Kennet Avenue
Kennet Avenue or West Kennet Avenue is a prehistoric site in the English county of Wiltshire. It was an avenue of two parallel lines of stones 25m wide and 2.5 km in length, which ran between the Neolithic sites of Avebury and The Sanctuary.
| UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
|---|---|
Kennet Avenue in 2014 | |
| Location | Wiltshire, United Kingdom |
| Part of | Avebury Section of Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites |
| Criteria | Cultural: (i), (ii), (iii) |
| Reference | 373bis-002 |
| Inscription | 1986 (10th Session) |
| Extensions | 2008 |
| Coordinates | 51°25′23″N 1°50′53″W / 51.423°N 1.848°W |
Location of Kennet Avenue in Wiltshire | |
Excavations by Stuart Piggott and Alexander Keiller in the 1930s indicated that around 100 pairs of standing stones had lined the avenue, dated to around 2200 BC from finds of Beaker burials beneath some of them. Many stones have fallen or are missing, however. A second avenue, called Beckhampton Avenue, led west from Avebury towards Beckhampton Long Barrow.
Maud Cunnington righted some of the stones during her work there in the early 20th century. Keiller restored the northern third of the avenue in 1934–1935.[1]
The avenue is within the Avebury section of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. It is in the freehold ownership of the National Trust, and a scheduled monument in English Heritage guardianship.[2] It is managed by the National Trust on behalf of English Heritage, and the two organisations share the cost of managing and maintaining the property.[3]
Images edit
- 'Male' and 'Female' stones in the Avenue
- A megalith showing repairs
References edit
- ^ Orbach, Julian; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (2021). Wiltshire. The Buildings Of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-300-25120-3. OCLC 1201298091.
- ^ Historic England. "West Kennet Avenue and an earthwork bank east of West Kennett Farm (1015547)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
- ^ "West Kennet Avenue, Avebury". English Heritage. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
External links edit
Media related to West Kennet Avenue at Wikimedia Commons