Modern Avebury: Ronald Hutton

Modern Avebury by Ronald Hutton. 32 in the Stonehenge and Avebury Revised Research Framework (SARRF) by Wessex Archaeology.

The Stonehenge and Avebury Revised Research Framework (SARRF) will for the first time provide a united historic environment research agenda and strategy for the Avebury and Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS). The two parts of the WHS currently have separate research frameworks that were created at different times and in different formats. The SARRF will update and harmonise the existing frameworks to create a single research framework comprising a resource assessment and a single research strategy with a five-year currency. The SARRF will also develop a method of monitoring the progress of the strategy to facilitate its revision.

Professor Hutton writes -

"Between 1841 and 1871 the population of the [Avebury] settlement virtually doubled, so that it pressed even harder on the ancient remains. Small wonder that visiting antiquarians began to refer to the village as a whole with resentment and concern, Joseph Hunter calling it a ‘vile hamlet’ in 1829 and Sir John Lubbock a ‘beautiful parasite’ in 1865... [Lubbock in 1872] ...when land containing some of the remaining stones was offered for sale as a potential housing development... bought some himself to block development..."