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| Stone Formation Archive 2003 |
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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  |
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published April 23 2003 Ancient stone is almost ready to be touched again WORK to lift an ancient stone that has been standing close to collapse in Avebury for 300 years is nearly complete. Specialist contractors have already lifted and corrected the massive Cove stone at the centre of the Northern Inner Circle at the world heritage site. In a venture jointly funded by English Heritage and the National Trust and costing more than £50,000, specialists constructed a special scaffolding framework to support giant jacks, which were used to adjust the angle of the megalith. And when the work is finally complete, in about a fortnight, visitors will be able to touch all the stones for the first time since 1997. Richard Henderson, the National Trust's Avebury visitor manager, said: "Two of the stones had been fenced off for a number of years, but when they are accessible again it will be a great moment because visitors will able to touch them and get up close and personal with what is an integral part of the site." During excavations at the 4,500-year-old heritage site it was discovered that one of the two large stones at its centre could be among the largest standing megaliths in the UK, possibly weighing in at 100 tonnes and rivalling those found at Stonehenge. Archaeologists made the surprise discovery during early preparations to straighten the stones. The team from the universities of Wales, Leicester and Southampton found that the stone * which is about 14 feet or 4.4 metres tall * exists at least seven feet below the ground surface and could possibly go down as far as 10 feet. Amanda Chadburn, inspector of ancient monuments for English Heritage, said: "We were amazed when we discovered the stone went so much deeper than expected. "Ground penetrating radar and probing had suggested it existed to only about one-and-a-half to three feet below the surface * it's absolutely enormous and could weigh as much as a trilithon at Stonehenge." Back to 2003 index |
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