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The Modern Antiquarian Forum » Avebury » pagan persecution at avebury. |
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freeavebury 22 posts |
Nov 05, 2003, 17:37
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hi this is real important.please can you get this to as many like minded mo fo's as poss......we are being served with notice of prosecution on wed..need as much help and input as poss. below is a basic outline of who we are and what were about. thanks for your time. Hello!! We are writing to you to ask if you would be willing to help us in our oncoming conflict with the National Trust and Avebury Parish council. Firstly though please allow us to introduce ourselves and explain our situation. Our names are Mik and Emma and we are representing a group of pagans who visit the Avebury stone circle in Wiltshire on a regular basis. Avebury is the temple of the ancient Briton's (built over 5000yrs ago). As the biggest stone circle in Britain it attracts thousands of different people from all sorts of backgrounds from all over the world. Many of these visits are for the purposes of attending the religious ceremonies that take place at various differing times throughout the day and night. The main eight pagan festivals and all of the full moons are observed at the stones, so consequently this does require us parking our vehicles (for most of us our homes) in the tourists car park. Pagans have been parking in this car park overnight for many years so that they can safely enjoy and observe their religious celebrations. This has never been allowed by the National trust or the parish council but due to the goodwill of all parties no action has ever been taken. This has recently changed, the trust has began to issues prosecution notices to any vehicle parked over night. We really feel that this is an infringement on our right to religious ceremonies and the right to park our homes safely (could this be be a case of indirect discrimination?) We seem to have become mediators between the car park and the trust, who are not being that unreasonable, it is the parish council above them that are causing the problems. There is a good rapport between ourselves and the trust, (we organise litter picking etc at summer solstice), they know we have the stones best interests at heart! At a recent meeting we managed to get the trust to see that by not prosecuting over the ceremonies, people would respect these dates and not park between the agreed dates. This is what has happened over the last few weeks, no regular users have parked overnight out of respect and by means of comprise. We discovered at our meeting on 3/11/03 that this agreement had been denied, consequently we have offered ourselves to be prosecuted. It is hoped that will lead to precedents being set so that we can all go on to celebrate at this special site. We would be very grateful for any advice, contacts, publicity and help that you could offer us. Looking forward to hearing from you Mik & Emma x
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Ishmael 683 posts |
Nov 05, 2003, 18:35
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>(could this be be a case of indirect discrimination?) No, the NT bye laws say no camping and a court case in 2002 allowed the NT the right to stop anyone camping within the WHS, thanks to one Mr Dobney who failed to turn up in the county court to challenge the case. >We discovered at our meeting on 3/11/03 that this agreement had been denied, consequently we have offered ourselves to be prosecuted. It is hoped that will lead to precedents being set so that we can all go on to celebrate at this special site. ROFLMAO! If you get arrested for breach of the peace what sort of precedent do you image a court would give you? As it not even a pagan festival on wednesday you cannot claim any sort of pagan persection. If you loose the case (very likely) a court could decree that the NT must evict everyone from the carpark every evening. Your actions could make it a whole lot worst.
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freeavebury 22 posts |
Nov 05, 2003, 22:29
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Firstly, we dont want slagging off, we want constructive help. Secondly, thanks for the point about a non-ceremony date, but surely as Pagans we should be able to attend when we wish. It is not us doing this, it is the Nt and Council. We said Wednesday, because then it will be only US that gets prosecution notices, not everyone. Thirdly, we are NOT the Emanon crew! We are giving a great deal of thought, energy, time and money in to this blessed be
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Pete G 3506 posts |
Nov 05, 2003, 23:20
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http://www.headheritage.co.uk/headtohead/show.php?show=message&id=30769&19 heres the thread from last year (the pics are no longer there as I have updated the site since then.) Be aware the EH & NT frequent these boards and it is not a good idea to post on a public forum that you intend to comit a crime. Cheers, PeteG
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Pete G 3506 posts |
Nov 05, 2003, 23:28
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Here are a few nore Avebury dedicated sites that you may want to post on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Avebury_uk_/ and http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/aveburylinks/ I see you have joined the stonesmailing list, maybe the stonehenge lists would gain you some support. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stonehengepeace/messages PeteG
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freeavebury 22 posts |
Nov 05, 2003, 23:30
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fair comment. Weve done this to try and get as much help asap. cheers
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Rowan_1 24 posts |
Nov 06, 2003, 00:15
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Hi Mik, Emma, have done as requested and posted this in various places. Have put a link to here for anyone who wants to reply. And Good Luck!
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Hawthorn 2 posts |
Nov 06, 2003, 01:50
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Greetings All, I have found my way from another site where Mike & emma have posted. I dont know if this is useful info or not. But I and some friends regularly used to camp very near to Avebury, for a week at Summer Solstice. It wasnt a camping site. It was a house with fields attached to it and they just had a stand pipe and an outside loo. It was cheap and they were friendly enough, just used to leave us to it And we used to walk to the circle from there. In fact we used to visit the pub each night and stagger back. Perhaps about 15mins walk from the circle. Maybe that would be another option. And what about the Pub Car park??? Maybe they would let some of you park there too.
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Pete G 3506 posts |
Nov 06, 2003, 01:59
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Avenue Farm. about 1/2 mile north of the circle. It's now been sold and is being redeveloped with a huge warehouse in the grounds. Nearest campsite is at Blacklands near Calne (6 miles away!) Lots of folk now camp on the ridgeway east of Avebury. PeteG
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freeavebury 22 posts |
Nov 06, 2003, 11:53
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thank you all for your input...a campsite close to avebury would be an excellent solution to the problem......have put this idea allready to the NT but finding a suitable location and planning permission could a problem....especially within the world heritage site.......we are however looking for land and an amenable farmer or landowner!!!!!just outside the area....we have allready stated to the NT that we are prepared to help fund this and also run the site for them.........
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