English Heritage Mess Up on the A344 - Yet Again

Last month we heard from Wiltshire Council, definitively they claim, that the A344 is still the A344 and a highway.  As "A" roads have a legal definition in the UK and that involves joining population centres, carrying motorised traffic, etc, it is patently absurd to continue to list the A344 as an "A" road.  Consequently, this is being taken up with the Secretary of State for resolution.

Meanwhile, on the A344, English Heritage continue to mess up.  As a planning condition for the new visitor's centre, they were obliged to install Kent Carriage Gaps to allow all non-motorised traffic, not banned by the permanent Traffic Regulation Order, to use the A344, unhindered, 24/7.  Like many of the planning conditions imposed on English heritage (around 23 of them) many were supposed to be put in place before the visitor's centre was opened to the public,; the management plan seems to suggest sometinme between October and December 2013.  Yet again, this was a major fail by English Heritage.  Wiltshire Council Planning Department seem to have done little to police these consents, which makes you wonder what they spend their time doing!

Now for those of you who don't know, a Kent Carriage Gap is one of the ways of enforcing a TRO of the sort imposed on the A344.  This is how they should be designed:

Two sizes of post to allow carriages of different sizes to pass along the carriageway.  The separation of the posts and their height is also defined.

The point of these gaps is to allow unhindered access along the carriageway - the operative word here being along.  This is how they should be constructed.

Have English Heritage achieved this?  No, of course not.  Almost 9 months late, this is all they have been able to manage.

Between the new roundabout at Airman's Cross and the entrance to the visitor's centre carpark you have this attempt, photographed by Wiltshire Councillor and Chairman of Winterbourne Stoke Parish Council Ian West and friends,  it certainly doesn't seem fit for purpose, doesn't meet the design of Kent Carriage Gap for which planning consent was given, and wouldn't appear to be able to be used as intended by all the types of carriage it is meant to permit. 

Further along, we come to an even more egregious mess which we photographed last week in the run-up to the presidential visit!

Well, on the plus side, EH have lowered the kerb.  But that is the only positive thing that can be said about it.  The Gap is again to one side of the A344, not across it and there is no clear exit from it back onto the A344.  It's worse than that, bearing in mind that the path running from left to right comes down from the coach park and is the main access for visitors being brought in from that direction.  Now, given these pedestrians are about to cross an open highway, the A344, in very large numbers, you'd think English Heritage would have had the common sense to do a number of things.  First, leading pedestrians onto and across a highway, without warning them they are crossing one is a fairly stupid thing to do; particularly given that many of them are foreign visitors. 

Second, not warning those using the highway that there may be pedestrians about is also pretty lame, so you'd think there might be proper signage on the path and the road, "Look both ways" signs on the footpath, etc, etc, but no such luck.  All in all, when we have our first visitor mown down by a horse rider, horse and carriage or even a cyclist, the negligence on English Heritage's part will be clear.

In writing this, we realise we never actually measured the height and separation of the posts that are there, so we might have to pop up and measure them to be sure.

Ian West and friends also looked at the state of the permissive byway at the other end of the old A344, beyond Byway 12 and towards Stonehenge Bottom.  English Heritage, keen to foster the World Heritage Site's policy of encouraging visits by cyclists have signposted the route:

You've got to admire the lengths they have gone to over the last 9 months to do this!  Of course, if you take the trouble to go down that way,  avoiding the inevitable traffic jam at byway 12...

...you can get a really good view of Stonehenge, without having to pay the extortionate entry charge.  Follow this up with a visit to the museums in Amesbury, Salisbury or Devizes and you will see the best of Wiltshire's archaeology - you don't even need a local resident's pass.

All we can say is that it is a good job President Obama didn't arrive by bike and that Raffles family of Amesbury decided to walk up to Stonehenge from the east, rather than go by car, or else the six of them would never have met and English Heritage couldn't have benefited, however undeservedly, from the global human interest story that broke following the president's visit. 

Just What Is The Truth About English Heritage and Byway 12?

