Rescue plan for Silbury Hill underway

 

Silbury Hill Protest 19th May 2001

Silbury Hill is a spectacular and unique ancient place, it's the tallest Neolithic monument in Europe and is about 4700 years old. It was first given legal protection in 1883 and is in the Guardianship of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and is managed by English Heritage, but Lord Avebury owns it. Silbury Hill is part of the Avebury World Heritage Site. It is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of rare plants.

A hole appeared in the top of Silbury Hill in May 2000 caused by the collapse of the covering of a shaft dug in 1776. There is now real concern over the future of this monument which is regarded by many as the sacred centre, the omphalos, of the Avebury sacred landscape, and a representation of the Goddess of the land.

The shape of the hill has changed visibly as water entering via the shaft affects its structure. English Heritage have monitored the hole which has been growing in size as the sides slip in. There have now been three collapses and the hole that started off 2 metres wide has been allowed to grow to 10 metres across.

Elspeth Henderson, of English Heritage has admitted, "It could be that what we have here is a sort of Swiss cheese, full of holes which cannot be seen from outside, and the danger is that the whole thing could almost implode".

English Heritage is struggling with massive underfunding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport which is causing dangerous delay in the proper care and management of Silbury Hill and many other ancient sacred sites.

It seems that it may be government policy to switch funding away from the care of ancient heritage to propping up stately homes and castles. "Power of Place", the review of policies for the historic environment carried out for the government by English Heritage, has just been published and worryingly it hardly mentions ancient archaeological sites, many of which are of course Pagan sacred sites. Several of the senior archaeological bodies are reported to have complained about the virtual lack of anything to do with archaeology in it.

A peaceful protest was held on Saturday 19th May 2001 to highlight the dire state of Silbury Hill and the underfunding of the care of ancient monuments. About thirty people met at the car park in Avebury Village at midday and we had a police escort as we walked to Silbury Hill where others joined us bringing the overall number to about 40. Though numbers were small many groups were represented. Pete Glastonbury, from the Megalith Society spoke about the history and importance of Silbury Hill. Jude Stammers of ASLaN and Clare Slaney of Save Our Sacred Sites talked about the current state of Silbury and Andy Norfolk spoke on behalf of the Pagan Federation. The point that funding would probably be needed from the Department of Culture or UNESCO to actually *do* the work once the survey was complete was also made quite forcibly. King Arthur Pendragon was his usual resplendent self and spoke about guardianship for ancient sites and Terry Dobny, a local Druid, added his thoughts about the situation. The looming general election meant that English Heritage were prevented from sending a representative. RESCUE, an independent archaeological organisation, and the National Trust were represented. Jill Swanton, a local archaeologist , spoke at length about the work to survey the hill. A ground penetrating radar survey has already been done and an experimental seismic survey is planned to give a 3D tomographic image of the hill to a resolution of about 2m. English Heritage feel that it is essential to map all the holes, known and unknown, within the hill before they start repairs, which probably wont be until next autumn.

The protest was good-natured and ended with a brief ceremony lead by King Arthur and then a picnic. No one climbed Silbury Hill which, apart from being structurally vulnerable, is a SSSI. Did it work? Yes of course it did. English Heritage had said very little about what was happening and how the problem was to be dealt with until the protest was very publicly planned and announced via the internet. Then all of a sudden two press-releases appeared within a week. We hope that we will now be kept informed on the latest progress as it happens.

DON'T CLIMB THE HILL - IT'S DANGEROUS AND VULNERABLE.

In the meantime, you can write asking about how Silbury Hill will be repaired and the funding of care for ancient archaeological sites to:

Rt Hon Chris Smith MP Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, 2-4 Cockspur Street London SW1Y 5DH tel 0207 211 6918

David Cossons, Chairman,23 Savile Row London W1X 1AB

Rt Hon Alan Howarth CBE, Minister for the Arts Houses of Parliament, Westminster SW1A 0AA

Rt Hon Peter Ainsworth MP Houses of Parliament

Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn House of Lords, Westminster, SW1A 0AA

Lord Redesdale The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Street, Cambridge,CB2 3ER.

You can also ask UNESCO to put Silbury Hill on their list of World Heritage At Risk:

Mr Mounir Bouchenaki, Chairman, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75352, Paris, France.

Useful web addresses: