The Future of Stonehenge
Why change anything?
Stonehenge is one of the country's most important prehistoric monuments, but has been famously described by a UK government committee as a 'national disgrace'. It is currently surrounded by roads and its visitor facilities are inadequate for today's needs.
The Stonehenge Project will rescue this iconic World Heritage Site from the noise and clutter of the 21st century and give it the dignified setting it deserves.
Roads will be removed or tunnelled and ploughed fields returned to open grassland. A new world-class visitor centre will be built outside the World Heritage Site and there will be improved access through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site landscape.
The Project will be delivering many of the key objectives of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site Management Plan.
Download a copy of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site Management Plan [64.6Mb]. Please note that this file is very large and may take some time to download over a normal modem connection.
Alternatively download a summary of the Management Plan
The partnership making this happen
English Heritage is working in partnership with a number of major organisations, primarily the National Trust, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, the Department for Transport and the Highways Agency.
English Heritage is responsible for Stonehenge itself and operates the current visitor centre. It is working with the National Trust on the plans for a new visitor centre and improved access into the Stonehenge World Heritage Site landscape.
The Department of Culture, Media & Sport is the sponsoring Government department and is providing some of the funding.
The Department for Transport and the Highways Agency are progressing plans for the road improvements around Stonehenge.
What are we doing?
Building a world-class visitor centre
It is not possible to simply redevelop the current visitor facilities at Stonehenge as this contravenes the objectives of the World Heritage Site Management Plan. Following several years of studies and consultation, a new site has been chosen at Countess East, 3 km from Stonehenge. It is just outside the World Heritage Site and is easy to reach by road or public transport.
The new visitor centre building will blend into the landscape and make no reference to Stonehenge itself. Internationally renowned architects Denton Corker Marshall have designed a building that is cut into the grassy landscape, with a long sweeping front wall and a single entrance. Visitors will pass through a succession of similar curved walls on their journey towards Stonehenge. The roof will be planted with strips of grass. From the adjoining road, the building will appear to be below ground.
Inside, the visitor centre will offer world-class facilities. There will be exhibitions and audio-visual presentations to help visitors enjoy and understand Stonehenge. There will also be high-quality catering, a shop and dedicated space for educational groups.
Improving access into a landscape with 10,000 years of history
Stonehenge sits within the archaeologically rich landscape of the World Heritage Site, with its precious burial mounds and earthworks.
Visitors to Stonehenge will soon be able to learn more about this landscape as they travel through it en route to the stones.
Land trains, running on low-emission LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) will transport visitors from the new visitor centre to drop-off points within the World Heritage Site.
From these points, visitors will be able to walk the final short distance to the Stones and explore the surrounding landscape. By approaching on foot, visitors will be able to fully appreciate Stonehenge's dramatic landscape setting and its relationship to the other monuments. For those visitors who are less able to walk, there will be special arrangements to ensure that they too are able to reach the stones.
Removing the roads
One of the main objectives of the Stonehenge Project is to restore the stone circle to a dignified, peaceful, grassland setting. Currently, lorries, cars and coaches thunder past on the single carriageway A303 (the main artery between London and the West Country) and traffic passes next to the Heel Stone on the A344.
The A303 is a source of severe congestion for motorists, and its junction with the A344 is one of Wiltshire's worst accident blackspots.
The Highways Agency has developed plans to dual the section of the A303 from Countess Roundabout through to Mere. The road would be placed in bored tunnel past the stones, concealing it from view.
Motorists will benefit from a flyover at Countess Roundabout, improvements to the Longbarrow crossroads and a bypass around the village of Winterbourne Stoke.
When the A303 tunnel is complete, the A344 alongside the Stones will be closed and the present car park and facilities removed, leaving only an underground operations base and visitor toilets.
Who pays?
The visitor centre and access project will cost around £67.5 million.
The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a Stage 1 pass for a grant of £25 million. The Department of Culture Media and Sport has committed around £13 million. The remaining cost will be met by English Heritage, the National Trust and from a major fundraising campaign.
What is happening now?
In 2003 the Highways Agency published Draft Orders for the A303 Improvements at Stonehenge with the preferred route based on a 2.1 km bored tunnel. After a public inquiry in 2004, the Inspector recommended that this scheme should proceed. Since then, the cost of the road scheme has risen from around £290 million to over £500 million. This caused the Government to carry out in 2005 a review of the scheme alongside alternative options.
On 6 December 2007, the Department of Transport finally announced its conclusion of the review. To our huge disappointment, it has concluded that the allocation of more than £500 million for the implementation of the proposed 2.1 km bored tunnel scheme cannot be justified. The Department for Transport announcement can be seen here:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/press/speechesstatements/statements/a303
This means that English Heritage’s proposed visitor facilities and access scheme at Countess East could not go ahead because planning permission (granted in March 2007) was granted on the condition that the Government approves the published road scheme.
The decision signals the end of the Stonehenge Project championed by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport and English Heritage over the last eight years which sought to improve both the landscape setting of Stonehenge and the visitor experience. The Project, collectively decided upon by a range of national and regional stakeholders, was the best and most practical means by which the agreed vision for the Stonehenge World Heritage Site could have been achieved.
However, it is encouraging that the Government’s recognises that improving the setting of the Stones and the visitor facilities is still very much a priority. English Heritage will work closely with all interested parties to look into alternative ways to achieve this.
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