Janice Hassett has published a most interesting post on the STAG Stonehenge Traffic Action Group blog.

It is raising some interesting questions about the truth about English Heritage's position, locally and nationally, on Byway 12.  Anyone with an interest in the vexatious question of Byway 12 and the fate of the A303 would be well advised to read it all and start asking some very awkward questions.

UPDATE: The New Stonehenge Local Visitor's Pass

A good neighbour dropped by this morning to show me the new Stonehenge Visitor's Pass and the new terms and conditions for using it.  He also provided me with the flyer reproduced below.

As always, the devil is in the detail.  There have been some changes, for instance my current pass which was issued earlier in the year is valid for two years from the date of issue, whereas the new ones are only valid for a year.

One worrying condition is shown on the second side of the flyer above.  In the final paragraph it notes: "Car parking charges may apply."   Hmm, is this the license for English Heritage to give us free entry, but charge us £14.90 parking fee - increased pro-rata for every passenger?

You will note on the website and in bold print on all the flyers that:

ADVANCED BOOKINGS REQUIRED FROM 1 FEBRUARY 2014

That rather gives the impression that prior booking is mandatory. That isn't the case.  Dig a little deeper in the blurb where it says:

"Entrance to Stonehenge will be managed through timed tickets and advance booking is strongly recommended.  Pre-booking is the only way to guarantee entry on the day and at the time of your choice; there will only be a limited availability of walk-up tickets for sale on the day."

In other words, they are going to be as bloody-minded as they possibly can be, but they can't (yet) insist on you booking.

A few Bank Holidays with either lots of locals booking in advance, or just turning up on the day,could create chaos.  Of course, you could always stop for a picnic on Byway 12 if you just want to look at the stones, or park in Amesbury, pop into the family-friendly Amesbury Museum, then walk out to Stonehenge,  following the course of the old A344 - the Stopping Up order seems only to have removed vehicular rights of way - not those for pedestrians, horses and cycles.

You should take great care when trying to cross the A303 - don't walk into stationary vehicles, try and walk round them!

Woad Is Me - The Stonehenge Fiasco

Oh dear, I really didn't intent to use this blog to do anything other than support the STAG road campaign.  Sadly, earlier today, after we had completed our demo, I decided I would pop into the new visitor's centre.  All the hype on the TV and radio over the last few days had suggested that it was well worth a visit, and a great improvement over the old facilities just off the A303 near Stonhenge bottom.

By the time we arrived, the weather had taken a turn for the worse; it was grey and drizzling and the first views of the visitors centre was much as described by many already.  It looks a bit like an African building site with floors held up by wooden poles.  Here is Stonehenge:

and here is the African equivalent:

OK, the Africans are clearly more ambitious as they have gone up two stories rather than one.

The car park is excellent though, with good-sized and well-marked spaces for disabled drivers, but not as many parking spaces as I had expected.

Walking down to the entrance we were met by King Arthur and his Loyal Arthurian Warband.  They were in fine voice, asking that English Heritage returned the bones of the dead to the ground, rather than exhibiting them in the Visitor's centre.  I'm afraid here was yet another disappointment, but not one of English Heritage's making.  There had been rumours of King Arthur Pendragon being attended by a bevy of bare-breasted maidens.  Sadly, not a one in sight, but you can't blame them really, the weather was atrocious.  Not a day for woad.  We'll come back to King Arthur's demands later...

...but at this point I wasn't very sympathetic.

Once you get beyond the scaffolding, Denton Corker Marshall have managed to create an impressive building, although they do seem to have captured much of the "feel" of the old visitor's centre by the pay booths - it feels like you are in a trench, below ground level.  Fortunately, it doesn't yet have the redolent smells of the old facility.  Despite this, architecturally, the building is impressive.  I can't fault the structure. It could be so wonderful.

The next bit of good news, at least for locals, were the arrangements for those of us with Stonehenge Local Residents passes (and for those of you who are members of English Heritage or the National Trust and who also get free access).  There was a separate line to the till and it all went very smoothly.  Much, much better than the old facility.

