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| Avebury Saviours |
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NO mention of Avebury is complete without talk of John Aubrey,
William Stukeley and Alexander Keiller.
Without these three men, our knowledge of Avebury's past would be much poorer. The studies of John Aubry and William Stukeley ensured the layout of the cicle was recorded before it was largely destroyed by Victorian farmers, while Alexander Keiller finally secured the site's future by purchasing it in the 1930s. John Aubrey John Aubrey was an antiquarian who discovered the stones by chance when he was out hunting in 1645. He was clearly struck by what he saw and wrote of his discovery: "I was wonderfully surprised at the sight of those vast stones of which I had never heard before". He accompanied Charles II to the site on his way to Bath in 1663, and expressed an early preference for Avebury over Stonehenge, by saying "it does as much exceed in greatness the so renowned Stonehenge, as a cathedral doeth a parish church". William Stukeley From 1719 to 1724, doctor and clergyman William Stukeley took over Aubrey's inheritance. He fell in love with the ancient site but witnessed much of its destruction. His sketches of the Avebury complex and the journals he kept have helped scholars today imagine what Avebury used to be like. Stukeley arrived at a time when the village was expanding rapidly. Building materials were needed and the stone circle was pillaged to make bigger and better houses. Fire and cold water were used to crack many of the great sarsen stones. This had a devastating effect on the previously well-preserved circles. Many stone buildings, houses, field walls and the church manor were built from the broken stones. Alexander Keiller Alexander Keiller was the man to make the most significant difference to the appearance of Avebury. A wealthy man whose money came from his family's marmalade business, he purchased Avebury and part of the West Kennet Avenue in the 1930s. Inspired by the work of Aubrey and Stukeley, he set about digging out stones which were buried. The burying of stones in the Middle Ages may have saved them from being broken up and destroyed. Using modern equipment and materials, Keiller restored many of the stones to their rightful positions. He had studied the complex intently, including the sketches and journals of William Stukeley and went about restoring it to its former glory. Where the stones were irrevocably destroyed he placed concrete plinths in their place. The North West sector was the first to be excavated by Keiller in 1937. Only a few stones were visible and the area had to be cleaned up after becoming a village rubbish tip. Writing in 1939, Keiller lamented the desecration of such an important site: "the conditions of indescribable squalor and neglect prevailing over most of the area . . .indeed the tangle of rusty pig wire, the accumulations, to a depth of nearly 3 feet of old tins and broken bottles, around two of the standing stones, to say nothing of the refuse heaps which filled the ditch almost flush with its edges, constituted ungenerously towards rendering the once majestic site of Avebury what it had been for centuries, the outstanding archaeological disgrace of Britain". The onset of World War Two interrupted the restoration, and it is thought that many other stones are still buried in the complex. The stones are now in the care of the National Trust and a barn museum, cafe and shop have been discreetly added. |
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