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Stonehenge Stands in a Circle of Controversy
AMESBURY, England, March 8, 2002 (ENS) - Stonehenge, the mysterious and
sacred circle of great stones that dates from 3050 BC, may have been a
temple or a giant astronomical calendar or both. The most outstanding
prehistoric monument in Great Britain, Stonehenge is as old as many of the
great temples and pyramid of Egypt.
 Stonehenge (Photos by Ian Britton
courtesy Freefoto.com)
The giant stones on the open downland of Salisbury Plain three kilometers
(two miles) west of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire, in southern England,
are protected as a United Nations World Heritage Site. Standing at the
center of a ceremonial landscape containing 450 ancient monuments,
Stonehenge also stands at the center of a traffic jam and a resulting
political conflict.
The British government has a Master Plan "to improve the setting of
Stonehenge by reuniting it with its surrounding monuments and landscape."
The lead government agency English Heritage says that by removing the
roads, fences and other modern structures from around the Stones, visitors
will be able to properly appreciate Stonehenge and its landscape, as well
as conserving the landscape and archaeology of the World Heritage Site for
future generations.
The Stonehenge
Alliance is an informal coalition of organizations and individuals
formed, under the Chairmanship of Lord Kennet, to oppose the government?s
Master Plan road scheme for the upgrading of the A303 at Stonehenge and to
put forward alternatives which are "less damaging to archaeology and the
environment." Stonehenge Alliance supporters include: The Council for the
Protection of Rural England, Friends of the Earth, RESCUE: The British
Archaeological Trust, Save our Sacred Sites, and Transport 2000.
Alliance members say that many acres of sensitive archaeological landscape
would be disturbed, ancient sites would be destroyed and the wider
landscape setting permanently disfigured if the road scheme goes ahead.
"Stonehenge has stood mysterious and powerful for thousands of years. We
must not let this ancient landscape be forever blighted by short-term
traffic improvements," says Clare Slaney of the group Save our Sacred Sites.
The road scheme would dual the A303 motorway close to the giant stones as
part of the government's Stonehenge Master Plan. A303 is one of the main routes
to the West Country, which becomes gridlocked during the summertime where
it passes Stonehenge.
The 10.8 kilometer (6.7 mile) proposed route runs eastwards from the
existing roadway A303 at Berwick Down to the north of Winterbourne Stoke,
avoiding a national nature reserve and a site of special scientific
interest.
Proponents say a two kilometer (1.24 mile) stretch nearest to the
Stonehenge monument will be concealed in a cut-and-cover tunnel that will
minimize the imact on the World Heritage Site. The new road would join the
existing road at the Amesbury by-pass. The plan includes closure of the
A344 road between Stonehenge Bottom and Airman?s Corner.
About one million visitors a year come to Stonehenge. Because the actual
site is small, it is often crowded. Visitors have to use a path at a
distance, and cannot go amongst the stones.
Part of the Master Plan is a new visitor center at Stonehenge, located
outside the World Heritage Site at Countess East, Amesbury. Landscape
Architect Chris Blandford Associates, chosen in August 2001, is said by
English Heritage to bring to the project "a deep understanding of the
cultural, planning and environmental issues that affect the landscape
surrounding Stonehenge.
 Traffic jam approaching Stonehenge (Photo
courtesy Countess Road Residents Group)
But Friends of the Earth (FOE) UK says the road proposals appear to
conflict with Britain?s explicit duties under the United Nations World
Heritage Convention. By contrast, a parallel management plan for the whole
site, agreed after public consultation, is fully compatible with those
duties, FOE says.
The Countess Road Residents Group warns that the new
visitor center will produce a four-fold increase in visitor traffic to
Stonehenge. "In creating all this, English Heritage declares that it is
promoting a safe natural habitat for birds, insects, butterflies, flowers
and plants. It doesn't say that it is also destroying an identical habitat
in order to build its visitor centre. A superb and unspoiled river
landscape, part of an Area of Special Archaeological Significance, and
including an Area of High Ecological Value, with historic water-meadows,
archaeology and ancient hedges, will be swept away," the Countess Road
residents say.
There is an alternative road solution, approved in 1995 by an informed
consensus
that included English Heritage and the National Trust - a four kilometer
(2.48 mile) long tunnel bored under the whole Stonehenge site. Although
technically feasible, this was rejected by the government in 1997 as
unaffordable.
The Highways Agency, responsible for the delivery of the A303 road changes,
says the scheme is "an integral part of the government's vision" for the
Stonehenge World Heritage Site. "Its central theme is the return of the
monument to its ancient setting, and the removal of all traffic and traces
of modern intrusion," the agency said in a statement when the plan was
first introduced in June 1999.
English Heritage, a government agency that champions the scheme, works in
close collaboration with the National Trust, the major landowner on the
World Heritage Site. Dr. Geoffrey Wainwright of English Heritage who wrote
an extensive analysis of the road scheme says, "The huge visual
improvement, the unique chance to free the stones from the sight and the
roar of passing traffic, is worth it on balance. The long tunnel is just
too expensive. The money just isn't there."
 The great stones at sunset
The British Druid Order appears to support the government scheme. Philip
Shallcrass and Emma Restall Orr, joint chiefs of the order counsel
patience. "As pagans," they said, "let us have a little patience with the
disruption and hold the image clear in our minds of how the temple will be,
peaceful and free, in just a decade."
But the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society has come out
against the road plan, especially warning against the tunnel. "The scale of
damage which would result from the implementation of a cut-and-cover tunnel
and associated road and landscaping works, including the eventual
contruction of improved junctions at Countess and Longbarrow," the society
said, "now places the World Heritage Site under serious threat."
The history of Stonehenge as outlined by Dr. Christopher Witcombe,
professor of art history Sweet Briar College, is online at: http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMStonehenge.html
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved. |
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