SALISBURY, England – The Wild Hunt has reported extensively on the progress of the Stonehenge bypass in recent months. As many will know if you’ve been following the story, a new road tunnel beneath the site was greenlit for 2021 to take the strain from the A303, the main artery through Wiltshire which runs past the Henge. Rescue archaeology is now taking place around the site, prior to the start of construction.
Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS) has challenged the decision to go ahead with the tunnel and a date has now been set for a judicial review: a three-day High Court hearing is due to be held in London from 23 to 25 June.
Tom Holland, president of the SSWHS, told the BBC that: “We have always believed that the government’s intention to build a great gash of concrete and tarmac through the World Heritage Site is a dereliction of its responsibilities, and we are delighted that there will now be the opportunity to test this conviction in a court of law. We urge [transport secretary] Grant Shapps to review his decision and act to conserve rather than vandalise this most precious of prehistoric landscapes.”
The court hearing is due to progress on the basis of ‘procedural error.’ The new scheme was given the go-ahead against the recommendations of planning officials.
A judicial review is a type of court proceeding in which a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body. Thus judicial reviews are a challenge to the way in which a decision has been made, rather than the rights and wrongs of the conclusion reached, and as above, this is presumably why the ‘procedural error’ issue has been raised as the basis for the claim.
Stonehenge has also been in the news for other reasons. William Grant, who runs the Stonehenge Solstice Festival in Berwick St James, has made four applications for financial support over the course of the pandemic, but has as yet received no funds from Wiltshire Council. Government grants for businesses affected by the pandemic are based on rateable value (business rates) and since the festival takes over part of a campsite and a private building, it did not apply: Mr Grant has thus applied for the Additional Restrictions Support scheme, but without result so far. Meanwhile, the Festival has had outgoing expenses.
However, the good news is that the Stonehenge Solstice Festival will go ahead as planned this year between June 18 and June 21.
Druids at Stonehenge
In addition to all this, the stones of the henge look set to become the Welsh version of the Elgin marbles (before you ask, we did check that the date of this story was not April 1st). Farm park owner Lyn Jenkins has suggested that if the stones – which, it has recently been suggested, have a South Welsh origin as stones in situ, not simply quarried in the region – should be returned to the Principality. Failing this, “Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford should send a bill for a few million pounds as compensation.” Mr Jenkins points out that it is a lucrative tourist attraction and would bring revenue into Wales. Facing accusations of self interest full on, he has suggested that his own farm park, with a backdrop of the Preseli hills (from which many of the stones originate) might serve as a suitable site for the relocated circle.
Iwan ap Dafydd, spokesperson for a Welsh nationalist petition to return the monument, is quoted as saying that “the circumstances of the original removal event are impossible to determine, therefore, it would be prudent that they should be returned to their original location.”
The response from the British Pagan community has been mixed, but when we asked for its thoughts, some salient questions were posed: for example, why is there an assumption that the stones were stolen in the first place? Others have asked if every stone needs to be replaced in every quarry and every tree in its original forest? Several have pointed out that only some stones would have to be returned, since much of the monument is constructed from the local Marlborough stone. Others have suggested that the demand comes from disgruntled GWLAD supporters (a small Welsh nationalist party fielding candidates in Brecon and Radnor) and that perhaps they should not be encouraged.
“I’m Welsh and I don’t want the buggers back, they’ve been removed, concreted back in place and are as magical as a car jack now.” (Warren Brown, who describes himself as a Grumpy Welsh Druid).
Welsh Pagans have commented “where would we put it?”
Caitlín Matthews, writer and Shamanic practitioner, said “The landmass of Britain has provided many good stones at different locations from Orkney down to Cornwall. These all belong in Britain which is an island before it was any one territory. If we have to run after the regimes before the present, it could get messy. Before we get carried away by Myrddhin’s enchanting song or the peculiar partialities and prejudices of any region, let us first remember that we belong to the land, not the land to us.”
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