Loraine Knowles
Director of Stonehenge
The Stonehenge site has sparked much controversy in the past. How does it feel to have reached this point?
It’s been a long, challenging project but we’re thrilled with the results. Ever since English Heritage (EH) formed in 1984, it’s wanted to improve the Stonehenge visitor experience. The Public Accounts Committee once called it “a national disgrace” and I’d have to agree with them.
I first went to Stonehenge as a student in the 70s, and it was the first site I visited after joining EH in 2003. I’d been working on exciting developments in the museums sector, and couldn’t believe nothing had changed there.
I didn’t appreciate why nothing had changed, but having headed up the project for the past five years, I now know the challenges involved!
What were the key challenges for EH?
The first challenge we faced was finding a location within the World Heritage Site that all the stakeholders could agree on. That took from July 2008 to January 2009.
We needed to build something that was going to be a positive addition to the World Heritage Site, without it having any adverse visual or environmental impact. Our brief was always to build something that could be reversed if it needed to be. We were conscious when we started the project that we might find precious archaeological remains once building started. Actually we didn’t, but we still proceeded to build in this way.
The proximity of the roads around Stonehenge has also been a major problem hasn’t it?
Yes, the A344 cut through the site. When Stonehenge and Avebury were put on World Heritage Site register in 1986, the government said it would close that road – that finally happened in June 2013.
It took so long because it was a fundamental part of all the schemes put forward since 1986 that didn’t proceed. When the Airman’s Corner scheme got planning permission we still had to apply for a Stopping Up order for the road, which went to a public inquiry. We still have the A303 running very close, but that’s had a whisper surface applied to it and it’s now noticeably quieter.
How has the project been funded?
The £27m Stonehenge Environmental Improvements Programme is the largest capital project ever undertaken by English Heritage. The project has been financed almost entirely by Heritage Lottery Fund money (£10m), English Heritage commercial income and philanthropic donations including significant gifts from the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Linbury Trust and the Wolfson Foundation.
What does the centre replace?
The visitor facilities at the Stone Circle dated back to 1968 and were totally inadequate for what’s expected of a visitor attraction today.
They consisted of a basic concrete building housing a shop and catering unit, and various Portakabins for staff facilities and toilets.
Although all these facilities were down in a dip, if you approached the site from the north or west they jarred against the landscape.
As we did an overnight switch to the new centre in December 2013, these facilities had to remain in place, but over the next six months they’ll be dismantled. By the summer, Stonehenge will once again be standing alone in its natural grassland.
What can visitors expect from the new centre?
We’ve conceived the building as literally a stopping off point on the way to the Stones, which now lie 2km away. It’s all about getting people to the Stones and vastly improving their understanding and experience of them and the surrounding landscape, which contains an extraordinary number of prehistoric monuments .
How does the centre improve visitors’ understanding of the Stones?
We now have an interpretative exhibition about Stonehenge that people can visit either before or after they see the Stone Circle, or both.
We will also be displaying Stonehenge artefacts, such as some of the tools used to build the monument – on loan from nearby museums – at the site for the first time.
People visit Stonehenge with some basic questions about the Stones. How will you answer them?
We’re setting out the latest knowledge in response to questions about who built the Stones and how they were built. We don’t have all the answers but there’s ongoing research about Stonehenge and we engaged a number of leading academics to help us tell the story. Some of those archaeologists are featured in the exhibition itself, talking about the various theories surrounding the ancient site.
Do you expect dwell times to increase?
Visitors previously spent around 45 minutes to an hour at the site, and we expect that to increase to around two hours. That time could even be extended further when the weather is good, as visitors now have the option to either walk all the way to the Stones, or to start from a National Trust viewing point and walk the final kilometre to them, passing other key ancient monuments on the way.
Do you expect numbers to increase?
It’s never been an objective to increase visitor numbers, due to the sensitivity of the site. Plus we’ve been limited with the size of the new car park we’ve been able to build. Stonehenge has been attracting around one million visitors per year, on a 70/30 international-domestic split. We expect that to rise to around 1.25 million and we’ll manage that on a timed ticketing system, so people will now have to book in advance to be sure of entry.
The visitor centre was the first phase of the development. What comes next?
The new centre was the main phase, and we’re now concentrating on restoring the natural landscape, as well as building a new exhibit of Neolithic houses in our external gallery space.
We advertised nationally for volunteers to build them and got a great response. Visitors will be able to watch them being constructed, and when finished they can go inside – there’ll be fires lit and replicas of the furniture and implements used at that time.
Will your role as director change now the site has opened?
When all the phases of the development are complete, this role will come to an end. I’ve been working on this project since 2008 and it’s been the biggest challenge of my career to date.
Stonehenge was a national disgrace, and finally we’ve had the opportunity to put things right.
