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Full circle? Ten new facts about Stonehenge
Stonehenge has to be the most intensively studied prehistoric monument in the world, which begs the question: ‘is there anything left to say?’ A new English Heritage study of the wider Stonehenge World Heritage Site landscape has come up with a few surprising facts which, if not all new, are perhaps not widely known, as Chris Catling now reports.
Fact 1: Stonehenge was once surrounded by barbed wire
Many people reading this will remember the battles that took place in the 1980s between the police and Peace Convoy travellers who wished to gain access to Stonehenge for their midsummer festivities. In June 1985, the Battle of the Beanfield led to the arrest of 537 travellers, the largest mass arrest of civilians since the Second World War. The authorities of the day feared that the archaeology of Stonehenge would be damaged by the lighting of fires and the digging of latrine pits by those planning to hold a free solstice festival.
Overlooking Stonehenge, one of the most immediately recognisable and intensively studied prehistoric
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