans have been submitted to Salisbury District Council and a decision is expected in 2005.

“At last, it looks as if the millions of people who come to visit Stonehenge from all over the world will receive the inspiring and uplifting experience that they expect and the stones deserve,” said Sir Neil.

A public inquiry was held earlier this year into a separate £193m scheme, which would see the busy A303 re-routed away from the Stonehenge site through a tunnel.

The findings of that inquiry are being examined by an independent planning inspector.

A report from the inspector will be used by the government to decide whether the plans get the go-ahead.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/3658024.stm

“SALISBURY, England (Reuters) -- Whoever built Stonehenge, the 5,000-year-old circle of megaliths that towers over green fields in southern England and lures a million visitors a year, couldn’t have planned for the automobile.

If they had, they might have defused a growing controversy over proposals to dig a massive car tunnel a few hundred yards from one of Europe’s best-known historical sites.

Conservation groups, the Highways Agency and white-robed druids -- a pagan order that celebrates Stonehenge as a center of spiritualism -- are fighting over a 200 million pound ($367 million) proposal for a 1.3-mile-long tunnel.”

continues on CNN.com ...

edition.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/08/18/stonehenge.tunnel.reut/index.html

From BBC’s Newsround page:
news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/animals/default.stm

Badgers are getting into a heap of trouble near the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge.
The nocturnal burrowers are digging into ancient burial mounds at the site about five miles away from the stones.
The Ministry of Defence, which owns the land, is trying to shift the snuffly diggers to areas of less import.
Big fences are being considered to stop the badgers returning to their setts, or burrows. Killing the creatures has been ruled out.
English Heritage, which looks after sites of historical interest, has said: “Culling badgers has not been considered by English Heritage and is not our policy.”
English Heritage is now conducting research to find out more about the impact the badgers are having on the area.

english-heritage.org.uk/default.asp?wci=mainframe&URL1=default.asp%3FWCI%3DNodeContent%26WCE%3D3824

No duvets, nightlights, bicycles or wheelbarrows please.

Article from Neal Ascherson in The Observer, Sunday 13 June 2004, considering the dilemmas Stonehenge presents to developers.

Lose the roaring A roads and restore the empty grassland around Stonehenge? Sounds like a great plan – but objectors say it is missing the opportunity of the century

A week tomorrow is the summer solstice. The druids, the pilgrims and an assorted army of expectant people will gather at Stonehenge to greet the dawn. If it’s clear weather, they will hope to see the disc of the midsummer sun appear in the gap between two of the huge sarsen uprights, in line with the single monolith of the heel stone. Then they will sing and rejoice and inhale the flow of spiritual force. Continues here...

The wrangling over the future of the roads near Stonehenge came to an end on Tuesday, after almost three months of hearings. Since the inquiry began on February 17, Inspector Michael Ellison has heard arguments supporting the construction of a 2.1 km tunnel under the World Heritage site from the Highways Agency and English Heritage, along with heated objections from the National Trust, environmental campaigners and archaeological groups.

Mr Ellison has also studied eight official alternative routes for the A303, which include converting the current road into a dual carriageway, extending the tunnel, and rerouting the stretch to either the north or south of the stones. More than 100 witnesses, including Druids, concerned residents, noise and light pollution experts and anti-road protesters, have given evidence at the inquiry, and thousands of documents, letters and maps were received. Participants have outlined their cases and faced rigorous cross examination before closing submissions were made this week.

The inspector has also been on site visits to Stonehenge and its surrounding roads and landscape, and will now consider the masses of evidence before compiling his report, due to be published in the autumn. Mr Ellison’s findings will include a recommendation that will be put before the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, who will make the final decision on the future of the world famous landmark.

If the tunnel gets the green light, £70m of the £200m bill will be met by heritage sources and the department of culture, media and sport, in one of the first agreements of its kind. The Highways Agency said the project, which includes a bypass for Winterbourne Stoke, could begin as early as next spring. It predicts it will take three-and-a-half years to complete, and will affect between 22,000 and 33,000 motorists a day. However if Mr Prescott rejects the published scheme, the 13-year row over the A303 near Stonehenge looks set to rage long into the future.

thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/salisbury/news/SALIS_NEWS11.html

wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,63227,00.html/wn_ascii

“The whole idea of the henge is that people can come out here and learn real basic astronomy, the real foundations of what astronomy is all about,” says Richard Hall, the infectiously enthusiastic and indefatigable project manager and president of the Phoenix Astronomical Society, which is building the Kiwi henge.

