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Littlestone
Littlestone
5386 posts

And now for the door...
Jul 20, 2007, 18:54
While the cancellation of the time capsule in Silbury is not yet quite assured I hope we may have won the battle on that one (we've certainly won morally). Thanks to Nigel Swift for his years of diligent work on the whole Silbury conservation issue; to all who support Heritage Action, and to others who have worked behind the scenes to get English Heritage to see sense on the time capsule issue. However, there is now the little matter of the 1968 Atkinson door. English Heritage's take on this is -

People hold differing views on whether the Atkinson entrance structure should be left or taken away, and there is a conservation-based argument for both positions. Our original plan was to transport the door to the Alexander Keiller museum in Avebury and to retain the concrete lintel in situ, but grassed over. We have revisited this plan and still feel that this is the approach that we will take, unless of course the concrete portal structure has to be removed for Health & Safety reasons.


Sorry, English Heritage, wrong again (and your assertion that there is a conservation-based argument for both positions is complete and utter nonsense). The same conservation arguments that were applied against your time capsule idea in Silbury are equally valid for, and will be applied to, any attempt to leave the Atkinson door or lintel in place. As Lord Avebury has already said, "Placing a foreign object in the monument offends conservation principles, as well as the spiritual beliefs of some people."

The Atkinson door and lintel must be removed in order to conform to accepted principles of conservation. Full stop.
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