Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

I'd really like to answer this one though in doing so I will contradict something I say later. Way back in those mist-covered days of living in London I was invited on a Pagan Day Out coach trip, organised by people associated with SKOOB Books (back then SKOOB was located near the British Museum and was a meeting place for all sorts of esoteric goings on - most of which were outside of my understanding at the time).

Our first stop was Waylands Smithy, then of course Avebury and West Kennet Long Barrow - with a quick stop at Stonehenge on the way back. I saw a bus heading for my home town Swindon - a place I thought I had left far behind as my parents had moved to Lincolnshire. I had no inkling at that time that life's changes would take me back there. At the turn of the new century take me back they did - and for the past decade Avebury has played a pivotal part in my life.

I went back there the other day (borrowed a friend's NT card as wanted to mooch around the excellent museum and information centre). Lots of school kids learning that Avebury was more than likely a place of prehistoric religious observance. I went back to the henge thinking to go for a walk, the sun was shining - but I looked around me and thought about all the petty squabbling and egocentric behaviour which I now associate with the place and thought it really is time to move on, not just metaphorically but physically too. I said goodbye to Avebury.