Stonehenge, Shaftesbury Abbey, and SAVED

BBC4’s Digging for Britain, broadcast at 9pm on Wednesday 20 November, features local archaeologist Julian Richards in a report from the SAVED Project at Shaftesbury Abbey. This innovative scheme, part-funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, has involved an extensive radar survey of the Abbey grounds, the training of volunteers in archaeological techniques, and the participation of 11 local schools. Test pits have revealed a number of interesting finds, as ThisisAlfred reported in the summer

On Tuesday 03 December at 2.30pm Julian visits the other Museum in Shaftesbury, Gold Hill, to give one of his incomparable illustrated talks on Stonehenge: Old Rocks and New Theories, together with an update on the SAVED Project. There really is no-one better qualified than Julian to interpret the changing story of Stonehenge and its landscape. As he says in the Postscript to his Stonehenge – The story so far, published in 2017 by Historic England: “The pace of new discoveries has been so great that to have finished (the book) four or even two years ago would have rendered it instantly and substantially inaccurate. This is not to say that some new discovery of huge importance will be made as soon as this book goes to print ….” We’ll find out on 03 December.

Julian’s lecture is free to members of The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society while non-members may pay £3 at the door.