These are inklings of astronomical knowledge that we are really surprised people had,” Wilkin said. Mr Rodger-Sharp, who lives in Reading Road, Henley, with his husband John Rodger, will return to the salon in a few weeks’ time to have more shading added and also plans to have a smaller tattoo, a stylised rendering of a fox, drawn on his left arm. The remains of a feast held close to Stonehenge around 3900 BC, offer a rare glimpse of exchanges between hunter-gatherers and the first farmer communities. Those gathered ate farmed beef and hunted venison. Chemical analysis shows that the two groups came from different places and their meat was prepared in different ways. The area of Stonehenge served as an important meeting place and a turning point for society. As a coming together of worldviews, languages, customs and traditions, the remains of this shared meal mark the end of thousands of years of a hunter-gatherer way of life. According to the 12th-century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose tale of King Arthur and mythical account of English history were considered factual well into the Middle Ages, Stonehenge is the handiwork of the wizard Merlin. In the mid-fifth century, the story goes, hundreds of British nobles were slaughtered by the Saxons and buried on Salisbury Plain. About a third of the property at both Stonehenge and Avebury is owned and managed by conservation bodies: English Heritage, a non-departmental government body, and the National Trust and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds which are both charities. Agri-environment schemes, an example of partnership working between private landowners and Natural England (a non-departmental government body), are very important for protecting and enhancing the setting of prehistoric monuments through measures such as grass restoration and scrub control. Much of the property can be accessed through public rights of way as well as permissive paths and open access provided by some agri-environment schemes. Managed open access is provided at Solstice. There are a significant number of private households within the property and local residents therefore have an important role in its stewardship

We can only speculate as to what Stonehenge’s purpose was. But the fact that the sun rises over the Heel Stone on the longest day of the year (summer solstice) and sets over it on the shortest day (winter solstice) suggests that it was a prehistoric temple aligned with the sun’s movements. The stone settings at Stonehenge were built at a time of great change in prehistory, just as new styles of ‘Beaker’ pottery and the knowledge of metalworking, together with a transition to the burial of individuals with grave goods, were arriving from the Continent. From about 2400 BC, well-furnished Beaker graves such as that of the Amesbury Archer [9] are found nearby. Work began on Stonehenge about 5,000 years ago, but it was built in stages over many years. The stone circle dates from about 2500 BC, in the late Neolithic period. The setting of some key monuments extends beyond the boundary. Provision of buffer zones or planning guidance based on a comprehensive setting study should be considered to protect the setting of both individual monuments and the overall setting of the property.Friday 26th October 2018 marked 100 years since Stonehenge was given to the nation by Sir Cecil Herbert Edward Chubb (1876–1934). He was the last private owner of the monument, which he donated to the British government in 1918. Even in these changing circumstances, Stonehenge was still at the centre of religious and cultural life. Stonehenge’s builders raised the stones using joints normally found only in woodworking, and not seen at any other prehistoric monument. This makes it the most architecturally sophisticated surviving stone circle in the world.

From a study of the tree rings, it is known that Seahenge was built in the spring or summer of 2049 BC, at a time when stone tools and weapons were rapidly being replaced by metal as the material of choice for social and economic life and for offerings to supernatural forces. During that period, circles of wood and stone were in decline. Seahenge was constructed near the end of a religious tradition that had lasted for almost a millennium. Why did Stonehenge fall out of use?I couldn’t believe I’d done it afterwards, that I’d permanently marked myself like that but I did think it was cool. Glenn did an amazing job. He has a very good reputation and that gave me the confidence to see it through on the day. He went to the salon with Kate Tooley, who works in his shop and was getting a smaller tattoo in memory of a loved one. At a local level, the property is protected by the legal designation of all its principal monuments. There is a specific policy in the Local Development Framework to protect the Outstanding Universal Value of the property from inappropriate development, along with adequate references in relevant strategies and plans at all levels. The Wiltshire Core Strategy includes a specific World Heritage Property policy. This policy states that additional planning guidance will be produced to ensure its effective implementation and thereby the protection of the World Heritage property from inappropriate development. The policy also recognises the need to produce a setting study to enable this. Once the review of the Stonehenge boundary is completed, work on the setting study shall begin. It is important to maintain and enhance the improvements to monuments achieved through grass restoration and to avoid erosion of earthen monuments and buried archaeology through visitor pressure and burrowing animals.

At Avebury the boundary was extended in 2008 to include East Kennet Long Barrow and Fyfield Down with its extensive Bronze Age field system and naturally occurring Sarsen Stones. At Stonehenge the boundary will be reviewed to consider the possible inclusion of related, significant monuments nearby such as Robin Hood’s Ball, a Neolithic causewayed enclosure. Several hundred years later, it is thought, Stonehenge’s builders hoisted an estimated 80 non-indigenous bluestones, 43 of which remain today, into standing positions and placed them in either a horseshoe or circular formation. We don’t know exactly how the stones were brought to Stonehenge, but some of them – the bluestones – came from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales, over 150 miles (250km) away. By the time the first monument at Stonehenge was raised 5,000 years ago, the surrounding landscape was already an established and impressive place. A considerable number of similar ceremonial complexes emerged across Britain and Ireland around the same period. The monumental enclosure just a few miles away at Larkhill enshrined solstice alignments as early as 3750–3650 BC, raising the possibility that Stonehenge's key solar alignments marking the longest and shortest days of the year were prefigured by one of the earliest monuments built in the landscape. It may have inspired the construction of the 'first' Stonehenge using the Welsh bluestones. The smaller bluestones, on the other hand, have been traced all the way to the Preseli Hills in Wales, some 200 miles away from Stonehenge. How, then, did prehistoric builders without sophisticated tools or engineering haul these boulders, which weigh up to 4 tons, over such a great distance?It's a story that transcends where the monument stands in Wiltshire in the south of England, and reaches far into continental Europe. Let's take a closer look ahead of our next major exhibition – The world of Stonehenge. When the sarsens were raised at Stonehenge around 4,500 years ago, they enshrined an important solstice alignment within the fabric of the monument. The centrality of the solstices at Stonehenge, other henge monuments and stone circles suggests that linking the monument to the cycles of the cosmos was an expression of religious and symbolic ideas. First held in 1974 during the summer solstice, the Stonehenge Free Festival started as a counter-culture gathering that grew significantly in size over time. After tens of thousands of people showed up for the 1984 festival, authorities, concerned about such issues as open drug use, banned the event for the following year. Nevertheless, on June 1, 1985, a long convoy of vehicles filled with would-be festival goers (who were part of a movement called the New Age Travellers) made its way toward Stonehenge. The Schifferstadt gold hat dates from 1600 BC and was found in Germany. It's thought it could be a cosmic calendar. Kurt Diehl/Historisches Museum der Pfalz Speyer He was one of only four children delivered at the event between 1974 and 1984 before it was cancelled to prevent damage to the ancient sandstone.