‘Those conversations we’ve all had’ – the westbound view of Stonehenge from the A303

Launching the A303 Stonehenge tunnel scheme in December 2014, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, summarised ‘those conversations we’ve all had’:

I didn’t get stuck in traffic on the way in, the traffic is moving … It reminds me of all the times going down to Devon and Cornwall on holiday and sitting in the car often shouting at my mum saying when we are going to get there… those conversations we’ve all had. I’ve been many times before, the times when I did pester my mother to stop on the way.

Those pestered to stop are among the number paying English Heritage an entrance fee at Stonehenge each year, which is around the number attending a middle of the table football club in a season.

In the context of those ‘conversations we’ve all had’, even with ourselves alone in a vehicle, the number of times Stonehenge presents a free opportunity to engage with the site when travelling the A303 each year, is equivalent to the combined number paying to go through the turnstiles at several of the top Premiership football clubs in this country.