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LONGSTONES COVE and BECKHAMPTON AVENUE Protecting the World Heritage Site

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LONGSTONES COVE and BECKHAMPTON AVENUE Protecting the World Heritage Site LONGSTONES COVE AND BECKHAMPTON AVENUE Protecting the World Heritage Site NIO M O UN IM R D These two large standing stones, T IA You are welcome to come into A L P W L O A I R Longstones Field to visit these L D D N known as Adam and Eve, are the only H O E R M I E important monuments but please TA IN G O Location West E M visible remains of Longstones Cove PATRI of present day Kennet treat this sensitive area with respect. United Nations Stonehenge, Avebury The farmer at Manor Farm in and Beckhampton Avenue, a major (GXFDWLRQDO6FLHQWL¿FDQG and Associated Sites Cultural Organization inscribed on the World Avebury village Avenue Avebury Trusloe has protected this Heritage List in 1986 ceremonial avenue of standing stones important archaeological site by which led from the henge at Avebury. Avebury henge and stone circles removing the area from ploughing as part of an Environmental Stewardship scheme. In the centuries around 2,500 BC, late Neolithic farmers transformed the Avebury The grassland around the monuments is sown with a special landscape, leaving a monumental legacy you William Stukeley 1743 Three intact stones were found buried, as well as five burning mix of native chalk grassland can still see today. wildflowers which provides a source William Stukeley’s field notes and Location of present day pits where stones had been of nectar for butterflies and a habitat Using antler picks and stone tools they dug the drawings published in 1743 show Avebury Trusloe destroyed and one pit where for invertebrates and farmland birds. enormous banks and 9m deep ditches of both the West Kennet and the stone had been removed. Avebury henge and within them erected the Beckhampton Avenues. Though Where the Avenue joined the The grant scheme administered by they suggest the Beckhampton Longstones Cove, it was Natural England enables farmers and world’s largest stone circle. They also built two land managers to protect and Avenue continued westward © English Heritage constructed over the site of the ceremonial avenues of paired standing stones. T enhance the historic environment, o S w N i beyond the Cove no evidence n d earlier oval Longstones o biodiversity, and the natural beauty The West Kennet Avenue ran south from the n Excavations undertaken as for this has yet been found. Windmill Hill A4361 Enclosure. This was deliberately of the countryside. henge to the Sanctuary. The Beckhampton causewayed part of the Longstones Project enclosure levelled when the Avenue Avenue led west to the Longstones Cove Horslip long barrow Fyfield Down (1999-2003) in the area in front National Nature Reserve Avebury The Stonehenge and Avebury Earlier henge and stones were erected. A further where you are now standing. stone circles of you revealed evidence of five To Bath World Heritage Site is internationally & Br ist Beckhampton ol Longstones Avenue buried stone was discovered Longstones Falkner’s pairs of standing stones that important for its outstanding Cove South Street Circle long barrow West Kennet close to Avebury Trusloe. The eighteenth-century antiquary Enclosure YouYou areare Avenue London Neolithic and early Bronze Age Beckhampton Road To herehere Silbury had once formed the long barrow The A4 Hill Sanctuary monuments. To find out more about William Stukeley made the first detailed K e n n ‰ R e t westernmost part of the EVE s A361 ize them, visit the Alexander Keiller ev W D To o drawings of the Beckhampton Avenue. This artist’s impression shows rl ‰ d West Kennet Beckhampton Avenue. ADAM H West Kennet e long barrow Museum in Avebury. r it Enclosures ag the landscape of the late Neolithic e Later, so many of the avenue stones were Site b Key oundar y East Kennet c.2500 BC indicating the Early Neolithic long barrow buried or broken up for building material Late Neolithic www.nationaltrust.org.uk/avebury/ approximate course of the Longstones Cove 03km © English Heritage that some researchers doubted its Beckhampton Avenue existence. YOU ARE HERE www.stonehengeandaveburywhs.org.
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