In the last week in April we had a short holiday in Bath, and from there we did a couple of day trips. One of these was to Stonehenge. I’d been there once before, many years ago – nearly 50, in fact, which is a scary thought – but my memories of the visit are quite faint. I have recollection that we could go right up to the stones at that time. As I say, my memories are quite faint – I was actually on a trip organised by a college course I was doing in connection with my first job and I think that in the time-honoured way of lads I was more interested in chatting and playing around with my mates, and perhaps locating a pub, than in the site.
I’d frequently wondered about going back, but whenever I read up on it I got the feeling that it wasn’t that great a visit with traffic on most sides of the site and a basic and too-close visitor centre. Fast forward to recent years, and there have been changes; one of the roads along the side of the site has been closed and grassed over, the old visitor centre has been replaced by one much further away and out of sight of the stones, and the visitor centre itself contains a wealth of interpretive material. So when the opportunity presented itself on this holiday we took it.
There is a significant charge to visit the site – £14.50 for an adult (£16 with Gift Aid) but we’re National Trust members so there was no charge for us. We did however have to book a time slot for our visit on their website which is full of dire warnings of what will happen if you don’t hit your slot. In the event, on the day we were there I don’t think they were paying any attention to that. We arrived, parked the car – there’s a huge car park – went into the visitor centre area (which is where we passed through the ticket barrier) and had a cup of tea. Then onto the shuttle bus from the visitor centre to the stones. It’s about a mile and a half from the visitor centre to the stones. You can walk it, either all the way from the visitor centre or from a point about half way. We didn’t – I had been hoping to but it was cold and a bit wet that day so we took the bus all the way. At the end of the bus ride you alight from the bus and follow a path over to the stones; the path circles the site, and there are various interpretive notices along the path. These link to an audio guide (the cost of which is included in your admission fee) which give you detailed commentary on what’s in from to you.
So how was my Stonehenge experience? well, at first I was a bit disappointed – I was cold, a bit damp, surrounded by other people and the switch from being on a bus to looking at a four and a half thousand year old monument was jarring. But slowly I was able to attune myself to the site – that’s the only way to put it, to be honest; actively ignore all the other people and concentrate on the site itself – and I began to appreciate it. This was one of those occasions where having the camera helped – the pathway runs 30 to 40 yards away from the stones so I put a long zoom lens on the camera (70-200 for those interested) and was able to use that to not only take pictures but also examine the stones. We stayed at the stones for maybe 45 minutes before getting the bus back to the visitor centre.
Once there we spent some time looking at the displays of objects and of the history of the site. The latter was particularly interesting; the displays explained the history of the construction of Stonehenge over about 1000 years, and also explained what was already in the landscape before it appeared, what was added to the landscape afterwards, and how Stonehenge fitted into other ancient locations e.g. Durrington Walls.
In the end I was pleased I made the visit. However, you are always aware that you are on a managed site. I fully understand the reasons for the access restriction to the stones, but I couldn’t help wondering how it would be to walk along the Avenue from Durrington Walls to the river Avon and then onto and into Stonehenge. Unfortunately it’s not do-able these days.
After lunch we looked around for something to do for the afternoon. The drizzle had stopped and the sun had come out and we found a NT property not far away, Great Chalfield Manor. This was an absolute delight – built in 1480 in one go, and still today pretty much as it was then. There are also lovely gardens and even a moat – though not for defensive purposes, there was originally a watermill in the vicinity. The building (which is still lived-in) is used on occasion for films and TV programmes; most recently it was seen as Austin Friars, Thomas Cromwell’s home. This was a lovely spot, very quiet and down a very narrow and quiet country lane, and we enjoyed it enormously.
Tom,
Your comment on people boarding Azura late is most unfair, we all do not live near Southampton, but many have to travel from the North & Scotland with Coach travel previously arranged, to change this and travel earlier would have been difficult, or arranging overnight hotel accommodation at the south’s extortionate rates is not acceptable, so try and consider the difficulties for Northerners when commenting, apology accepted!!!! Regards, Brian
My apologies – the comment was meant to be tongue-in-cheek.