This page contains snippets of news from the Stonehenge and Salisbury area. For in depth news on archaeology from throughout the world go to http://www.archaeology.ws/ Written by Radio 5 broadcaster Win Scutt it has all the top stories from the world of archaeology.

20th January 2010

STONEHENGE VISITOR CENTRE APPROVED.

At long last the Stonehenge Visitor Centre has been approved by Wiltshire Councillors. The plans were approved by a majority of 12 to 1. There were some objections which may lead to a legal challenge. Let's hope not. The money for the project will not remain available for long. As one of the cuncillors very sensibly said, whatever is approved will not satisfy everyone.

13th May 2009

AT LONG LAST THE GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCE NEXT STEPS ON STONEHENGE VISITOR CENTRE

A new visitor centre to help bring alive the mystery and majesty of Stonehenge, the UK’s internationally renowned World Heritage Site, was given the go-ahead in principle today by the Government.

The Stonehenge Programme Board, chaired by the Culture Minister, Barbara Follett, and Transport Minister, Andrew Adonis, has recommended that the centre, costing up to £25m, should be built at Airman’s Corner. The way is now clear for work to be done on working up a design, seeking planning permission and raising funding to deliver the project.

Funding will be provided through a range of private and public sources, including English Heritage, Heritage Lottery Fund, Highways Agency, Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Transport. The Government also announced that the site will be further enhanced by closing the A344 which at present takes traffic very close to the stones.

The chosen site, Airman’s Corner, is about 2.5km (1.5 miles) west from the current visitor centre, on the junction of the A344 and A360. It is at the edge of the World Heritage Site and has good access to the Stones. The decision has been welcomed by The National Trust, the UK Commission for UNESCO, the South West of England Regional Development Agency, and South West Tourism.
The scheme will include an efficient, all-weather visitor transit system, offering visitors the convenience of being dropped off near the monument. It is envisaged the new site will enable increased educational and interpretation facilities. 
A planning application will be submitted in the summer, when there will be further public consultation on the scheme. Construction work is expected to take place in 2011, with the new visitor facilities scheduled to open in 2012, in time for the London Olympics. Hmm , we’ll see.

23rd April 2009

Learn more about Stonehenge and Nelson

VISITORS to Stonehenge can now learn more about links the ancient site has to Lord Nelson’s famed battle of the Nile.

The significance of nineteen clumps of trees, which have stood for centuries in the Wiltshire countryside will finally be more apparent thanks to a new information board installed by the National Trust and the Rotary Club of Amesbury, with funding from youth volunteering charity, V.

The Nile Clumps, as they’re called, stand behind King Barrow Ridge on the Stonehenge landscape between the stones and the Countess Roundabout. Although there is no documentary evidence dating from the time, they are thought to have been planted almost two hundred years ago to mark Nelson’s death after Captain Thomas Hardy and Nelson’s mistress, Lady Emma Hamilton, persuaded Baron Douglas of Amesbury to plant the trees on his estate.

April 21st 2009

Still Inspired by Stonehenge

Saturday 2 May – Saturday 25 July. In Spring 2008 three groups were given special access to the Stonehenge monument on tours led by Stonehenge expert Julian Richards as part of the Inspired by Stonehenge exhibition. Now their artworks, created as part of this experience, are going on display at Salisbury Museum.



The exhibition includes beautiful silk batik banners and modern art pieces which show a varied response by the artists to their experience of Stonehenge, and intriguing interpretations of what Stonehenge means to some of its visitors today.

Community artist Alex Grant worked with the Blue Skies Group, Salisbury and The Redworth Club, Amesbury in a series of workshops to make nine very colourful silk wall hangings. In the gallery you will also hear an audio installation of the participants discussing artistic ways of viewing and interpreting Stonehenge. The Fine Art students at Wiltshire College, Trowbridge created contemporary individual interpretations as part of their course. Funding was provided by Salisbury Mencap, Salisbury Museum and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Further details can be found at www.salisburymuseum.org.uk/events/

26th April 2008

Three Men in a Float article.

To coincide with their book on travelling across England in an electric milk float, there is an extract in the Daily Telegraph. You can view it at;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2008/04/26/ftfront126.xml

The book goes on sale on May 1st 2008.

1st April 2008

The mysteries of Stonehenge to be solved?

A two week dig at Stonehenge is making some very extravagant claims on what it will achieve. Not only will it shed light on when the bluestones were erected, but answer the question why? The first may well, we hope, be achieved as it will be a matter of scientific fact. The second is a little more difficult as it will be based on conjecture around a few skeletons found in the area from the hundreds of thousands of people who lived during the period. Stonehenge will only remain slightly less of a mystery at the end of the dig than at the beginning.

Daily video updates on this fascinating dig at Stonehenge can be found on English Heritage's site at;

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.18770

26th March 2008

Stonehenge replica to be built in Australia
The Daily Telegraph reports on an entrepreneur who plans to construct an exact replica of Stonehenge in Australia.
Ross Smith, the former owner of a successful microbrewery business, hopes the monument will be ready in time for Australia's next summer solstice, on December 21.

"I'm doing it because I can," said Mr Smith, who plans to reconstruct the ancient monument on land he owns in the Margaret River region of Western Australia.

Nowhere in the world has a complete Stonehenge been built." The structure will be made with 2,500 tonnes of granite quarried from Esperance, on Western Australia's south coast. The £700,000 project, to be called The Henge, will include 101 granite stones arranged in an inner and outer circle and a central altar.

Unlike the original Stonehenge, guests will be encouraged to play around the new monument, which will also have an interpretive centre and a children's playground.

Mr Smith said The Henge would be a business venture, to be hired out for weddings and other events.
A small team of quarry workers has spent the past five months drilling and blasting the stones into shape.

15th March 2008

Mayor of Epsom and Ewell's Charity Coach Trip.

The Mayor of Epsom And Ewell held a charity coach trip in aid of the Stroke Association on Saturday 15th March 2008. The first stop was Durrington Walls. The party of 50 were told about when and how the henge was built with some practical demonstrations of the type of tools used by Phil Harding of the Time Team.   The party went on to meet the Mayors of both Salisbury and Bath during the rest of their days travel after taking a tour of Stonehenge.

Pat Shelley & Phil Harding toasting the Mayor at Stonehenge with the commemorative mugs she had presented to them.

 9th January 2008

£37.85 million cost of saying NO to Stonehenge improvements

It has been announced that the total cost of the enquiries into the Stonehenge improvement scheme which has been scrapped is £37.85 million. That's close on 8% of what it would have cost to have built the tunnel bypassing Stonehenge.

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