On Friday, as usual, I drove westwards along the A303 on my way to Salisbury. A full moon in a clear sky was sinking behind Stonehenge. It was beautiful, and many of the travellers on that road will have enjoyed and perhaps been moved by the sight.
The A303 is an ancient road and for hundreds of years the public have used it and been able to admire Stonehenge, some of us daily. When I was a child we were able to park nearby and walk among the stones. Now you can only get near it by paying the fee and becoming a tourist. Apart from the two solstices, the turning of this ancient monument into a tourist attraction is to rip it from its context and its original purpose.
Yet for centuries Stonehenge has stood proud in this landscape and has not been taken over to become a money-making heritage site. The desire to build a tunnel and hide Stonehenge from the view of so many drivers on the A303 (Report, 14 January) is a further travesty and domestication for profit of this ancient site. How long will it be before we have to pay to walk on the Ridgeway, or visit the West Kennett Long Barrow or will no longer be able to drive through Avebury?
Keith Lamdin
West Overton, Wiltshire
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