The aim of the project, funded by a grant of NZ$56,500 from the Royal Society of New Zealand, is to generate interest in science among people who might not normally be keen on the subject.

“We came up with the idea of Stonehenge because it doesn’t matter who you are -- everyone looks at the Pyramids and Stonehenge and structures like that (and asks) who built them, why did they build them?” says Hall.

A henge is a roughly circular flat area surrounded by a ditch and a bank of earth, sometimes with a ring of stones or wooden posts within the circular ditch. The New Zealand Stonehenge, due to open June 5, won’t merely replicate what is in the Northern Hemisphere; the aim is to create an astronomical calendar for the southern skies.

“The original Stonehenge was very accurate,” says Hall, “because, remember, they built that over a thousand-year period. You can see where they’ve actually had to move things, where things worked OK for a while and then they came out of adjustment. We’ve got a one-shot here. We’re going to get it right.”

One of the first jobs when the project started in earnest last September was to accurately survey the site, explains Kay Leather, the project’s construction team manager.

“You have to work out, as (the stars) come up, where they will actually appear, as against where a computer says they’ll appear, because they are not on the sea horizon,” says Leather. “The lintel is actually governed by the hill line so that you’ve got the stars and things happening at the right point and the rest of the henge happening at the right point.”

After the team finished surveying, it took months to fence, excavate and level the site. Late February’s torrential rains in Wairarapa, in the southern half of the North Island of New Zealand, didn’t help. The ditch kept collapsing. “I guess we dug heavy, sloppy, hard clay about three times, my daughter and I,” says Leather, laughing now at the memory of the bad weather. “There were ducks swimming around over there.”

Next they erected the pillars and lintels, hollow structures constructed using wood and cement board (hewn stone would have been too expensive and time-consuming to erect). But in a nod to the old, the finished henge will be coated with cement and covered in plaster sculpted to look like stone. Inside the “stones” will be some modern accoutrements: wires to allow a sound system to be installed. “We’ve already got two couples who want to get married out here,” says Hall.

An obelisk inside the stone circle will mark the passage of the year as the shadow of the obelisk moves in a figure eight on a mosaic of 18,500 tiles below. The tiles will display the date and the constellations of the zodiac. Outside the circle, three pairs of standing stones will show where the sun will rise and set for each of the solstices and equinoxes. “So you can see the enormous distances the sun actually travels along the horizon,” says Hall.

Every key point will have a plaque denoting its significance. “It may be a simple phrase like ‘midsummer solstice sunrise.’ The ones that are more seasonally oriented will have something like ‘time to harvest the kumara (sweet potato),’” says Leather.

To make the henge truly of Aotearoa (the Mâori name for New Zealand), the astronomers have ensured that their creation links to the stars that Polynesian navigators used to cross the Pacific Ocean. “We’ve also turned this henge into a huge Polynesian star compass so people will see how people used the stars to navigate by,” says Hall.

For those who want to learn even more, the Wairarapa site is home to the Phoenix Astronomical Society’s recreational telescope and will eventually house a research observatory as well. But even if visitors only meander amid the Kiwi henge, the hope is that they will learn something new.

Says Hall: “We’ve got the ancient here, where our ancestors started from, which is just as valid as it was 10,000 years ago, and then we are going to have the modern astronomy here as well.”

5th March 2004

The National Trust today finished presenting its evidence to the Stonehenge Roads Improvement Scheme Inquiry.

The Trust has objected to the proposed 2.1km road tunnel scheme on landscape, archaeological and ecological grounds. During its evidence, the Trust highlighted that four key modifications – including lengthening the tunnel by 800m – would appear to offer significant advantages over the existing scheme in terms of landscape character, noise and visual impact.

The Trust’s evidence emphasised that the Stonehenge World Heritage Site and its setting comprise a landscape of extraordinarily high significance for its archaeology and its spirit of place. However, during the past century, human activity and intervention have gravely damaged the prehistoric landscape, and the spirit of place has been spoiled by roads, dismal visitor facilities and the cultivation of crops.

