We took the kids to Stonehenge today. Not the religious experience for us that some say they find there. It felt very much like English Heritage have set up a conveyor belt to process visitors around the monument as swiftly as possible. I have a vague memory of visiting as a child and being allowed to wander freely through the stones but this might not be accurate.
After we'd been graciously allowed to pass around we jumped back in the car and headed north to Avebury which is a much more relaxed atmosphere. You can wander freely through the stones there .. .. we stopped and had a picnic in the shadow of one of them .. .. a far more rewarding experience for us.
We took the kids to Stonehenge today. Not the religious experience for us that some say they find there. It felt very much like English Heritage have set up a conveyor belt to process visitors around the monument as swiftly as possible. I have a vague memory of visiting as a child and being allowed to wander freely through the stones but this might not be accurate.
After we'd been graciously allowed to pass around we jumped back in the car and headed north to Avebury which is a much more relaxed atmosphere. You can wander freely through the stones there .. .. we stopped and had a picnic in the shadow of one of them .. .. a far more rewarding experience for us. 
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Yes - in the 50s Stonehenge was wide open and you could touch, actually touch the stones! Or sit on some of them if you felt like it.
George
Your memories are accurate, I have a photo of me mate Gary pretending to push two of them over, taken in about 1975.
So I'm not going mad then? Cheers banned! That's about the right time frame for my memory .. .. ..
Your memory does not deceive you.
I went there in 1975 and you could still wander among the stones and even touch them.
Nanny is quite a recent development really. Soon she will go away again, perhaps.
They stopped letting people walk around the stones after some uniquely challenged individuals firstly graffiti'd and later carved stuff into the stones to prove how intelligent and legendary they were.
But your point about EH heritage is valid. The 'path' you have to stay on is so far from the bloody stones you need a pair of binoculars to really look at them.
The hilarious part is also the argument about funding for the new visitor centre there. EH have been using Stonehenge as a cash cow (with seemingly bugger all overheads evident) for 25 years and when talk of a new centre is made, they expect the taxpayer to stump up even more! The henge is one of the UK's biggest tourist attractions outside of London. Where the fuck has all the money gone???
Your final point about Avebury circle is spot on. But the difference between Avebury and Stonehenge is the difference you get in approach between the National Trust and the money grabbing fuckers at English Heritage
You raise an interesting point John. How do we preserve the stones for future generations? Is the EH solution preferable to letting mindless twats carve and spray their initials on the monument? Does it matter if they do?
My daughter reckons that people should be thoroughly frisked but then free to wander as they choose (watched closely by CCTV) but then that's an authoritarian education for you .. .. ..
Nice photos! I remember seeing a lot of standing stones in Brittany - not guarded or fenced off, just there - and walking up to them, and touching them, is far more rewarding than just viewing them from afar.
Do they still have it fenced off?
JuliaM, and similarly the dolmens in the Channel Islands where it was a delight to randomly see them in the corners of fields or around the turn on a cliff path.
Farmers and local people kept the vegetation at bay, not because anyone told them to or paid them...but just because they thought they should.
@James Higham - Unfortunately yes they are still fenced off.
@JuliaM - Thanks! And I agree the ability to interact with the stones is far more rewarding than just viewing them from a safe distance.
I have a picture of my dad stood next to me while I was stood atop a stone. I was three, so that would be....er...oooh..'ang on....
There are coach tours which you can take to Stonehenge early in the morning which allow you to wander freely around the stones.
I know this because I went on one.
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