 | Home > Off Topic > Access to Stonehenge |
 
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| Jimb1978 Member Since: 05 Sep 2012 Location: Huddersfield Posts: 804   
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On the website you can book a guided tour up close. Or you could a year or so ago when I was thinking of going to see it.
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19th Jan 2014 9:20pm |
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| Jimb1978 Member Since: 05 Sep 2012 Location: Huddersfield Posts: 804
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19th Jan 2014 9:24pm |
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| borderterrier Member Since: 09 Dec 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 1677  
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Cheers
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19th Jan 2014 9:30pm |
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| diesel_jim Member Since: 13 Oct 2008 Location: hiding Posts: 6038 
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That byway that runs past the stones (where the old ex fire engine travellers lorry is) and the contunuation of it over the "old" road, gets so busy on weekends.... all manner of cars drive down it, so they don't have to pay the extortionate fees at the visitors centre.
Wonder how long before WCC close them  |
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20th Jan 2014 11:16am |
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| x-isle Member Since: 26 May 2011 Location: Midlands Posts: 1327  
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The whole Stonehenge thing annoys me.
Years ago, you could just turn up and go the stones. Now the big visitor centre (which is a fair way from the Stones) has made the experience rubbish. I understand that traffic needs to be controlled, but charging just short of £15 per person is daylight robbery. When the Stones where gifted to the public but given to English Heritage to run, the rules were that it was always be kept free to the public. I guess they probably just say that the £15 is the visitor centre and not the Stones. I did hear of a guy who rocked up and demanded he get let in for free due to the historic clauses and they did let him in for free. As a keen photographer that likes to take sunset/sunrise and night sky shots, I'd love to go and take some photos at night. No can do. The smaller "get close" tours are around £100!!!! 
It's now off my to do list. Craig Rogers 2007 Puma 110 XS 2011 Evoque Coupe Dynamic Lux www.craigrogers.photography |
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20th Jan 2014 11:35am |
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| JWL Member Since: 26 Oct 2011 Location: Hereford Posts: 3443 
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We should start a reference post highlighting points of interest to visit. Links to the latest entrance fees so that we can make up our own mind whether to dig deep or not. Personal reccomendations from people who have recently been, like most who have been to the Plain over the last month or so I was drawn to taking in the greenlane past the stones and was absolutely shocked at the amount of people standing in queues waiting for the leccy trolleys. The road back to the car park was awash with some pretty peed off people trudging both ways, then we had a report on the BBC news berating the organisation of visitors since the new visitor centre had opened.
When I was a lot younger than I am now my parents hadn't got a lot of money but they went out of their way to make sure that I got out and about to see the country with regular camping trips, Lands End to John O'Groats, we went everywhere. We didn't do many city visits, things like trips to London to the museums happened through school trips so when I left school I had been well travelled in the UK. This type of upbringing is what I'm trying to give my boys but when you get to the likes of Stonehenge no way was I going to shell out close on £30 to file round a National Monument that was there way before commercialism and way before folding money was even invented, Christ daubing paint on the walls in the form of stick men was still in living memory! When I last went to see the stones in April last year I just took the boys to stand at the fence and we weren't that much further away than those that had paid to see them, I can remember having a picnic inside the circle and spending a few hours there as a kid, now you get as close as you can, mentally tick it off the "to do list" and walk away. Can you think of any places you don't have to pay to experience the atmosphere of places you have been to before? Here in Hereford we have the remains of a Long Barrow called King Arthurs Stone, it sits in the middle of a country lane not too far from Hay on Wye, you can let the kids explore, get dirty on their hands and knees as they get in touch with the stones. There is also some very good information boards on site explaining the facts of the site. These are the types of experiences our kids need, they'll remember that day for years to come especially if the subject of aincient burial grounds comes up at school. When greenlaning last summer near Bets y Coed we came across a castle keep at Dolwyddelan and it was so refreshing to enter the keep and explore without having to pay someone for a ticket, I'm not saying that a contribution shouldn't be made to help with the upkeep of the site but in the likes of Stonehenge can you honestly think that the entrance fee is wholly being used for the upkeep of the site. One of the reasons I go greenlaning is so that I can gain access to sights and views that a lot of people miss out on, I go by vehicle because I could not provide the means for my eldest, son who is autistic, to get there, he would not be able to see the point of walking miles getting cold and wet(it is the UK after all) to turn round and walk back again. Yes he is fairly able to do it physically but mentally it would be a real uphill struggle, I want to enjoy the experience as well. Sit him in the motor and he will sit there more than happy and totally enjoy the experience. Sorry to have ended up writing an epistle but I feel very strongly that my kids should be able to experience the same things as I did at their age without having to take out a second mortgage to fund it. So if others have found little gems of our heritage as they have travelled around the country then here might well be a place for others to refer to. |
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20th Jan 2014 12:57pm |
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| ken Member Since: 18 Aug 2009 Location: Banging Birds with my bitches !! Posts: 4328
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Shame the kids can’t go scrumping and get a thick ear from the local bobby any more
Crap aint it |
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20th Jan 2014 2:09pm |
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| borderterrier Member Since: 09 Dec 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 1677
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I said the same thing to my wife. Given the fact tht is a free at park it's day are surely numbered? |
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20th Jan 2014 2:33pm |
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| Pickles Member Since: 26 May 2013 Location: Melbourne Posts: 3755  
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JWL, Do you know where Vowchurch is? I used to live there. We used to buy our petrol at Wildings Garage in Turnastone, which is supposed to be the oldest continually operating garage in the U.K.
Beautiful country, Pickles. |
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20th Jan 2014 10:15pm |
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| JWL Member Since: 26 Oct 2011 Location: Hereford Posts: 3443
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Yep Pickles, I know Vowchurch, not intimately but I used to be one of those mud slingers that leave all the mud on the road with their tractors and other farm machinery. The farm I used to work for was over the other side of Stockley Hill north of Peterchurch near Madley. We used to work potato ground all over, some of the fields near to you at Vowchurch were just as you drove into Peterchurch on the right, turn left in the village and up the hill towards Urishay. We had a couple of farms to the south east of Vowchurch near Abbey Dore and Wormbridge. Those were about the furthest south we used to go but with the spuds you'd work on growing them on the same ground 3 years out of every 5 and with growing around 1000 acres of them every year we got to know the local area in a 20 mile radius of the main farm quite well, there were not many fields that I hadn't worked in!
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20th Jan 2014 10:34pm |
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| Pickles Member Since: 26 May 2013 Location: Melbourne Posts: 3755
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JWL, mate I haven't heard these names, Peterchurch, Abbey Dore, Wormbridge etc for over 50 yrs.
My Dad was the C of E Vicar of Vowchurch & Turnastone from about 1948-1951. We lived in Vowchurch Vicarage which is on the main Hereford Rd I think. The Vicarge is now a B & B. It would be on the right side of the road driving into Vowchurch from Hereford. Thanks, Pickles. |
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21st Jan 2014 12:18am |
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| JWL Member Since: 26 Oct 2011 Location: Hereford Posts: 3443
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Pickles, that was way before my time, I wasn't even created untill the early '60s! We only moved over to Hereford in the late '90s after the big estate where I was employed as a shepherd decided on a whim to get shot of the 1300+ flock of sheep, no sheep = no job which in turn = no house. My son was just twelve months old, I was pretty shellshocked and applied for about 10 jobs around the country, the farm at Madley was the first to respond offering an interview and ended up taking it. In hindsight I should have delayed him as all the other 9 replied offering interviews so I could have ended up anywhere, still it is a nice part of the country to live in, especially if you don't expect much
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21st Jan 2014 12:38am |
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