If you have used the Berwick road over the last couple of days you may have noticed strange goings-on to the east and west of it. A team of folks in high-vis jackets, wombling up and down the fields with a device that looks like a cross between a hand-plough and a candelabra. It’s a team from Wessex Archaeology, working on behalf of Highways England doing a magnetometry survey of the fields for the southern route option. They said they had already done similar work to the northern route of the A303 last year. What was particularly interesting was that they are not surveying the whole of the route and the land either side, just selected packets. So, they don’t seem to be set to sample the Till flood plain, or all of the fields to the east of the Till on the southern route and they didn’t seem to have surveyed the entire northern route either.
If you are tempted to wander over and take a look, be aware that the fence alongside the Stonehenge Camp Site blew down in the wind yesterday. The owner is hoping to get is shifted asap, but in the meantime, the owners of Keeper’s Cottage have offered their garden as an alternative route, for which we thank them greatly! Go into the garden through the little wicket gate on the left of the footpath, just before it climbs the slope by the back entrance to the camp site. The gate can be quite stiff, so take care and please bolt it. Walk towards the little brown shed in front of the house, then turn sharp right at the last tree, onto the drive. Follow that along, parallel to the public footpath and you can join back again halfway along.