A hundred tears ago Sir Cecil Chubb, on a whim, bid 6,600 pounds for thirty acres of land and a pile of rocks at auction. Cecil then became the proud owner of Stonehenge, a gift for his wife. Mrs Chubb, who was probably hoping for a diamond necklace, was less than impressed so in 1918 Cec gave Stonehenge to the people. Stonehenge had never been up for auction before and never will be again.

Cec reckoned that Stonehenge belonged to the people and his only conditions in handing it over were that the entrance fee should never be more than a

shilling and that local residents should have free access.

Armed with this information, plus more information on the net, we returned to Stonehenge and discovered that the “Broom Hilda” car park attendant was a bit tardy (it was 10 AM) so we parked for free. We then walked around the visitor centre, through a paddock and over a hill to Stonehenge. Job done for free, all legal and above board. At the gate I spoke to a Stonehenge/English Heritage employee and told him the previous days story, he said they don’t like to mention that it’s actually free to visit Stonehenge.

With Stonehenge attracting around 1,000,000 visitors a year and paying an average of £10 per head (gross 10,000,000 pounds per year) I’m guessing that’s why it’s not mentioned anywhere. If Mrs Chubb was alive and kept the gift she could have bought lots of lovely diamond necklaces. I wonder what the people at English Heritage are going to spend the money on?

Below: Milepost and various ancient monuments.

By the way, if you are looking for excellent Yorkshire pudding with roast meats (and even vegies) you can’t go past Toby’s Carvery, a chain restaurant with good food, great service and outstanding Yorkshire pudding.