Another compelling object is Germany’s Nebra sky disc – thought to be the world’s oldest depiction of the cosmos. It has only left the country four times. Like Stonehenge’s alignment with the sun, the bands on either side mark the positions of the rising and setting sun, while the inlaid gold stars may represent a constellation that can help calculate a leap year. Even in these changing circumstances, Stonehenge was still at the centre of religious and cultural life. It took Mr Cuzen about four hours to complete the tattoo and afterwards Mr Rodger-Sharp had to wrap his arm in cling film for four days to help the healing process. He went to the salon with Kate Tooley, who works in his shop and was getting a smaller tattoo in memory of a loved one. The survival of the Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments at both Stonehenge and Avebury is exceptional and remarkable given their age – they were built and used between around 3700 and 1600 BC. Stone and earth monuments retain their original design and materials. The timber structures have disappeared but postholes indicate their location. Monuments have been regularly maintained and repaired as necessary.

Meanwhile, the introduction of turnpike roads and the railway to Salisbury brought many more visitors to Stonehenge. From the 1880s, various stones had been propped up with timber poles, but concern for the safety of visitors grew when an outer sarsen upright and its lintel fell in 1900. The then owner, Sir Edmund Antrobus, with the help of the Society of Antiquaries, organised the re-erection of the leaning tallest trilithon in 1901. At a local level, the property is protected by the legal designation of all its principal monuments. There is a specific policy in the Local Development Framework to protect the Outstanding Universal Value of the property from inappropriate development, along with adequate references in relevant strategies and plans at all levels. The Wiltshire Core Strategy includes a specific World Heritage Property policy. This policy states that additional planning guidance will be produced to ensure its effective implementation and thereby the protection of the World Heritage property from inappropriate development. The policy also recognises the need to produce a setting study to enable this. Once the review of the Stonehenge boundary is completed, work on the setting study shall begin. There have been various depictions of the monument in prints, drawings and medals, and this is the first known real depiction of Stonehenge, in watercolour. First held in 1974 during the summer solstice, the Stonehenge Free Festival started as a counter-culture gathering that grew significantly in size over time. After tens of thousands of people showed up for the 1984 festival, authorities, concerned about such issues as open drug use, banned the event for the following year. Nevertheless, on June 1, 1985, a long convoy of vehicles filled with would-be festival goers (who were part of a movement called the New Age Travellers) made its way toward Stonehenge. The Schifferstadt gold hat dates from 1600 BC and was found in Germany. It's thought it could be a cosmic calendar. Kurt Diehl/Historisches Museum der Pfalz SpeyerSeveral hundred years later, it is thought, Stonehenge’s builders hoisted an estimated 80 non-indigenous bluestones, 43 of which remain today, into standing positions and placed them in either a horseshoe or circular formation. Mr Rodger-Sharp, who lives in Reading Road, Henley, with his husband John Rodger, will return to the salon in a few weeks’ time to have more shading added and also plans to have a smaller tattoo, a stylised rendering of a fox, drawn on his left arm.

Stonehenge’s sarsens, of which the largest weighs more than 40 tons and rises 24 feet, were likely sourced from quarries 25 miles north of Salisbury Plain and transported with the help of sledges and ropes; they may even have already been scattered in the immediate vicinity when the monument’s Neolithic architects first broke ground there. The small town of Amesbury is likely to have been established around the 6th century AD at a crossing point over the Avon. A decapitated man, possibly a criminal, was buried at Stonehenge in the Saxon period. [15] From this time on, sheep husbandry dominated the open downland around Stonehenge. [16] The earliest surviving written references to Stonehenge date from the medieval period, and from the 14th century onwards there are increasing references to Stonehenge and drawings and paintings of it. The ancient stone circle of Stonehenge is known around the world, surrounded by myths, folklore and speculation. But who built it and what went on there?From AC/DC’s Rosie to Motorhead’s bomber, the overblown stage prop has long been a metal mainstay. The Stonehenge scene in Spinal Tap turns this concept on its head, when a careless set of measurements for the band’s new stage set written down by Nigel Tufnel results in the band playing alongside a stone ‘monument’ that stands just 18 inches high (a failing accentuated by the dwarves who dance around it). A lot more people get tattoos these days and I’m sure when I’m 70 there’ll be plenty of other people to compare mine with.” It was a real ‘let’s do it’ moment,” said Mr Rodger-Sharp. “Ironically, Glenn was visiting Stonehenge on the day I rang him so felt he had to accept — it was as though it was fate.

Those long-distance connections are being demonstrated through science, and that’s really helpful to understand that Stonehenge wasn’t an isolated culture, they were actually really interconnected,” Wilkin said.Government guidance on protecting the Historic Environment and World Heritage is set out in National Planning Policy Framework and Circular 07/09. Policies to protect, promote, conserve and enhance World Heritage properties, their settings and buffer zones are also found in statutory planning documents. The protection of the property and its setting from inappropriate development could be further strengthened through the adoption of a specific Supplementary Planning Document. At Stonehenge several monuments have retained their alignment on the Solstice sunrise and sunset, including the Stone Circle, the Avenue, Woodhenge, and the Durrington Walls Southern Circle and its Avenue.