Stonehenge [antikvár]

Foreword HEN I TOOK office at English Heritage in 1992,1 made the firm promise that during my tenure real action would be taken at Stonehenge. Action to improve presentation and visitors' enjoyment of the site; action to present a full re-evaluation of the archaeological record for Stonehenge; and action to remove the menace of the heavy road traffic that thunders past and threatens this precious place. Stonehenge and its environs are deservedly a World Heritage Site, and the Stonehenge environment deserves a great deal more care than it has had for a long time. This book is based upon the huge strides forward that have been made during the 1990s in the understanding of Stonehenge and its surroundings. We know now that the monument is even more ancient than we had previously imagined. So while the stones and the landscape still have many mysteries, Stonehenge is much less mysterious than it was. In the book's final section, David Souden describes the Millennium Park that English Heritage and the National Trust have jointly devised. These plans include the proposal for a new visitors' complex, with vehicle parking kept well away from the stones, managing the land so that much of it will be returned to grazed dovraland, and bringing together all the different monuments and parts of the broader landscape. One key element is the official recognition, finally won in 1996, that the road situation must be dealt with, by closure of the A344 alongside Stonehenge and construction of a tunnel to hide the traffic of the A303 where it is most visible and at its noisiest. Achieving all this has been an astounding victory, of national and indeed international importance. For this is one of the nation's greatest treasures. When the plans for the Millennium Park have been realised, Stonehenge and 451 scheduled monuments within the World Heritage Site will be saved for the future. There will be free access for all. Visitors will be able to enjoy fully the isolation, the ancient atmosphere and the awesomeness of Stonehenge's prehistoric environment that this book describes and evokes. SIRJOCELYN STEVENS Chairman, English Heritage