 Well the Local Residents admission is one thing, but the souvenir first day ticket in plasticised cardboard.  Oh come on, get a grip, this isn't a Disney attraction.


Right, let's get down to the nitty-gritty.  The new visitor's centre is meant to be a triumph of the age, to set Stonehenge in context, to show a wealth of exhibits and to inform the visiting public.  Oh, dear, how sad, never mind.  It fails in its main purpose.

Now don't get me wrong.  the exhibit cases are first class, the exhibits themselves rivetting.  BUT and it is a huge but, there are so few exhibits and they are so poorly displayed.  Little information is provided when it should be oozing out of every nook and cranny.  There is no clear way round the exhibits.  I felt cheated somehow. It's just lots of wide open space with bugger all in it.

Huge boards, each carrying a single word.  Pap for the brain-dead if you ask me.  Contrast this space with that given over to the retail area.  See the plan below:

The upper oval shows the retail area - filled largely with the sort of "kiss-me-quick" Stonehenge branded tat commonly found at seaside emporia everywhere, or more expensive stuff found at every English Heritage and National Trust site in the country.  Most of the exhibits are in the 5 small cases shown in the lower oval.  How small?  Well, if two people are looking into one of the sides of each case, no-one else gets a look-in.  I make that 40 people looking in the cases and the place is too busy. No wonder English Heritage want people to book - there isn't enough room for too many!

Now there are other exhibits round (some) of the walls and there are books in the Objects Chamber (pretentious twaddle for "Room") - but of course, you can only see 2 pages of each book at most.  But there is a heck of a lot of empty space - the Interpretation area for instance, that takes up at least 20% of the whole exhibits area.  OK, you can stand in it and get to experience what it might feel like to stand in the centre of Stonehenge at different times of year, but wasting so much physical space that could have been put to better purpose, when 3D headsets could present it so much more effectively.

I got mugged by BBC Wiltshire in the shop and asked what I thought of the exhibits.  I told them - much as I I have written it above and emphasised it by complaining that twice as much area seemed to be devoted to the shop as was given over to archaeology.   English Heritage clearly took umbrage at this and pointed out that the ground area of the exhibits area is twice that of the shop.  True, in total ground area, they are perfectly correct.  However, as the retail area is packed to the gunnels with "stuff" and you have to search to find anything in the exhibits area - the functional occupancy is somewhat different.  Compare the sizes of those two ovals - the ratio of functional shop:functional exhibits is more like 3:1 than the 2:1 I suggested to the BBC.

Time for another plus point.  There is a large and much-needed cafe on the other side of the complex.  This is bright and airy, makes excellent use of space and is well-planned. This is a bonus for visitors and although the size is reasonable, it is of a similar size to the retail area.

Embarrassingly for English Heritage, every other person interviewed mentioned the coffee, the food, the gift shop - but not the archaeology.  Even BBC Wiltshire themselves, during the news bulletin I heard, seemed to spend more time commenting on the delights of Stonehenge jam and English Heritage wine than they did about history.  Soooo sad!

I can't help but think that English Heritage have been so eager to screw money out of visitors (Cafe, huge gift shop and double the admission price from February) that they almost forgot to add the exhibits. 

Let's go back to King Arthur and his desire to rebury the human artefacts.  If they were being displayed with full academic rigour, in a setting that explained the context in which they had been found, in an educational way that both informed and challenged the viewer (See the Amesbury Archer display in Salisbury Museum - and witness the reaction of children who see it for the first time - hushed, almost reverential tones, at seeing a body in "the ground".) I would be the first to say keep them where all people, not just academics, can learn from them.

Then compare it to one of the Stonehenge displays

  Instead of being displayed contextually, the remains are arranged to fit the design of the cases and the accompanying text is so uninformative as to be pointless.  I can see no reason why the public wouldn't get as much from looking at a good plastic facsimile as they would looking at the real thing.  That isn't to say I agree that they should be reburied.  I would prefer they were placed out of the public gaze in an area where they could be subject to legitimate scientific study, but where they were normally kept in a place of dignified security.  Perhaps English Heritage and the Loyal Warband could come to a compromise?

