This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
HERITAGE


COMPLETING THE CIRCLE


Almost 50 years after the first visitor facilities appeared at Stonehenge, and more than a decade after the site’s presentation was called ‘a national disgrace’, a new £27m visitor scheme is hoping to silence the critics and impress the crowds


Julie Cramer, journalist, Attractions Management


Loraine Knowles Director of Stonehenge


The Stonehenge site has sparked much controversy in the past. How does it feel to have reached this point? It’s been a long, challenging project but we’re thrilled with the results. Ever since English Heritage (EH) formed in 1984, it’s wanted to improve the Stonehenge visitor experience. The Public Accounts Committee once called it “a national dis- grace” and I’d have to agree with them. I first went to Stonehenge as a stu-


dent in the 70s, and it was the first site I visited after joining EH in 2003. I’d been working on exciting developments in the museums sector, and couldn’t believe nothing had changed at the Stones.


48


“We needed to build something that was a positive addition to the World Heritage Site”


I didn’t appreciate at the time WHY


nothing had changed, but having headed up the project for the past five years, I now know the challenges involved!


What were the key challenges for EH? The first challenge was finding a location within the World Heritage site that all the stakeholders could agree on. That took from July 2008 to January 2009. We also needed to build something that


was going to be a positive addition to the World Heritage site, without it having any adverse visual or environmental impact. Our brief was always to build some- thing that could be reversed if it needed


Read Attractions Management online attractionsmanagement.com/digital


to be. We were conscious when we started the project that we might find precious archaeological remains once building started. Actually we didn’t, but we still proceeded to build in this way.


The proximity of roads around Stonehenge has also been a major problem hasn’t it? Yes, the A344 cut through the site. When Stonehenge and Avebury were put on World Heritage Site register in 1986, the government said it would close that road – that finally happened in June 2013. It took so long because it was a fun- damental part of all the schemes put


AM 1 2014 ©Cybertrek 2014


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96