While applauding the government for its desire to pursue a scheme that would rescue Stonehenge from its present predicament, the Trust does not believe that the current scheme proposed by the Highways Agency is the right solution for Stonehenge or delivers the objectives of the Stonehenge Management Plan. The Trust’s objection relates principally to the failure of the proposed scheme to reunite the stone circle and its associated monuments with the rich historic landscape surrounding it.

However, the Trust highlighted that four modifications to the proposed scheme would do much to reduce or avoid the adverse impacts on the site and would have material advantages over the existing scheme in terms of landscape character, noise and visual impact. These modifications are:

- Moving the proposed western portal approximately 200 metres westwards.

- Moving the proposed eastern portal 600 metres eastwards

- Using a tunnel boring machine for the construction of the tunnel instead of the presently proposed sprayed concrete lining method. This would significantly ameliorate the potential impacts at Stonehenge Bottom.

- Creating a bridleway instead of a byway along the course of the former A303.

Locating the proposed tunnel portal further out at either end of the tunnel would produce significant benefits for six archaeological sites, five of which are scheduled and four of which are acknowledged on behalf of the Highways Agency to be important. One of these four sites is part of the Normanton Down Barrow Group and two of the others are adjacent to it.

The relocation of the proposed eastern portal would also enable the reconnection of the Avenue. The Avenue constitutes a ceremonial monument of great fame and rarity but it is currently severed by the A303 and would remain so under the proposed scheme. In presenting its evidence, the Trust points out that this treatment is inconsistent with the objective of the Stonehenge Management Plan to enhance the features of degraded archaeological features where appropriate. Furthermore, the Highway’s Agency’s own longer tunnels report recognises that real landscape and cultural heritage benefits would flow from a longer tunnel.

The modifications suggested by the Trust might result in some delay to the construction period. But the Trust believes that in the circumstances pertaining to this uniquely important site, delay would be amply justified.

The Trust’s remit does not extend to assessing the relative economics of one scheme against another. In its curatorial remit, the Trust remains focused on doing what it can to ensure that the chance is not lost to reunite the stone circle with the rich historic landscape surrounding it. In the end, the issue of cost must be a matter for government, having regard to its responsibilities under the World Heritage Convention.

More via – nationaltrust.org.uk/webpack/bin/webpack.exe/livebase?object=LiveBase1&itemurn=1506&mode=wbFullItem

“King” of Stonehenge may have been Swiss – Swissinfo – February 11, 2003 8:08 PM

Stonehenge, the 4,000-year-old mysterious ring of ancient stones, which is one of Britain’s most famous landmarks, may have a Swiss connection.

Archaeologists say that the remains of a wealthy archer – dubbed the King of Stonehenge – found near the site were from the Alps region.

Tony Trueman, a Wessex Archaeology spokesman, said tests on the chemical components of the archer’s tooth enamel confirmed that he had come from an area which is most probably modern-day Switzerland.

He said that it was clear that the man had been important from the sheer volume and value of the finds in his grave and this had resulted in his nickname, the King of Stonehenge.

Important finds

Among the objects were gold hair ornaments and copper knives, making it one of the richest and earliest Bronze Age sites in Britain. The gold is some of the earliest found in the country.

But how much of a link the archer, found just three miles away from Stonehenge at Amesbury, had to the ancient stone ring is open to speculation.

Archaeologists think that the man, who was skilled in metalwork, might have played an important part in the construction of the site and helped to introduce new skills in the area.

“What we do know is that Stonehenge was built about 3000 BC and sometime around 2400-2200 BC people began to put the stones up and right in the middle of that period the archer came over”, Trueman told swissinfo.

“We know that he was an immensely important and influential person and he so must have visited Stonehenge and he must have visited it because he was buried within a short walk of it”, he said.

Sophisticated society

Trueman said that the Swiss would not have had any problems communicating with the Britons as they all spoke a form of Celtic at that time.

He added that there was a lot of international trade and that cultural links with the continent were strong during the period that Stonehenge was built.

“Look at this man, he was from Switzerland or thereabouts, the copper knives were from Spain and France and he came over to Britain and died there”, explained Trueman.

“We’re looking at an immense movement of people, which we don’t expect when we think of the Stone Age or the Bronze Age. We think of people with clubs living in caves and grunting, but this is much more sophisticated society than people think of”.