I've been pretty damning about the new Visitor's Centre.  It could be so much more than the pale, dumbed-down, Disney experience it now offers.  Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is to be found in the home of Disney - the USA.

A month or so ago, I met up with an old friend in the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall in Washington DC for coffee.   Knowing my interest in history, my friend suggested I popped across the Mall to the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History to see a special exhibition that was running called  Written in Bone: The Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake Bay Area. Click that link and this one (the Forensic Files) to get a feel for what they have done.   I wouldn't be averse to English Heritage flying all those involved in setting out the Visitor's Centre to see how a thoroughly enthralling, thought provoking and contextually stunning exhibition can be put together in a relatively small space.  Not dumbed-down, not Disneyfied, but gritty, educational and thought provoking.  It kept my attention for over 3 hours - today the Stonehenge Visitor's centre managed 15 minutes.

English Heritage still have time to get it right - it just needs more.

More:

- space devoted to artefacts and exhibits
- information
- context

and less tat!

First Demo Achieves Its Goal

It was really encouraging to see the turn-out for the first of our three demonstrations at Stonehenge today (17/12/2013) and tomorrow (18/12/2013.).  Most of the folks we expected to show up,  did so, plus many others who turned up on the day.   Bar a few hiccups - mainly due to wet sticky tape and escapee balloons - it all went very well.

I hope we didn't annoy too many motorists - that wasn't our intention - but we did make our presence felt.  As you might imagine, whilst most of our fellow road users took things in good part, there were the odd few muppets out there this morning.   All of them fell into three categories - and all clearly are very important.  Pity the police weren't about to see how well they controlled their cars whilst doing 80mph+ in a 40mph zone - they would've been very impressed.

The three categories of muppet were:

Short spotty youths in over-priced and under-serviced grey Audis;
Yummy mummies (strangely ALL blonde!), clearly late on school run yet again, in black Mercedes;
White van men, smartphone on steering wheel as they text as they drive, drink coffee and light new fag from old one.

Just imagine how dangerous any of them might be if they had opposable thumbs?

I'm afraid that I for one wasn't prepared keep my promise to Inspector Lange of Wiltshire Police to "keep up with the speed of other traffic."

Janet and Dave Hassett, the founders of STAG led from the front, the back and the middle of the procession - the great advantage of a circular route; even when they were behind, they were in front.

Most importantly, we achieved the primary objective, which was to make use of the Press being at Stonehenge for the opening of the new Visitor's Centre to grab a bit of Press attention.

So thanks to all who turned out this morning and I hope you will be back at 1300 this afternoon and again inthe morning to greet the public!

Hopefully, we will have some better photos later in the day!

Listen to the STAG story on dualling the A303 and stopping rat-running through local villages on BBC Wiltshire Radio from 13:35 today.

Revolution - And the Wheels Go Round - FREE Magnetic STAG Car Signs for 10 Lucky Campaigners!

It struck me that many of the people who are likely to turn out for the demos next Tuesday and Wednesday are likely to be retired given that the demo is in the middle of the working week and I began to wonder what the local constabulary would make of that.  After all, demonstrators are usually students or young adults - silver-surfers they are not.

Then I thought a little harder.  These folks are the children of the 60s and 70s - to whom demonstration was almost a way of life. I must confess that for a period in the 70s I was known in Bristolian National Union of Student circles as "Red Angus" - and carried a notorious banner that promoted free assistance for marine cetaceans of indeterminate colour and gender assignment - it saved producing a new banner for every new demo.

So, far from being the "slippers by the fire, snooze after lunch" generation, the group likely to be out in force belong to the most militant generation ever seen in the UK - but we do promise to be good!

