More Mistakes By English Heritage, Or Is It Intentional Rather Than Merely Incompetent?

Purely by chance, there was a veritable rangale of STAGs up at Stonehenge on Thursday 11 September.

It all started first thing in the morning when we received a phone call from Watch Bustard, who had been up at sparrows (for the benefit of our foreign readers, sparrows is a contraction of sparrow-farts, a north of England term for the crack of dawn) and had noticed an unusual amount of activity around the Kent Carriage Gap at the western end of the A344.  He promptly called us here at WiSBAng and his good lady, to let us know something was afoot.

As we had promised to go and measure a few things, we cycled up to Stonehenge, armed with a tape-measure and notebook to take a look see.  Here is what we found.  A week ago, the first gap looked like this.

This week (Courtesy of Watch Bustard) it looked like this.

As far as we can see, the only changes are the removal of the safety fencing and the possible laying down of a few scalpings on the surface - but this may just be a trick of the light.  Any progress has been minimal.

UPDATE: The ever-watchful Watch Bustard noted on Monday 15 September that tarmac appeared to be in the process of being laid around these carriage gaps.  A good way to compound the errors that are highlighted in the following paragraphs.

We really wanted to check to see if the dimensions of the gates were compliant  with the Kent Carriage Gap (KCG) standard that we illustrated in an earlier post.  The idea is to have two sets of posts, the shorter pair in the centre being just wide enough to allow small carriages to pass between them and the outer ones allowing larger ones, with greater axle heights, to pass over the inner posts.

So, what have English Heritage achieved.  Well, the posts are 0.24 metres tall instead of the 0.33 metres tall for a KCG.  The separation of the inner posts is 1.83 metres instead of the KCG standard of 1.52 metres (6 ft in real money) and the distance between the inner post and the kerb edge in the photo above is 36cm and between the inner post and the gate post 41 cm.  This dimension should be 0.6 metres for a KCG.  We won't even mention the suggested second and third rows of posts ).45 metres from the first as EH haven't bothered with at all.

The second KCG on the A344 is somewhat similar to the first.  The gap between the inner posts is 180cm, with a hefty 2.17 metres to the left and a few cm to the right of the inner posts

This all looks a bit amateurish and half-hearted on English Heritage's part.  Almost as if they didn't want to have these here in the first place and that anything will do as a sop to those who might raise the issue. 

To cheer ourselves up, we rode down to the stones and then proceeded eastward on the temporary permissive path over National Trust open-access land (isn't a path a contradiction in terms here?).  Typically, the first sign to tell you what the path is, is only found when you are on the path.  Surely, it would make sense to signpost it from the A344?

On we went, down towards Stonehenge Bottom to see how things were progressing here.  Readers may recall that another planning condition imposed on English Heritage was that a permissive byway be instituted along the course of the stopped-up section of the A344, back to Byway 12.  A few months ago, English Heritage claimed that the reason the permissive byway hadn't been opened was because of bad weather over the winter and it would take over a year for the grass to grow.  Needless to say, the byway should have been opened on the A344 route before the Visitors Centre was opened and the bad weather of winter 2013-24 only struck a few weeks after this point.  Not ones to let facts ruin a tall tale are English Heritage.

Here is the view eastwards from where the diversion meets the intended route towards Stonehenge Bottom.  Another failed planning condition as well - a safe pedestrian route over the A303.

As you will see, the growth of vegetation here has been pretty poor.  Superficially, this might support English Heritage's contention that the climate was responsible for the time that was going to be needed to allow grass, etc to become established.  Here again, as with any statement regarding the A344 by English Heritage, it's always worth taking a closer look.

Now on the left of the picture above, there is a plastic mesh sunk into the ground to prevent heavy traffic from destroying the grass and rutting the surface:

You will see that this is pretty typical soil for this neck of the woods, with large numbers of chalk and flint fragments on the surface.  Between a quarter and half of each segment is taken up by surface rocks and so there isn't a great deal of space for plants to take root and grow - and they haven't.

The right hand side of the byway-to-be is even worse, with even less plant growth - and most of this is made up of weed species.

Here, a hessian mesh has been used to cover the surface.  Whoever dreamt this one up had either not understood the nature of the soil here, or was actively trying to prevent plant growth.  Basically, the holes in the mesh are smaller than the bits of flint and chalk on the surface, so large numbers of the holes are unavailable for even the most persistent plants to grow through as they are blocked by rock.  You can see the consequences. Nice one, English Heritage!

They couldn't get things even more wrong, could they?  Well, we are talking English Heritage aren't we.  Returning to Byway 12, we noticed this, close to the Heel Stone.

It all looks, well, a bit, yellow.  Our first thought was that the dry weather had killed off the growth, but as before, it pays to look closer.

Stunning, they have covered the surface in sand and, surprise, surprise, nothing much is growing.  Nothing much is likely to grow for a long time either.  Yet again, English Heritage appear to have done everything they can to fail to comply with Wiltshire Council's planning requirements and ensure that as few people as possible approach Stonehenge in any way other than going via the Visitor's Centre. 

UPDATE: We wonder if this other bit of English Heritage idiocy is an attempt to lay down a strata to indicate to future archaeologists that everything below the sand is natural and that everything above it is 2013 vintage or later.  If that is the case, then why not seal in the sand layer with a layer of earth, so it won't get disturbed and plants can grow above it.

 This is where WiSBAng met STAG in the shape of Janice Hassett, who had also wandered down to the eastern end of the site to see what was going on.  You can read her account here: http://staga303.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/eh-letting-us-down-againcontinued.html

There is a worrying and confusing series of signs on the fence as you pass the henge:

Perhaps they have a plan to fit a roof to keep their paying visitors dry in inclement weather? 

It was a lovely afternoon and the STAGs met some smashing folk at both ends of the A344. From the young French couple who had turned up without booking, parked their car at Larkhill and walked in (good to see that someone these days can actually read a map!), to the Welsh primary school kids who were so well-behaved and a credit to their teachers, to the daughter of an archaeologist who had left her to go for a walk around Stonehenge, whilst he went to a Wessex Archeology meeting at Old Sarum.  A good afternoon to get a few more signatories for the STAG petition!