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ONE TO DO ON YOUR OWN
The New Stonehenge From June 2014
The chances are that most of your folk have caught
site of Stonehenge from the road when driving
down to Devon or Cornwall for a holiday. In truth a
visit to Stonehenge at the moment can be an overly
busy and sadly underwhelming experience but all
this will change from June 2014. Chief Executive
of English Heritage who looks after the site is Dr
Simon Thurley who came to the organisation after
an impressive time as head honcho at the Museum
of London. Here is what he says about Stonehenge:
"A new dawn at Stonehenge is truly upon us.
Though the stones themselves have never failed to
awe visitors their setting has been a national
embarrassment and disgrace. After nearly 30 years
English Heritage finally has a scheme that will
transform the setting of the stones and our visitors’
experience of them. The restoration of the
landscape together with a major new exhibition on
site will finally give our greatest and most famous
monument the treatment it deserves.
"
In a nutshell from June 2014 the section of A344
that trundles past the stones will be closed allowing
the landscape to be restored and the monument to
be reunited with its ancient processional route.
All the modern, rather ugly clutter that surrounds
Stonehenge, the existing visitors centre, car parks,
and fencing will disappear and visitors will
approach the stones not from the East on a busy
road but from the West over chalk downland on a
pleasant country walk or via a ten minute transfer
by shuttle bus. Ten minutes! That alone should give
you an idea of what a change this is going to be.
An impressive new visitor centre with huge glass
walls will house a large exhibition that explains
what is known about Stonehenge. The new visitor
centre will sink into the landscape and be totally
out of site when you are at the stone circle. The
exhibition will include artefacts excavated at and
near the site that will be on loan from a variety of
museums. There is also going to be an outside area
to the new exhibition including three Neolithic
houses built using archaeological evidence and
authentic materials. You will be able to walk into
these houses and see how people may have lived
4500 years ago.
Currently a group visit for Senior Citizens costs
£6.50 per person. Undoubtedly this is going to
change and I don't suppose it is going to go down
(it might actually double in price!) but it is going
to be rather exciting. You could plan to spend half
a day in Salisbury and half a day at Stonehenge
or for active groups how about an early lunch in
Amesbury followed by a two mile walk cross
country to Stonehenge?
Stonehenge is a definite stop off on the tourist trail
for thousands of visitors from overseas so I would
very much recommend visiting outside of the main
tourist season as a quieter site will really enhance
your experience.
We will be sure to publish details of pricing
(including a public eating of my hat, if they don't
double the price) here in
The Kettle
as soon as
English Heritage makes this available but if you
like the idea it is worth earmarking a date in your
2014 or even your 2015 outings programme.