Do come and join us for one, or all of the sessions we have planned by joining the A360 between Longbarrow Roundabout and the new roundabout at Airman's Cross a the times shown below:

Tuesday 17th December 2013
  
08:30 until 10:00
and
13:00 until 16:00

Wednesday 18th December 2013

08:30 until 10:30 

More specific details can be found here in our earlier post.

10 FREE Campaign Car Signs to Give Away

Thanks to the generosity of Stagman, we have 10 magnetic STAG campaign car signs to give away.  All you need to do is use the Contact Form at the bottom of the page and:

- Promise, faithfully, that you will turn up to one of the demonstration sessions and help out in the future.

- Leave a contact email address or phone number so we can contact you and arrange to get a sign to you before Tuesday.

Be the Envy of All Your Neighbours

Leap Mountains with a Single Bound

Remember, Remember the 18th December...

...when the new Stonehenge Visitors Centre is formally opened. It would be wonderful if we could swamp the World Heritage Site (WHS), on the day, with lots of folks wanting to use the event to draw attention to the problems the WHS causes, by its impact on traffic flows in the area for local residents, travellers and business-folk alike.  If it wasn't for the WHS, it is likely that the A303 would have been dualled decades ago - and as for the A344 - don't go there.

  A few posts back, we told you which local residents were entitled to the free Stonehenge Local Residents and we estimated that could be around 30,000 of you, give or take a few.  We also warned that Amesbury Library, the only place we know of that issues these cards, was running low.

STAG reports today that the library were out of cards on 1 November and a follow-up phone call to them today (5th November) suggested they had been told by English Heritage to expect a new supply in the next week.  This is something we need to keep a close eye on.  As the originator of this report observed, a cynic might think the lack of cards was an English Heritage ploy to keep locals at bay on opening day.

It is worth noting, however, that nowhere in the original deed of gift by Cecil Chubb was any mention made of English Heritage or the need to have a printed pass on a piece of cardboard.  The only condition needed for entry is to live in one of relevant villages.  We would assume that simply having proof of residency in one of these would be sufficient to comply with the conditions of the deed of gift and gain free entry on the gate.  We are sure that English Heritage won't like this suggestion as it might cause a bit of discontent with the paying customers, but that's a deed of gift for you...

SH2 - A Proposal For A Very Northerly Route

It is very easy for us to sit here and complain about the problems caused by the lack of dualling of the A303, the lack of bypasses, the idiocy of various bodies - the Highways Agency, the Department for Transport and Wiltshire Council - in closing the A344 before the A303 problems were resolved, despite the excellent advice they were given, in order to pander to the demands of English Heritage and the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.

It is very easy, because they have set themselves up as such easy targets for ridicule and derision - and they will be duly ridiculed and derided. 

However, whilst we must be resolute in learning the lessons of the past, we need to look to the future and ask ourselves how might the problem be solved.  So what is it we want to achieve exactly?  Well, here at WiSBAng, we would offer the following list of key points:

- Dual the entire length of the A303 (and the A358 and A30 to Penzance)
- Bypass villages such as Winterbourne Stoke
- Remove the A303 from the Stonehenge World Heritage Site sight-line
- Minimising the need to damage virgin farmland
- Minimising the cost
- In doing all of the above, eliminating rat-running through local villages.

However, we need to look at some of the limiting factors:

- The location of the World Heritage Site itself
- The location of Parsonage Down site
- The high cost of stuffing the A303 in a tunnel
- The unsuitability of the WHS geology for stuffing the A303 in a tunnel.

There are a few other factors that need to be borne in mind.

-The Armed Forces are retrenching to Wiltshire from Germany and are planning to accommodate a further 3,500-4,000 people, including families, at Larkhill, but:
- The Armed Forces have reduced massively in size since the heyday of activity in the Salisbury Plain training area;
- Not all of the Salisbury Plain Training Area is in use all of the time - so, very simplistically, it can't all be needed.
- The land occupied by the Salisbury Plain Training Area is already in government ownership or leasehold.
- The military population is largely transient - they come, they are posted, they go.
- Whatever route west is taken for the A303 - it is going to destroy/damage some archaeology.
- Most routes that have been proposed to date go through virgin countryside, or go so far south that they will start to have undesirable adverse impacts on the traffic flow in and around Salisbury.
- Whatever route west is taken, it will require some virgin countryside.
- Much of the virgin countryside that would need to be sacrificed to reroute the A303, especially on the routes previously proposed, is owned by rich and influential individuals who can be expected to object a wee bit.
- The Green lobby might also object a little - think 'Winchester Bypass.'

