You may have seen that Historic England recently published their annual ‘Heritage at Risk‘ register. As its name implies, this is meant to list the heritage assets of England that are deemed to be at some level of risk in the foreseeable future – presumably so that such assets may be included in plans to avert or mitigate such risks going forward.

There is an interesting searchable map provided, which shows the spread of such assets that are listed. Looking at the area around Stonehenge, given the current plans for a tunnel, you would expect to see many monuments listed in the area, and indeed, this is the case:

Click to embiggen. © Heritage England

However, a closer inspection of many of these sites, shows no mention of the intended roadbuilding or associated groundworks. In fact, the most common listed ‘risk’ in the area is ‘arable ploughing’! Some of the possible options for an explanation of this omission are:

  • ‘Arable ploughing‘ is a new buzzword for ‘road construction’.
  • There has been a total lack of foresight when compiling the register
  • IT’S ANOTHER YOWLING MOGGY!!

So, which is it??…

the Save Stonehenge WHS campaign is scheduled to have its day in court in just 12 days, with a second hearing to challenge the government’s decision to ‘plough through’ the world heritage site. The plans will doubtless result in Stonehenge losing its World Heritage status with ICOMOS. The court hearing will begin on Tuesday, 12th December at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. It’s scheduled to run for three days and will be a rolled-up hearing, where the permission to be heard and the full case are held at the same time. The last day will be Thursday, 14th. 

If you can, please support the challenge by making a donation, here.