A round-up of Salisbury and Stonehenge news on the web over the last week or so.
The BBC has a good write-up about ‘The man who bought Stonehenge’, Cecil Chubb. Chubb bought Stonehenge on 21st September 1915 as a present for his wife. He owned the Stones only until 1918 when he gave them to the nation. Something I didn’t know was that:
His conditions [for the gift] were that the entrance fee should never be more then a shilling (5p) and that local residents should have free access.
“The 1918 deed of gift didn’t actually specify free access for local residents,” says Joy Kaarnijoki at English Heritage, “it was an agreement with the Parish Council….
Whether it was stipulated by Sir Cecil Chubb himself, or not, it’s an agreement that has continued to the present day.
According to English Heritage, the 30,000 local residents living in and around Stonehenge can still take up the offer of free access to one of England’s most famous monuments.
Also on the BBC site, there is a piece about the 50 Constables which are returnng to Salisbury (paintings not policemen) and some super photos from the Liminality art at Salisbury Cathedral.
I really enjoyed ‘Liminality’, but it’s probably only fair to say that the ‘sleeping giant’ outside isn’t entirely representative of the artwork inside. It’s worth getting the guide book.
Leon Daniels has an interesting post about a day trip to Imber on a Routemaster bus.
There is an interesting article on Wooley and Wallis sale of some items connected with Siegfried Sasson on the Sassoon Project blog, with some nice photos.
Finally two more links about Stonehenge, which might be seen as contrasting. The Independent has a good write up on the discovery that Stonehenge was a prehistoric ‘tourist hotspot’. Many of the people buried near the Henge originated some distance away. I think I’ve read things about this before , but the news stories have particularly focussed on a teenage boy of Mediterranean descent who was buried with an amber necklace. There’s one intriguing statement in the article:
Certainly the monument was internationally known in ancient times – and appears to have been described by a fourth-century BC Greek geographer, centuries after it had actually gone out of use.
I’ve not heard of the Greek geographer before – I’ll investigate that further.
A contrarian view, citing ’5 reasons not to bother with Stonehenge’ is on the Yahoo! News site. The author concludes that
Don’t get me wrong…I’m glad that my family and I were able to see Stonehenge. It is impressive to look at, and it’s history really does leave much to the imagination.
Finally, finally some ‘news’ not from the internet. I saw a copy of Rosemary Hill’s book Stonehenge
