Many other socket holes from the South Inner Circle were not actually underneath any buildings and seem to be in people's back gardens, possibly Stones 110, 111, 115, 118-120, and these should at least be marked out I feel. I do think it is outrageous that something like £150,000 was granted by English Heritage to restore the chapel between 1986 and 1998, without a penny of it being spent on Neolithic Avebury: For that amount of money all the buried stones in the NE quadrant could be surveyed and carefully restored. The story of the Nonconformist chapel at Avebury means that the bleatings of 'no money' every time someone proposes raising buried stones has always been a nonsense. The argument that 'buried is safe' received a mortal blow with rumours and web pages devoted to a sarsen stone apparently removed from West Kennet about 10 years ago, and now proudly displayed as a garden conversation piece 150 miles away. Even if the allegedly purloined sarsen was not a buried standing stone, the rumour has set a precedent for the parlous situation of every Neolithic stone - buried or supine - from the Sanctuary to Beckhampton: only the stones 'in place' are properly recorded and documented, giving some security, at least, against being spirited away unnoticed. So, yes, I'd like to see the programme of restoration continue at Avebury - standing stones up and where we can see them - and I would like to see a carefully researched and reconstructed Obelisk once more at the centre of the South Circle: 'impossible' is not a word I would associate with such a project ~ and hence my Yahoo Group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Avebury_uk_/ - which is also dedicated to the eventual restoration of Avebury - only half restored by Alexander Keiller 70 years ago, that is true... but half restored is better than not at all.
Many other socket holes from the South Inner Circle were not actually underneath any buildings and seem to be in people's back gardens, possibly Stones 110, 111, 115, 118-120, and these should at least be marked out I feel. I do think it is outrageous that something like £150,000 was granted by English Heritage to restore the chapel between 1986 and 1998, without a penny of it being spent on Neolithic Avebury: For that amount of money all the buried stones in the NE quadrant could be surveyed and carefully restored. The story of the Nonconformist chapel at Avebury means that the bleatings of 'no money' every time someone proposes raising buried stones has always been a nonsense. The argument that 'buried is safe' received a mortal blow with rumours and web pages devoted to a sarsen stone apparently removed from West Kennet about 10 years ago, and now proudly displayed as a garden conversation piece 150 miles away. Even if the allegedly purloined sarsen was not a buried standing stone, the rumour has set a precedent for the parlous situation of every Neolithic stone - buried or supine - from the Sanctuary to Beckhampton: only the stones 'in place' are properly recorded and documented, giving some security, at least, against being spirited away unnoticed. So, yes, I'd like to see the programme of restoration continue at Avebury - standing stones up and where we can see them - and I would like to see a carefully researched and reconstructed Obelisk once more at the centre of the South Circle: 'impossible' is not a word I would associate with such a project ~ and hence my Yahoo Group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Avebury_uk_/ - which is also dedicated to the eventual restoration of Avebury - only half restored by Alexander Keiller 70 years ago, that is true... but half restored is better than not at all.
