Pete G
|
Rocks?
Jul 08, 2006, 15:18
|
Rockhenge? Pah!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/5158908.stm
Stonehenge focus of tourism plan
Front of report - Salisbury District Council
Salisbury Cathedral and Longleat help pull in the tourists
A 10-year blueprint for the future of the tourism industry in south Wiltshire has been published.
The strategy - entitled Nice Church Great Rocks - highlights Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge among other important draws on the tourist map.
Salisbury District Council said visitors brought in about £400,000 to the local economy every day.
A spokesperson said: "It's an essential part of the economy. It is important we don't take this for granted."
The plan sets out action points for the next 10 years including an online accommodation availability checker, increasing the number and quality of restaurants and improving signs in urban and village centres.
Councillor Margaret Peach said: "We boast top tourist attractions such as Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, Longleat and Old Sarum as well as some of the most beautiful countryside found in the UK.
"A thriving tourism economy supports the wider local economy, which has a knock-on benefit for everyone who lives and works in south Wiltshire and that's why the council, with the support of the local tourism industry, has produced this very important strategy," she said.
|
Steve Gray
|
Re: Rocks?
Jul 08, 2006, 16:29
|
|
Pete G wrote: Rockhenge? Pah!
Nice Church Great Rocks - highlights Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge among other important draws on the tourist map.
I think it's supposed to be someone's attempt at Meiosis (the figure of speech in which something is delibeately understated; not to be confused with the biological term of the same spelling) given that Salisbury Cathedral is referred to as a "church".
|
Littlestone
|
Re: Rocks?
Jul 08, 2006, 16:43
|
I was at Stonehenge this time last week. Someone, sitting in their car (all doors open) in the carpark had the footie blasting forth. Jeeze why go to Stonehenge to listen to the footie and inflict it on everyone else?
In the evening of the same day, at Avebury, two 'new age' toads, male and in their twenties, had climbed the recently straightened stone in the cove and were exhibiting their prowess at doing so. Tossers. Someone on the radio this morning said that tourism was the brothel of society (or words to that effect). I'd like to slap some of these 'tourists' who have so little regard for our heritage and the quiet people who go to see it but I can't. When I'm really really old though, and no longer have anything to lose, I shall hit them on their bonnets and on their shoulders with my walking stick.
|
StoneLifter
|
Re: Rocks?
Jul 08, 2006, 19:17
|
|
You'd like the gamekeepers, in the Knarsdale fells, that have put a large classical garden shed in the middle of nowhere - where two burns intersect - and filled it with intercepted pigeons. They use the birds to carry potent insecticide, on their feathers, to the Hen harriers that feed on their precious grouse. Luckily they're fairly feckless and a newly fledged harrier has been foraging near me a couple of times in the past week. The curlews try and chase it off too ...
|
Littlestone
|
Re: Rocks?
Jul 08, 2006, 21:33
|
|
You've lost me again SL (but in a very nice sort of way :-)
|
StoneLifter
|
Re: Rocks?
Jul 08, 2006, 21:58
|
Imagine a Lake District landscape, as portrayed by Ken Russell at his prime, with a top of the range prefabricated British allotment shed situated at its centre. It's the kind of shed with a brass maker's label somewhere. A hole has been cut in the front and a chicken netting coop added on to let the pigeons, that are kept in the shed, get fresh air and sunshine. (They're fed once a week). Two streams that join to form a brook, nearby, are bridged by logs with spring traps in the middle, presumably to deter stoats.
I found it by accident on the way back from a long barrow and observation platform visit, accidentally. I'd only taken one camera and the film had gone. I recorded the find on a digital voice recorder - very terse - and I have to get back, with loaded cameras, but the keepers have me under constant observation. I've found two of these pigeon houses so far and have closed them down. The wildlife policeman is the first to hear about them but seems to tolerate it.
The M. O., I think, is to find a harrier, get a pigeon near it, clip its wings so it's easy prey, and baste its chest with one of two commonly available pesticides, and to set the bird off toward the hungry harrier. It's the seedy underbelly of the British countryside - I want to capture it in Kodachrome and not get shot. If I do get shot I hope it's caught by the voice recorder (and posthumourlessly broadcast on Resonance).
And then there's the moon !
|
rocknicker
|
Re: Rocks?
Jul 09, 2006, 08:00
|
|
what are the pesticides supposed to achieve?
|
StoneLifter
|
Re: Rocks?
Jul 09, 2006, 08:48
|
dead raptors ( http://www.rspb.org.uk/england/north/action/stoppoisoning.asp ). The strange thing is I'm particularly keen to see strong populations of Ring ousel and Skylark, up there, and they are also prime prey species of these hen harriers.
Attitudes to game conservation and attitudes to stone conservation, in local people, seem to mirror. Conservation is conservation, it seems, whether it is of ancient relics or a living creature.
|
maesi
|
Re: Rocks?
Jul 09, 2006, 13:27
|
|
gee littlestone i am in my dotage ..i didn't realise i could hit people and cars with my walking stick..just tell me where you want me to go and i will happily oblige.. free of charge!!!!
|
nigelswift
|
Re: Rocks?
Jul 09, 2006, 13:51
|
just tell me where you want me to go and i will happily oblige..
Ooh yes, me too, can I come? I've been doing it for years. The trick is, apologise as you do it. This has the effect of causing a confused paralysis in youngsters brains as they try to compute two irreconcilable bits of information, during which you make your escape.
|