Stonehenge is a ring of 20-ton stones on the Salisbury Plain and is a world heritage site. The reason why it was built continues to baffle archaeologists, with some suggesting that it was used as a giant astronomical observatory.

swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=1626144

Road plan would make Stonehenge site “a monument to the car”

From the Green Party’s website
The proposed road cutting would dominate the World Heritage Site, say Salisbury Greens. If the A303 proposals were approved, the new road cutting would become the most prominent monument within the Stonehenge World Heritage Site: the 21st century monument to the car, a kind of inverted Cursus, rivalling the original Cursus in size.”

That’s the warning Salisbury Green Party will present to the public inquiry that begins on Tuesday (17th February).

Local spokesperson Hamish Soutar will tell the inquiry that the damage caused by the new road would far outweigh any benefits from closing the existing roads. He will call for a return to the consensus reached at the 1995 Red Lion Planning Conference. “The Conference agreed with the aim of removing the roads entirely, at least from the area known as the Stonehenge Bowl. There is no surface route for a new road that would meet either with that objective, or with the government’s international obligations to protect the World Heritage Site. English Heritage and the present government are betraying the public by backing the proposed road scheme.”

Local Greens say no new road should be built, leaving the current A303 where it is but implementing road safety measures such as closing the junction with the A344 (something first recommended nearly 70 years ago). But if the government is determined to press ahead with its road-building plans, they say the only solution is a long tunnel under the entire World Heritage Site, as originally proposed by the National Trust and English Heritage and backed by the 1995 Conference.

Hamish Soutar says: “We don’t really want the tunnel, but we are putting it forward because it is important that the Inquiry should consider it. We will argue that any tunnel design has to include every available safety feature, whatever the cost. We will also argue that there are benefits to be had from putting the whole project on hold for twenty years or so. Technology is changing, transport policy changes, and Stonehenge itself is old enough to wait.”

Finally, he adds: “The most important World Heritage Site that we need to protect is the world itself. Our uncertain future will not be helped by continuing to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on vast new roads. Our duty to conserve Stonehenge for future generations is pointless unless we ensure that they have a world fit to live in.

by Richard Sadler of The Guardian
Wednesday February 4, 2004

A public inquiry into plans for a dual carriageway under Stonehenge will stoke the fierce debate on how best to protect a site on a par with the Taj Mahal and the pyramids.

Six years ago, when the new Labour government was seeking to justify spending £758m on the Millennium Dome, ministers were finalising plans involving another national monument, but it, unlike the dome, had been built to last – about five millennia at the last count.

Stonehenge, one of the world’s most famous landmarks and Europe’s most sensitive archaeological site, is on a par with the Taj Mahal and the Pyramid Fields of Giza on the UN’s list of world heritage sites. But the prehistoric monument was due for a makeover – at least, that is how the plans were sold by the government. Complete story here....

Full details at ‘this is amesbury‘
thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/amesbury/news/AMES_NEWS3.html

English Heritage bosses are to be told by the people of Durrington and Larkhill to rethink their plans for a land train to ferry visitors to the World Heritage site at Stonehenge.

Durrington parish council chairman David Healing told a public meeting in the village last Friday night that the proposed route for the land trains would pass very close to the rear of houses in Strangways and Fargo Road, in Larkhill.

More than 100 Durrington and Larkhill residents attending the meeting, held at Durrington village hall, recognised that visitors would have to be transported to Stonehenge but unanimously agreed that the parish council should oppose the planned route and put forward viable alternatives.

They also signed a petition which, when completed, will be handed to English Heritage.

from the Salisbury Journal and Avon Advertiser, 5th Jan 04
Full article (thisiswiltshire.co.uk)

Residents living on the edge of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site have accused heritage bosses of placing more importance on life 4,000 years ago than the quality of life of today’s inhabitants who live close to the ancient stones.

People living in Fargo Road and Strangways, near Larkhill, say English Heritage and the National Trust plan to remove “20th century clutter” from the site but will be replacing them with “21st century clutter”.

The accusations were made at a public meeting in Figheldean last week, when English Heritage and the National Trust revealed their plans for the multi-million-pound Stonehenge visitor centre and the revolutionary land trains that will ferry tourists to and from the stones.

Residents living in Fargo Road and Strangways were notified just before Christmas that English Heritage and the National Trust had chosen their preferred route.

Drop-off points containing just a shelter will be at strategic points along the route and, once at the terminal, visitors will have a ten-minute walk along a bridleway to the stones. The bridleway will be upgraded, so that it can be used by disabled visitors and people in wheelchairs.