So, is there a route that could possibly deal with all, or most of the above?  We think so, and here it is:

 Just click on the picture to see the enlarged view.  Basically, the proposed route leaves the current A303 at the Parkhouse Roundabout, cuts northwest into MoD land and then heads due west, north of Bulford and Larkhill.  It then continues westwards until it reaches a point on the A360, roughly equidistant between Shrewton and Tilshead, before cutting back to the south west to rejoin the A303 at the Wylye junction.  As I write, I can hear the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth in MoD - it's going to mess up the small-arms- ranges between Bulford and Tidworth and cut the two camps apart - but there is a helluva lot of training area and rifle/grenade ranges can be resited - how hard is it to build a berm?  Then think of the benefits to MoD - most civilian traffic could be removed from Larkhill - benefiting the newly returned families and making a much clearer distinction between the living area and the training area. Unexploded ordnance along the route- well, there's bound to be some, but what a wonderful training opportunity. 

There is one other huge benefit in going this far north, and that is the possibility of joining into the A36 at Knook Camp, close to the Warminster bypass - and possibly providing some relief to the A36 villages - at least from traffic travelling to or from the east of England.  Like this:

OK, it's far from ideal, but it is the route which requires the minimum purchase of undeveloped countryside and achieves just about everyone's desired outcomes.  The A303 proposal turns a 14.4 mile section of road into one 17 miles long - adding less than 3 minutes to the journey time.  Compare that with the 1-3 hours that 14 mile stretch has taken this summer.

Let the cries of outrage begin!

STAG Begins to Lock Horns

It seems that slowly, but surely, the Shrewton Traffic Action Group (STAG) is gaining traction.  In doing so, the Press are beginning to take an interest and that is beginning to get officialdom taking things a little more seriously than they have so far.  They'd better - this is only the beginning.

Both last week and this week, there was some excellent publicity in the Salisbury Journal in relation to the STAG petition and taking it to 10 Downing Street.  This morning, STAG were interviewed by Spire FM and it seems that English Heritage want an informal chat with STAG tomorrow...

...now that will be interesting.  Will it be to offer support for a plan to re-open the A344?  Support for a "cut and shut" two-level dual carriageway past the stones on the route of the original A303 maybe?  To deliver news that Stonehenge has been sold to the Disney Corporation and is being shipped to a more suitable site in the Nevada Desert perhaps.  Or is it just to express their concern that attention is being drawn to the Free Local Residents Passes?

After all, if each of the 30,000 adults in the local area who seem to be eligible for the passes take up the scheme and each takes just one child to visit Stonehenge, just once a year, then this would add 60,000 visitors to the Stonhenge annual visitor statistics.   Put another way, that is a minimum of £384,000 in lost revenues.  If each local visit were to involve 2 adults accompanying 6 children, then the loss could be nearly £700,000 per annum.   Stonehenge gets around 900,000 visitors a year - so if these locals visited Stonehenge just once a year it would represent around 13% of the annual visitors to Stonehenge. Ouch!   If they visit once a month, they will be in the majority and represent a 2-year potential loss of revenue to English Heritage of £16.8 million.

Whatever English Heritage claim to be their motivation to meet with STAG, you might guess that numbers like these would be influencing their thinking - at least a little.

