End of an Aura.

Back in the late 80s I attended my brother's wedding down in Plymouth. On the way back we came up the A303 which took us past Stonehenge so we decided to stop for a while and have a look. We pulled off the road and drove up a short track to a makeshift car park. I don't remember having to pay to park but it's possible we did. We walked up to the wire perimeter fence surrounding the site which was hung with signs asking us to not to cross and looked at the stones a short distance across the field. Then we got back in the car and left feeling culturally enriched. We had occasion to go down that particular road again last week so we thought we would pop in again. My! How things change.

The same wire perimeter fence is there but now someone put up another wire fence some distance out and is charging people £14.90 per adult to walk round some old stones. They have laid on bright, shiny buses with Stonehenge emblazoned on the side to ferry people in from god knows where, they have a fancy car park and one of those 'environmentally efficient' visitors centre's which turn every visit into a 'school trip' and to sell pointless junk. An excellent start I feel but they have missed a couple of tricks. Surely they could increase revenue by sponsorship on the stones. They could hang flags off them or even paint them. They could make the site more impressive by adding a few extra polystyrene stones to give more value for money. There are many ways of turning a 3,500 year old religious monument into a cash cow.

I have no doubt that if you were to ask whichever outfit is profiting from this particular circus they would tell you that it's necessary for the preservation and maintenance of the site regardless of the fact that they have ruined the atmosphere, magic and ambiance that made it special in the first place. The site has managed to remain standing for 3,500 years without our help and I would respectfully suggest that if they ripped up their car park and packed up their visitors centre and buggered off it'll stand for 3,000 more. Someone just needs to pop back once in a while to check the wire fence.  

I have no doubt this is old news as there was an encampment of hippy types just outside the main fence who were probably there on some kind of vigil or protest so I am sure arguments on both sides have been aired and others reading this would have more knowledge than I. Needless to say we didn't pay to get in and left, sickened and dismayed by the modern age we live in. I know I shouldn't get upset about it, after all, what did I expect but if rampant commercialism were a cake, for me, this would be the icing.