The route the land trains will travel goes within 50m of the backs of houses in Fargo Road and Strangways but tree-screening and fencing will help obscure the trains from the houses, said Mr Maloney.

Jane Danser, of English Heritage who is based in Salisbury, assured those present they would meet residents in the New Year individually or as a group, to talk over concerns.

Penny Worboys, who lives in Fargo Road, said the plans for Stonehenge only replaced 20th century clutter with 21st century clutter.
She said: “There are no land trains or tracks there now, no visitor centre. They are being introduced. You are putting something at the back of our houses that is not there now.”

Residents were told that, on peak days, up to six land trains an hour would operate. On other days, there were likely to be between two or three an hour but during the winter months perhaps only one an hour.

Residents suggested that the land train route be sunk into the ground slightly, to reduce the impact, and they asked that any screening be as close to the route as possible, to maximise its effect.

Mr Maloney promised that all suggestions made at the meeting would be looked at and discussed further with local people in the new year, prior to the planning application.

The ministry has not yet agreed to sell the land it owns near Larkhill which is needed for the land train route.

From ‘The Grauniad’, January 2004

The secrets of how the ancient ancestors of modern Britons lived and died could be lost forever because the evidence is being destroyed by badgers.

Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire has harboured the mysteries of civilisations for more than 5,500 years, making it one of Europe’s most treasured archaeological sites.

Just beneath the surface are the remains of Bronze Age burials, Iron Age enclosures, Roman villages, Saxon and Medieval settlements and the Second World War.

Yet a fast growing population of badgers, attracted to easy digging conditions, is building networks of tunnels that threaten to wreck Britain’s historical treasure trove.
Read whole story here

The landscape around Stonehenge and Avebury has yielded more of its secrets during a new investigation. Archaeologists have spent the last three weeks walking 90 hectares (222 acres) of private land around the monuments to look for prehistoric flint.

A polished stone axe head from the Neolithic period, dating to around 3,000BC-2,500BC, and a leaf shaped arrowhead from the same period have been found near Stonehenge. This type of axe, which usually had a wooden shaft, would have been used to cut down trees, though this axe head has not been used. The stone it was made from is not local.
Read Wessex Archaeology’s press release

Read 24 Hour museum’s story

A public inquiry will decide the fate of controversial road plans for Stonehenge, it was confirmed this week.

An inquiry had been on the cards since the £193m scheme for ridding the world heritage site of traffic and returning the stones to an ancient setting was first announced.

Now transport minister Alistair Darling has announced that, because of the barrage of objections to the project, there will definitely be a public hearing, and that it will begin on February 17 next year.

thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/amesbury/news/AMES_NEWS1.html

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/3081532.stm

Thursday is the deadline for people to express their views over a proposed £193m road development around Stonehenge. It is hoped that the re-routing of the A303 road, and a £57m visitor centre, will rescue the World Heritage site from its label as “a national disgrace”. More than 1,000 people have already made their views known and a public inquiry is to be held early next year.

But the National Trust, while supporting the overall scheme, has reiterated its call for the 2.1 km tunnel proposed by the government, to be lengthened. Speaking in June, trust territory director Martyn Heighton said: “We are not convinced that the plan for a 2.1km tunnel will adequately safeguard the integrity of the site. There are strong archaeological and curatorial reasons for building as long a tunnel as possible, to preserve and enhance the qualities of the site.”

Landowners the National Trust, monument keepers English Heritage and the Highways Agency are working together on the scheme.

The publishing of the report sets off a 12-week public consultation period.

Work will start by 2005 if the scheme is approved.

From BBCi, 4 September 2003
Next Thursday is the deadline for people to express their views over a proposed £193m road development around Stonehenge. It is hoped that the re-routing of the A303 road, and a £57m visitor centre, will rescue the World Heritage site from its label as “a national disgrace”.
Read whole story here....

As the deadline for raising objections to the Government’s road development plans for the Stonehenge World Heritage Site approaches, experts have been airing their opinions on the controversial scheme.

Read more here.... 24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh/ART17921.html

from Ananova.com

The remains of four adults and two children were found at a site in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

It is about half-a-mile from that of the Amesbury Archer, the Bronze Age man who was buried with the earliest gold found in Britain.

