It’s not easy to think of monuments better known or more mysterious than Stonehenge, nor any more longstanding: not even the pyramids of Egypt can match its birthdate of 3100 BCE.
Since the Middle Ages, Stonehenge has been a popular attraction in the south of England, just west of London – so popular, in fact, that tourists were in the habit of chipping a bit of stone from the triptychs as a souvenir. By the 19th century, the monument was in a state of serious disrepair; some of the standing stones were in danger of falling over, and had to be propped up with logs. In December of 1900, in fact, a sarsen stone fell, causing the lintel it was supporting to break in two.
So it was that in 1915, a man named Cecil Chubb attended an auction, looking to buy a set of chairs for his dining room table. What else should be auctioned that day but the deed to Stonehenge.
“Surely someone will bid me £5,000 to start with,” called auctioneer Howard Frank. A hand went up, and the bidding got rolling. Frank nudged the price of Stonehenge up a little at a time to £6,500, a sum that drew the hand of Isaac Crook, whose family farms in the county to this day. Frank held out for one last bid, which came from Chubb - £6,600. Though he’d never given it a thought before, Stonehenge was now his, thanks to his impulsivity.
Prior to the auction, Stonehenge had been held by the family Antrobus for almost a century, and prior to that had been the property of such notables as Henry VIII. The Antrobus family assets were sold off, however, when its heir was killed early in World War I.
Now it belonged to Cecil Chubb, who really had no idea what to do with it. He took it quite seriously, however, realizing its importance as a landmark. Surveying its state of disrepair, he decided that what it needed was proper care and protection. So he gifted it to the state, three years after buying it, which set in motion a publicly-funded restoration project.
In 2009, funds were allocated to construct a tourist center nearby, and to close off the A344, making the monument a little less by-the-roadside. This work was completed in 2013. And today, the site receives more than 800,000 visitors a year.
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