Chance

I have been asked to point out that the Red Lion no longer offers any bed and breakfast accommodation.

The pub is owned by the Green King group and since 2008, when Kirsty Ayre became the current landlady, bed and breakfast accommodation has ceased.

There was always a problem of access to and from the upstairs bedrooms outside normal opening hours. This resulted in the guests being “locked in” once the bars had closed at night and made walking around the stone circle at night impossible. Numerous attempts were made to exit the building at night via the rear fire escape, resulting in the fire alarms being triggered and the building being evacuated.

An alternative access and refurbishment survey of the accommodation was carried out by the brewery but was found to be prohibitively expensive and also reduced the landlord/landlady’s accommodation by a half. As this problem is unlikely to be resolved in the near future, it would be safe to assume that any bed and breakfast accommodation can be ruled out completely.

Kirsty regrets this but is only the tenant of the establishment and any comments should be directed at Green King who own the property.

All the other eating and drinking facilities are unaffected and the pub continues to be open daily from 11am till 11pm

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

Following the request made by certain members of the Council of British Druid Orders in June 2006 for the reburial of ancient ancestral remains excavated from the Avebury Complex in Wiltshire, in 2008 English Heritage and the National Trust launched a consultation exercise to take public input.

This will be a landmark case that could set precedents for other cases.

While individuals were welcome to send their own responses, HAD gathered comment from its own councils of advisors and theologians in order to submit a response as an organisation. We have now published HAD’s Response to the Avebury Consultation. There is also available a Press Release on the response which summarises the case and HAD’s position.

The Museums Association response provoked HAD to respond once more.

HAD’s letter to the MA can be found on the main HAD website at honour.org.uk/node/280 along with all the other documents mentioned above.

The interim report on this summer’s geophysics work at Stanton Drew by the Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society is now ready. Stanton Drew is the third and least known of the Wessex threesome of major stone circles.

The formal report will follow, but these were the highlights.

BACAS completed a resistance survey of the avenues, the north-east circle, and a complete ring of the main circle, looking for buried stones and empty stone sockets. One profile taken through a stone socket in the northeast avenue produced a spectacular picture. There were also interesting results at the SSW Circle which seem to show buried stone, and in Stone Close, where the potential of resistance profiles was demonstrated.

BACAS resistance work around the cove suggests it may well be the remnants of a long barrow on a north south alignment. Resistance profiling suggested that there were stone footings about half a metre below the surface heading from the cove northwards.

You can download a PDF copy (2MB) from
bris.ac.uk/fluff/u/isjer/KWKYi5F2ESA9C4zqoaxmdAER/
until the end of today

A higher resolution print copy will be available shortly and will probably appear on the BACAS website bacas.homecall.co.uk/ at some point.

BACAS surveyed part of the circle with a new Bartington magnetometer. Using very high data density BACAS could reproduce results at least as clear as English Heritage produced using a Caesium magnetometer.

This years winter solstice observance at Stonehenge will mark the centenary of Dr. G.W. MacGregor Reid being recorded undertaking such activities by the Wiltshire Constabulary. The Most Ancient Order of Druids had chosen Dr. G.W. MacGregor Reid in 1909 and his 37 years in office was to see the druid presence at Stonehenge during the Summer Solstice, develop into a permanent feature.

Wiltshire Constabulary had noted over two thousand people attending the early morning Summer Solstice the previous year. The astronomer, Sir Norman Lockyer had published a book on Stonehenge three years previously and this was thought to have brought the solstice to the interest of the wider public, not just the Ancient Order of Druids.

It would seem that the good Doctor had been conducting services for five years before there was any recorded disorder, and this was to be for the first time in living memory. The Summer Solstice of 1914 was on a Sunday morning, and the attendance was much larger than usual. The fracas began with an attempt by the Druids to carry out their ceremony within the stone circle.

Stonehenge had been enclosed in 1901 and a turnstile installed beside the Avenue, with an entry fee of a shilling per head.
Dr MacGregor Reid, Mr George Catchlove and eight others paid admission to the enclosure, although they protested against the charge. At about twenty past three in the morning Dr MacGregor Reid began to read druidical prayers at the ‘altar stone’.

He had not got very far before Superintendent Buchanan of Wiltshire Constabulary stepped in.
Buchanan drew attention to a notice which prohibited any form of meeting or service within the circle.
He told Dr MacGregor Reid that he should stop the ceremony immediately, but the request was ignored and the Druid leader continued in an even louder voice. Superintendent Buchanan warned a second time that if MacGregor Reid didn’t stop immediately the police would be forced to throw him out of the enclosure. The Druids ignored the second warning and, in consequence, MacGregor Reid was forcibly ejected. His followers left of their own accord.

Later in the day MacGregor Reid and Catchlove, who were wearing white robes and purple cassocks, held services outside the enclosure.

In 1915 the Druids were again refused free admission to the enclosure. For a second time MacGregor Reid and his supporters were ejected from the circle, and again for the same reason.

1916 saw the Most Ancient Order of Druids allowed to hold their ceremonies at Stonehenge during the Summer Solstice, to which they have been doing ever since.