It is thought he might have had a major role in creating Stonehenge. Tests showed he was born in the Alps region in central Europe.

The latest bones discovered are some 4,500 years old – the same age as the Archer, said Salisbury-based Wessex Archaeology – which excavated the site during the digging of a trench this month.

Radiocarbon tests will be done to find out more precise dates for the burials but the people are believed to have lived during the building of Stonehenge. Wessex Archaeology say it is possible the bones are those of people from different generations.

The bones of the earlier burials were mixed up, but those of the later burials, a man and a child, were undisturbed. They said the grave, which is about three miles from Stonehenge, had narrowly missed being damaged by trench digging for electric cables and a water pipe.

The grave contained four pots in the Beaker style that is typical of the period, some flint tools, one flint arrowhead and a bone toggle for fastening clothing.

Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick, of Wessex Archaeology, said: “This new find is really unusual. It is exceptionally rare to find the remains of so many people in one grave like this in southern England.

“The grave is fascinating because we are seeing the moment when Britain was moving from the Stone Age into the Bronze Age, around 2,300BC.”

Stonehenge ‘King’ Came from Central Europe

LONDON (Reuters) – The construction of one of Britain’s most famous ancient landmarks, the towering megaliths at Stonehenge in southern England, might have been supervised by the Swiss, or maybe even the Germans. Archaeologists studying the remains of a wealthy archer found in a 4,000-year-old grave exhumed near Stonehenge last year said Monday he was originally from the Alps region, probably modern-day Switzerland, Austria or Germany.
“He would have been a very important person in the Stonehenge area and it is fascinating to think that someone from abroad -- probably modern-day Switzerland -- could have played an important part in the construction of the site,” said archaeologist Andrew Fitzpatrick in a statement.

The so-called “Amesbury Archer” was found in a grave about three miles from the landmark, buried with 100 items, including gold earrings, copper knives and pottery. Researchers hailed the find -- dating from about 2,300 B.C. and the oldest known grave in Britain -- as one of the richest early Bronze Age sites in Europe. He was dubbed “The King of Stonehenge” because of the lavish items found in his grave, including some of the earliest gold objects ever found in Britain.

It was tests on the enamel of his teeth that revealed he was born and grew up in the Alps region. “Different ratios of oxygen isotopes form on teeth in different parts of the world and the ratio found on these teeth prove they were from somebody from the Alps region,” said Tony Trueman from Wessex Archaeology. “It is important proof that culture imported from the continent helped bring Britain out of the Stone Age,” he told Reuters.

(see Phil’s post below for the original discovery of the Archer)

news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=5513829

Proposals to divert through a tunnel the busy road currently running alongside Stonehenge were today welcomed by archaeologists.

Archaeologist and broadcaster Julian Richards, who was at the World Heritage Site this afternoon to hear more about the plans, said today’s announcement was extremely welcome news.

“This is a great step forward. We can put Stonehenge back into a more natural setting so people can appreciate what a wonderful site it is.

“You can stand here today and hear the traffic all around you – hopefully that will all change.”

Chris Jones, leading the project for the Highways Agency, said it was a “historic day for the stones”.

Environmental issues were a primary concern when considering the options and a bored tunnel would help to make sure the archaeology was undisturbed, he said.

“It is restoring the landscape to its particular historic context,” he added.

Professor John Barrett, head of the department of archaeology and prehistory at Sheffield University, said the option chosen was better than alternatives of a tunnel cut from above or a highly expensive, longer bored tunnel.

“Stonehenge and its landscape allow us to encounter something of the mystery and power of the prehistoric world. This proposal opens the way for a far greater appreciation of that world,” he added.

Arts minister Tessa Blackstone welcomed today’s announcement, saying: “It will ensure Stonehenge is reunited with its surrounding monuments in their natural downland landscape setting, protect the site from heavy traffic and make possible the construction of a world class visitor centre.”

Sir Neil Cossons, chairman of English Heritage which runs the site, said: “Today’s news is a monumental moment in Stonehenge’s 5,000 year history.

“It means that Stonehenge gets the dignified setting it so justly deserves, the roads are made safer and the core area of the World Heritage Site landscape is reunited.”

