This vital work will protect the features which make Stonehenge so distinctive.” Heather Sebire, English Heritage’s senior curator for Stonehenge, said: “The stones look as if they will stand forever but like just about everything they are vulnerable. Scaffolding has been erected to allow engineers and craftspeople to fix deep cracks and holes and dig out the hard concrete used for repairs in 1958, which will be replaced with more forgiving, breathable lime mortar.
But even that ancient monument, it turns out, needs some tender loving care now and again.Ī conservation project, billed as the most significant at Stonehenge for more than 60 years, was launched on Monday by English Heritage to make sure that the structure continues to thrill and amaze for generations to come.Įrosion, the impact of extreme weather caused by the climate emergency and some unsympathetic repairs in the 1950s have taken a toll on the lintels, the hefty horizontal stones that give the circle its iconic shape. The great circle of Stonehenge has stood for 4,500 years and it is tempting to imagine that it is bound to remain just as it is – stolid, unchanging – for thousands more.
