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| Stone Formation Archive 1991 |
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 Stone Formations news, views, gallery and archive brought to you by Weird Wiltshire Introduction Latest News News Archive Stonehenge Stonehenge Project Stonehenge 360 Avebury Saviours Stones Village Solstice Wayland Smithy Long Barrow Woodhenge Gallery Summer Solstice Gallery 2002 Summer Solstice Gallery 2004 Postcards Wallpaper Links  |
First published on August 22, 1991 A CONTROVERSIAL theme park set within a world heritage site is being reduced to rubble. The new owner of Avebury Manor, the National Trust, has sent in bulldozers to demolish more than 20 buildings up as part of bankrupt property developer Ken KingÕs theme park which closed last year. For the first time in living memory, archaeologists will be able to study the area once the buildings and their foundations have been removed. Mr King recently lost 23 appeals against enforcement notices issued by Kennet Council after he put up the buildings without permission. The National Trust, which bought the manor from the Official Receiver for an undisclosed sum earlier this year, is now restoring the house and gardens to their original Elizabethan state, at an estimated cost of £200,000. "One of the reasons for purchasing the manor was to restore the property to its former character," said National Trust land agent David Riddle. Mr King incurred the wrath of some villagers when he transformed the old manor, a grade one listed building, into a tourist attraction. But now he wants to return to the manor as the National Trust's tenant. "Soon archaeologists will move in to find out more about the site's rich past. It was a Benedictine priory built on part of the site of the early Saxon settlement. Back to 1991 index |
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