English Heritage, the National Trust, the Highways Agency and local authorities are now expected to work on the tunnel’s detailed design before publication of Draft Orders in the Spring

Daily Telegraph 12.12.02 says that “the Council for British Archaeology, the International Council for Monuments and Sites UK, the National Trust, the Stonehenge Alliance and Save Stonehenge will all be expected to call for a longer tunnel at a public inquiry into the scheme next year.”

telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/12/12/nhenge12.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/12/12/ixhome.html

news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=5513497

A £5.5 billion package of transport improvements for England, including a £183 million road tunnel to protect Stonehenge. was announced today by the Government.

A prehistoric prince with gold ear-rings has been found near Stonehenge a few yards away from the richest early Bronze Age burial in Britain.

Earlier this year, archaeologists found an aristocratic warrior, also with gold ear-rings, on Salisbury Plain and speculated that he may have been an ancient king of Stonehenge.

The body was laid to rest 4,300 years ago during the construction of the monument, along with stone arrow heads and slate wristguards that protected the arm from the recoil of the bow. Archaeologists named him the Amesbury Archer.

see the full story at.......

telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/08/21/nskul121.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/08/21/ixnewstop.html

The Guardian

Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Saturday July 27, 2002

A grant for a new visitor centre at Stonehenge, agreed in principle yesterday by the heritage lottery fund, may mark the end of decades of wrangling between heritage and highway authorities over what to do about one of the most famous ancient monuments in the world.
The fund will not disclose exact details until next week, but English Heritage has not got the £26m it was seeking. It has got a “stage one approval”, which is enough to proceed with the planning, and implies willingness by the fund to give further grants.

The 5,000-year-old stone circle, with the hundreds of field monuments dotted around it on Salisbury Plain, is a world heritage site, an honour shared with the Taj Mahal and the Pyramids.

However, the monument remains imprisoned within wire fences, and clenched in the fork of two busy roads.

It is 13 years since the parliamentary public accounts committee condemned the present arrangements as “a national disgrace”. And it is five years since English Heritage launched yet another artist’s impression of happy visitors strolling through lambs and buttercups toward the stones – it was hoping to see the vision realised in time for the millennium. Since then millions in taxpayers’ money has been spent on road plans, visitor centre plans, consultation exercises, and more artists’ impressions.

Solving the traffic problem, by closing one road and burying the other in a tunnel, is seen as the key to the whole site. However, some archaeologists and many local campaigners are opposed to the “cut and cover” method insisted on for cost reasons by the highways agency. This is a construction system which involves gouging a trench for two miles across the fragile landscape.

Local sources insist this is also up for debate again, and the road may eventually be dug through a bored tunnel, which would be less destructive of surface archaeology.

Despite endless consultations, English Heritage has also failed to win over residents closest to the Countess roundabout, where present facilities are a filling station, motel and coffee shop.

After years of wrangling, this was chosen as the best site for a state of the art visitor centre. But residents remain convinced the visitor centre is the wrong scheme in the wrong place – and nothing English Heritage announces next week is likely to change their minds.

This was in the ‘Metro’ this morning

thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/top_story.html?in_review_id=585366&in_review_text_id=552901

Skeleton may be Stonehenge ‘king‘

by Geraint Smith Science Correspondent
The richest early Bronze Age burial site ever found has been discovered within a short walk of Stonehenge, archaeologists revealed today.

It is possibly the grave of the man who ordered the rebuilding of the previously wooden monument in stone. It contains the earliest metal knives yet known in Britain, as well as finely-crafted arrowheads, gold ornaments, butchery tools and ritual stone versions of an archer’s tools.

The grave was discovered near the village of Boscombe Down during work on a new school.

The shapes of the objects suggest strongly that it was dug in about 2,300BC – exactly contemporary with the rebuilding of Stonehenge, which lies less then 30 minutes’ walk away.

In all, 100 objects were found with the skeleton of a mature, well-built man. “We don’t know whether there were kings at this time in Britain,” said Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick, of Wessex Archaeologythe unit which found the grave. “It is possible, though, that this man was alive when the stones were added to Stonehenge.

“This would have been a small community in which appearance was everything, and this man would have been like a peacock,” he says. The knives predate by several hundred years the oldest metal tools known in this country, said Dr Fitzpatrick, who added: “The arrowheads were scattered in the grave, not as though they had been laid onto his body by the mourners.”

