Stonehenge Stone Circle News and Information

Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites became a World Heritage Site in 1986 (we’ll be celebrating our 30^th anniversary throughout 2016). “Stonehenge is the most architecturally sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the world, while Avebury is the largest in the world.” The archaeological importance of both Stonehenge and Avebury is well known but not everyone is aware that both Stonehenge and Avebury are also a World Heritage Site (WHS) because of the “influence of the remains of Neolithic and Bronze Age funerary and ceremonial monuments and their landscape settings on architects, artists, historians, archaeologists and others”.

Stonehenge and King Barrow Ridge.
Copyright Beth Thomas

The influence of Stonehenge and Avebury on artists can be seen in a number of art forms and over several centuries.

English Heritage celebrated the opening of the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre in 2013 with a special exhibition entitled Set in Stone. This exhibition told…

This rather nice postcard and its message give me an opportunity to return to Stonehenge. It’s curious to think of the stones promoting a homily from Winston Churchill – and not on an official card. Mr (? the Reverend) G Richens (his notification of his dinner needs suggests he’s writing to his wife or mother, but perhaps she was a care lady?) seems to have been enjoying a late war.

What’s interesting about the image is what you can see on Stone 53, the large sarsen upright second from right. There is an almost mythical story of Richard Atkinson in 1953, taking photos of a heavy inscription carved into the face of this stone. You can see the horizontal line of letters in the postcard, at about eye level, and again in a recent photo (above), to the left of the security guard’s head (facing front left to right are Mike…

Stonehenge a mere 115 years ago was obviously a very different place from what we see today. No fences, no visitor centre, no interpretation signs, no caravans or campers on the by-ways.

The British Film Institute have a new web site, Britain on Film, which allows browsing and searching on a map for old films, from the mid-1800’s (if you’re lucky!) through to the present day. Many are free to view, for others there is a modest cost.

So far, there’s only one film showing Stonehenge, dated from 1900. It shows a brief panorama across the stones, where a solitary self-concious policeman is on ‘guard’ duty for a single visitor.

Imagine if that ratio of police to visitors were to be in place today!

of course, the BFI don’t have a monopoly on old films. The British Pathe News web site also has a selection of films showing Stonehenge