The Stonehenge Local Residents Pass and the Good Ladies of Amesbury Library

I thought it might be prudent to check to see whether or not the process to get hold of a Stonehenge Residents Pass was as easy as the folk at English Heritage this morning had led me to believe.  After all, I wouldn't want anyone to go to their local library, as instructed, and find that they didn't issue them.  It turns out that there is only one library that issues these passes and that is Amesbury Library - at least that is what the two nice librarians I spoke to today told me.  Surprising that the Mobile Library that tootles round some of the villages doesn't issue them as well.

The entire process was very straightforward and curiously old-fashioned.  A quick check of a piece of ID that links your name to an address in a local village, then the nice librarian fills in name, address and date and you sign it.  That's it - no photo, no digital record.

What did concern me was the small pile of 20-30 blank cards held by Amesbury Library.  Trying to be helpful, I suggested that they might want to consider getting a few more in, what with all the publicity around the new visitors centre and the furore that was being kicked up about the state of the traffic.  The two lady librarians did a bit of a double take when I mentioned that over 30,000 locals might be eligible for the pass.  After due consideration, they thought they might ask the English Heretics Heritage people for more.

So, shop early to avoid disappointment.  You have been warned.  But do be nice to the librarians, they are really helpful.

UPDATE 02/10/13

I had a call last night to ask exactly which residents were entitled to the free pass.  Well Cecil Chubb's initial donation of Stonehenge to the government in 1918 mentioned only Shrewton, Netheravon, Durrington and Amesbury.  This was later extended to residents of all the parishes that made up the old Rural District of Amesbury.  The 1911 Census indicates the Rural District of Amesbury comprised:

Amesbury
Maddington
Orcheston St George
Orcheston St Mary
Rollestone
Shrewton
Tilshead
Winterbourne Stoke
Amesbury
Bulford
Durnford
Durrington
Figheldean
Milston
Wilsford cum Lake
Woodford
Allington
Boscombe
Cholderton
Idmiston
Newton Toney
Winterbourne Dauntsey
Winterbourne Earls
Winterbourne Gunner

Some of these may come as a bit of a surprise; even to the residents of the villages involved.  Don't be backwards about coming forwards to get your free Stonehenge Local Residents Pass

English Heritage Lay on Publicity Event for WiSBAng - Well Actually it's the Launch of the Stonehenge Visitor Centre, But No Need to Let Them Have All the Fun

A "Friend of WiSBAng" has passed on the following helpful information:





STOP PRESS: WEDS 18TH DECEMBER – LAUNCH CEREMONY

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-24329692

Put this date in your diary and make sure you have your Stonehenge Residents Passes ready.

If you weren't aware of the fact, the 30,000 local residents living in and around Stonehenge can, indeed should, take up the offer of free access to Stonehenge.

Just 5% of that 30,000 in a wholly peaceful queue on the day with some catchy placards would get our message across. Imagine the chaos if 10% turned up (that’s 3000 protestors). What about the administrative gridlock if 30% of us applied/re-applied for the free passes to which we are entitled under statute - a condition laid down when Stonehenge was gifted to the nation - that’s 9000 calls to process! As you may know, the procedure itself is stone-age, but English Heritage’s membership team will tell you how: 0870 333 1181

We've deliberately quoted the central membership number at EH HQ for fear of ruining the poor dear's life at their local office.

To be honest, all you really need to do is turn up at your local Library with proof of residence in a local village and ask for a Stonehenge Residents Permit - but place a call to English Heritage anyway.

Footnote.

Some wag has already suggested that each local village donates 1square metre of land to a "fighting fund". We divide each of these plots up into 1 million 1 sq mm parcels of land and offer them for sale on eBay.  As a landowner, you'd be entitled to residency and therefore free access to Stonehenge - now that might really set the cat amongst the pigeons.

Update:

Some helpfully inadvertent advice from Susan Greaney, an archaeologist and the Stonehenge museum’s curator,  who observed the following about the former denizens of Stonehenge.

 'They were able to pool together vast resources to construct this extraordinary monument using only simple tools.’  A good lesson for those of us today. 

We need to pool together our resources to ensure that A303 is dualled asap, using only the simple tools available to us like the internet, the press and a wealth of animal cunning.