The problem is this: it’s being used as a new header on a website dedicated to campaigning for open access to Stonehenge and it’s a cut down version of this :
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… which shows people standing on the lintels.
Calling for greater access is one thing, implying even indirectly that climbing on the monument is OK is another. Particularly at the exact moment the Government, supported by the English Heritage and the National Trust, is announcing an intention to damage the World Heritage Site. One wonders how all this looks from abroad, including at UNESCO!
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10/11/2014 at 12:29
westy
Until you pointed it out, no one would have known about the uncropped image – ironically you have done the promotion of the original image 😞
10/11/2014 at 12:34
heritageaction
Until you pointed it out, no one would have known about the uncropped image
Not so.
10/11/2014 at 13:15
westy
I never would have realised and if you showed the cropped image to 100 members of the public I bet that only 1% would know.as for people abroad? Hmmm
10/11/2014 at 14:40
Pat
“if you showed the cropped image to 100 members of the public I bet that only 1% would know.as for people abroad?”
You may be right, but unfortunately images of gross misbehaviour at Stonehenge are pretty familiar to a lot of people both here and abroad so displaying one of them, albeit cropped, hardly helps Britain’s reputation or furthers the aims of those who want free access. It damages both.
10/11/2014 at 20:10
Catflap
I could find neither the picture nor the website in question when Googled. Have you got a link please?
11/11/2014 at 01:20
Pat
It seems to have been replaced.
11/11/2014 at 11:46
17HMR
What has been replaced?. The site or the image?
Are there any details of this campaign group?
11/11/2014 at 12:30
heritageaction
The image. Best left now as the matter has been rectified.
11/11/2014 at 18:08
Rose
Is this story made up? Who are this new Stonehenge Open Access group?
11/11/2014 at 19:32
heritageaction
We didn’t say “new”. No it’s not made up. There aren’t that many Stonehenge Open Access Groups, you could always ask them, but the issue has been rectified now and it doesn’t seem right to rake over the coals any further.
11/11/2014 at 19:48
Sarcen
This is crazy. If I Google ‘Stonehenge open access’ and do an image search, the picture of the idiots on the lintels now comes up but it is the Heritage Journal image 😦 . Publicity gone sadly wrong.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=stonehenge+open+access&num=100&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=oWZiVL-_H8fdsATZ-oDwCA&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1366&bih=628
11/11/2014 at 20:42
heritageaction
Not at all. There are thousands of pictures of idiots misbehaving at Stonehenge with no-one saying it is wrong but if that one leads to a conservation website with someone like you calling them idiots then something has been achieved!
11/11/2014 at 23:28
btent
Care reaaly needs to be taken over publicising this sort of stuff as it is obvious that good intentions can end up being damaging as is the case here. The internet can distort things unontnionaly and this is a classic example. An image that was obscurely tucked away harmlessley in some dark corner of the web has now been pushed to prominence by carelessly moaning about it. Please think before you post on the journal. There is no such thing as bad publicity.
12/11/2014 at 03:40
heritageaction
We shall have to differ.
There can’t be enough publicity about idiots damaging the stones. A lot of it happens. All but one of the solstice gatherings of the past decade have involved it.
12/11/2014 at 09:37
Billy
HAHAHHAHAHAHHA
12/11/2014 at 13:28
Gemma
“There can’t be enough publicity about idiots damaging the stones”
Uh?
“Calling for greater access is one thing, implying even indirectly that climbing on the monument is OK is another. One wonders how all this looks from abroad, including at UNESCO!”
Well that is a contradiction if ever there was one. If the first comment holds true then the original image was fine. I agree with the sentiments of others re the negative backfire of publicising this.
12/11/2014 at 14:37
Pat
The more publicity there is about the fact there’s damage at Stonehenge almost every year at summer solstice (due to lack of control because of too many people) the better. Why should the taxpayer be kept in the dark?
Having said that, the last people who should be showing pictures of idiots misbehaving are those who want free access. It stands to reason. It looks like free access means anarchy, which I’m sure most of them don’t mean by it (but a few may do!)
12/11/2014 at 19:07
Jenny Wren
The top picture just looks like normal people reflecting and in thought. I like the image.
14/11/2014 at 17:17
Billy
You don’t have to wonder who the extremists are hear. Tax payer yes better stick to buying and selling arms. And how do you know that they are idiots? is it because they are behaving in a way that you do not understand ?
14/11/2014 at 18:09
Pat
Maybe they aren’t idiots. Maybe they are professors of archaeology or mystics or free spirits or members of a Free Stonehenge organisation. But they are acting like idiots.