December Opening Date For Stonehenge Visitor Centre

It is not often that the timing of the Winter Solstice is an important issue when it comes to finalising a completion date on an important building project. But then not every building project is as important and high profile as the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre.

Open In Time For The Winter Solstice

English Heritage have announced the 18th December as the appropriately seasonal date for the completion of the centre which will be located about a mile-and-a-half (2km) from the stones. Visitors will be taken to the site by way of a little train, pulled by a Land Rover.

Included in the £27 million project is the grassing over of the A334 alongside the ancient monument and closing another section of the busy road.

Lorraine Knowle, from English Heritage, said the "beautifully and sensitively designed" centre "fits into the rolling landscape of Salisbury Plain very well. It will give visitors a real sense of anticipation because the building is really just a stepping stone on the way to seeing the monument," she added.

Stonehenge, which attracts the best part of one million visitors a year, 70% of whom come from abroad, was built somewhere between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC. It is believed that it served as an important religious site, and it is thought that its stones are from Pont Saeson in Pembrokeshire - more than 240 miles (386km) away.

On the Summer Solstice (Litha), the central altar stone aligns with the heel stone, the slaughter stone and the rising sun to the north east. It was in the last century that pagan celebrations began at the Henge.

The onsite museum will benefit from artefacts found around the stones which are now held in  local collections in Salisbury and Devizes and will be lent to the visitor centre.

Joe Studholme, from the Salisbury Museum said for the first time visitors to the stones will be able to put the exhibits in context. "Before people go to the stones they need to know much more about the background. Previously there hasn't been any background about the story of the stones. We're thrilled to be in partnership with English Heritage and to be able to tell the whole story about Stonehenge and the wonderful area".

                           http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge/

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/content/news/2013/stonehenge-exhibition-and-visitor-centre-     opens-on-18-december