Stonehenge in the Twentieth Century

 We were very pleased to welcome Dr Susan Greaney for our November Zoom talk when we learned a lot more about Stonehenge through an amazing photographic archive. An archaeologist currently based at Exeter University, Dr Greaney has worked for English Heritage as senior properties historian. The talk was mainly focused on the changes to Stonehenge during the twentieth century with a potted history before that.

Stonehenge was built in stages between 3000-1500 BC, there are 93 stones, some as high as 4metres and weighing 25 tons. Its purpose may have been worship or astrological observation. There are many more bits of information about Stonehenge on the English Heritage blog post and their website.

William Stukely became involved with Stonehenge when he found a solstice alignment in 1723. And from the 1860s people came to visit at solstice, and in the 1970 there were free festivals at the site, and until 1978 there was free access to the stones.

In 1900 one of the stones fell down, Wiltshire Council were concerned that something needed to be done to preserve and protect the site, and in 1901 it was declared a Stone Age monument and attempts were made to fill around the base of the stones with concrete to prevent them falling over. In 1905 the first Druid ceremony is thought to have taken place:

In 1906 there was debate about the right of way across the site as seen in the aerial photograph below which shows Stonehenge looking very hemmed in by roads and footpaths

 In 1915, Cecil Chubb who had gone to an auction to buy some dining room chairs came away from the auction having bought Stonehenge for £6600 and gave it to the nation in 1918 when an entrance fee was charged for the privilege of looking round the stones with money raised going to the Red Cross and local residents were not to be charged for visiting.

We were shown lots of photographs taken over the years which give a superb idea of what the stones looked like when they were being secured in place, and who was working on the stones. The photograph above shows what the area to the south of Stonehenge was like in 1937, car use was increasing and by 1935, there were 15000 visitors to Stonehenge. There's an AA box on the right, and the old cafe can be seen on the right of the photo, built in 1917, it was thought to be a 'cheap flashy little building' and it was demolished in 1938 along with the caretaker's cottages. The road sign may have said Exeter left and Andover right, and the sign on the left says 'Fork left for Exeter'.

Thank you once again Dr Susan Greaney for our last talk of 2023. Details of all 2024 talks available soon, our first talk is on 25 January by Michael Gray called 'Repairing an Oxford College'.