Abstract
Two years ago, Mr. W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore, then First Commissioner of Works, urgently directed attention to the necessity of taking steps by means of a planning scheme to preserve the surroundings of Avebury, constituting in their entirety, as he pointed out, the most imposing monument of prehistoric civilization in the whole world. He then expressed the hope that it would not be long before such a scheme was initiated. There is now a prospect that this hope may be fulfilled. A scheme under the Town and Country Planning Act, 1932, has been prepared, which, if the necessary financial provision is made, will be put into operation before the main Wiltshire Planning Scheme, for the planning and preservation of the village of Avebury and its immediate surroundings. This scheme involves the prohibition of building in certain areas, and its restriction in others. The area covered by the prehistoric remains will be preserved for ever from building, and this, with the willing co-operation of the owner, also applies to the grounds and building of the Manor House, of which part dates from before 1548, part from the latter half of the sixteenth century. Over the main part of the downland, upon which the charm of the monuments and their appeal to the historic imagination so intimately depend, no new building will be allowed, except for agricultural purposes and necessary extensions of existing buildings, while the harmonious character of new cottages will be ensured and the planting of trees continued. To some small extent the village has encroached on the monument, but condemned cottages will not be re-erected. The agricultural character of the district will be preserved, and provision made for its future prosperity by the setting aside of adequate sites for new buildings.
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Avebury. Nature 140, 144 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140144a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140144a0
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