Daily Telegraph Obituaries
(Filed: 22/12/2001)

AUBREY BAILEY, who has died aged 89, was perhaps best known for the work he directed at Stonehenge between 1958 and 1964

The work involved re-erecting, in their original position, stones that had fallen or become dislodged within recorded history – the earliest record dating from 1690.

The main “Trilithon” stones, weighing some 45 tons, had to be encased in a further 15 tons of steel so they could be lifted into position. To do this, one of Britain’s largest cranes – designed to lift aircraft – was borrowed from the Ministry of Defence. Bailey’s work at Stonehenge brought him to public attention and he was amused to receive a letter from an admirer in America addressed simply to “Mr Stonehenge, London”. The nickname stuck for many years.

Thomas Aubrey Bailey was born on January 20 1912 at Hanley, Staffordshire.

In 1953 he was promoted head of the Ancient Monuments branch, with a staff of 1,400. Boundlessly enthusiastic, he led by example, and combined his love of motoring (he owned a series of Armstrong Siddeleys) with his work by travelling to the 300 ancient monuments in his care as often as he could.

Full account

English Heritage News Release
6/8/2001

WORLD CLASS TEAM TO SUPPORT DESIGN OF NEW STONEHENGE CENTRE

The next exciting phase in the creation of the new Visitor Facilities at
Stonehenge, located outside the World Heritage Site at
Countess East, Amesbury, was announced by English Heritage on Friday 3
August. The appointment of a world-class team who will support the project
architects Denton Corker Marshall comprises a Project Manager, Structural
and Civil Engineer, Landscape Architect, Mechanical and Electrical
Engineers, Transport Engineer and Quantity Surveyor.
In April 2001 English Heritage announced the appointment of Denton Corker
Marshall as architects and design team leaders. Now, with today’s
appointments, design will rapidly advance.

Announcing the selection, John Vimpany, Project Director for Stonehenge,
said: “I am delighted to welcome to the Project a design team whose dynamic
mix of skills and expertise will combine to produce one of the best visitor
centres in the world.

“Each firm has been carefully selected against stiff competition from an
international field to bring creativity and expertise to the project. They
have a real understanding of Stonehenge as a World Heritage Site and the
importance of restoring an open landscape around it.”

The appointments announced today are:

Structural and Civil Engineers – Anthony Hunt Associates Ltd
This highly respected firm of structural and civil engineers has worked with
many of the country’s most respected architects such as Richard Rogers
Partnership, Foster & Partners and John McAslan Architects. They also share
many similar design principals with Denton Corker Marshall, the project’s
architects. Previous high profile projects include the Eden Project in
Cornwall, the National Botanic Gardens in Wales and the North Greenwich
Transport Interchange.

Landscape Architect – Chris Blandford Associates
Well known for their sensitive approach to landscape design, CBA bring to
the project a deep understanding of the cultural, planning and environmental
issues that affect the landscape surrounding Stonehenge. This appointment
follows their earlier work on the Stonehenge World Heritage Site Management
Plan, the Tower of London World Heritage Site and extensive work for the
Department of Transport.

Project Manager – Gardiner & Theobald Management Services
GTMS will provide the vital link between English Heritage and the design
team headed by architects Denton Corker Marshall. They have a proven
track-record in managing high profile heritage projects including the
Imperial War Museum North, the Salisbury Cathedral Magna Carta Project, the
Windsor Castle Fire Restoration and the National Gallery Sainsbury Wing.

Quantity Surveyor – Davis Langdon & Everest
Davis Langdon & Everest’s international reputation is based on a wide range
of prestigious projects, especially in the cultural and museums sector
including the Eden Project, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Gallery
and British Museum.

Mechanical & Electrical Engineer – Norman Disney and Young
This fast growing international firm of engineering consultants are known
for their work on the Shell Mex House in London, the Museum of New Zealand
and the visitor centre at the Australia War Museum.

Transport Engineer – Colin Buchanan and Partners
Colin Buchanan and Partners is one of the UK’s leading transport
consultants, with experience in providing transport solutions for a variety
of projects both in the UK and overseas. Previous projects include the
creation of regeneration strategies for London and Middlesborough and a
Transport Feasibility Study for Oxford.

A draft scheme for the visitor centre and transport link will be produced
later this year, on which English Heritage will consult the National Trust
and the other Stonehenge Master Plan partners, prior to detailed designs
being drawn up to form the basis of a planning application in 2002/3.