Editing Stonehenge (section)

====Saving the skyline====
[[File:Stonehenge and Aerodrome 1928.jpg|thumb|right|1928 image of Stonehenge with the remains of the aerodrome site in the background]]
The plot bought by Chubb and gifted to the nation was only {{Convert | 30 | acre}} in size, and various buildings stood within clear sight of the monument, the most prominent being [[Stonehenge Aerodrome]]. Some {{convert|300|m|ft}} from the stones, the aerodrome was built during the First World War for the [[Royal Flying Corps]]<ref>Francis Stewart Briggs, S. H. Harris, [https://books.google.com/books?id=KyNXNQAACAAJ "Joysticks and Fiddlesticks: (the Unofficial History of a Flying Kangaroo) Or, The Flying Kangaroo"] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101133622/https://books.google.com/books/about/Joysticks_and_Fiddlesticks.html?id=KyNXNQAACAAJ&redir_esc=y|date=1 January 2016 }}, ''Hutchinson & Company Limited'', 1938. Retrieved 11 June 2014.</ref> and its large stone and brick hangars dominated the skyline.<ref>{{cite book|title=Stonehenge and its environs: monuments and land use|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|author=Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England)|year=1979|isbn=978-0-85224-379-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/stonehengeitsenv0000roya/page/n5/mode/2up?q=%22stonehenge+aerodrome%22}}</ref><ref name=aero>{{cite book|last=Barber|first=Martyn|title=Stonehenge Aerodrome and the Stonehenge landscape|publisher=English Heritage|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/redirect/15239|year=2015}}</ref>

In the dry valley at Stonehenge Bottom, a main road junction was built between what would later be designated as the [[A303 road|A303]] and [[A344 road (England)|A344]] roads, along with several cottages and a cafe.

[[File:Stonehenge development plots.png|thumb|left|Map showing the three proposed development plots around Stonehenge in 1927]]
In 1927 the land around Stonehenge was put up for auction in three plots. Plot A lay immediately west of the monument and included the (by now disused) Stonehenge Aerodrome, Plot B was to the south on the other side of the main road, and Plot C on the north side included part of the [[Stonehenge Cursus]].<ref name=plots>{{Cite news |date=23 March 1929 |title=Save Stonehenge! The "Frontispiece to English history" in peril |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001578/19290323/052/0014 |work=The Illustrated London News |pages=481}}</ref><ref>The London Mercury Vol. XVII No. 98 1927</ref>

There was interest from developers, and in August 1927 a subscription fund was launched in order to "save the skyline" of the monument.<ref>{{Cite news |date=28 September 1934 |title=Donor of Stonehenge |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000407/19340928/129/0016 |work=The Western Gazette |pages=16}}</ref> The subscription made rapid progress, with [[George V]] as the lead subscriber, and by October 1927 £8,000 had been raised, which was enough to purchase Plot A and start the demolition of the aerodrome.<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 November 1927 |title=Funds wanted to save Stonehenge |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000563/19271109/084/0005 |work=The Dundee Evening Telegraph |pages=5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=5 August 1927 |title=Stonehenge – Fund to save the skyline |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000337/19270805/015/0001 |work=The Midland Daily Telegraph |pages=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=JC |first=Squire |date=8 October 1927 |title=Stonehenge |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001557/19271008/167/0008 |work=The Wiltshire Times |pages=8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=10 November 1927 |title=To Save Stonehenge |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005049/19271110/109/0008 |work=The Daily Chronicle |pages=8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Preservation of Stonehenge |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000527/19271116/124/0011 |work=Taunton Courier |pages=11}}</ref> The fund continued for a number of years to secure the remaining land around the henge for the nation, with fundraising for Plot C continuing through 1929.<ref name=plots/>

The land was taken into the management of the [[National Trust]] to preserve. The last large aircraft hangar was removed in 1930,<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 August 1930 |title=Preservation of Stonehenge – Progress towards isolation |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001557/19300809/163/0008 |work=The Wiltshire Times |pages=8}}</ref> and by the middle of the 1930s the aerodrome site was cleared.<ref name="vch">{{Cite book |author-last1=Baggs |author-first1=A. P. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol15/pp13-55 |title=A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 15 |author-last2=Freeman |author-first2=Jane |author-last3=Stevenson |author-first3=Janet H. |date=1995 |publisher=University of London |editor-last=Crowley |editor-first=D. A. |series=[[Victoria County History]] |pages=13–55 |chapter=Amesbury |access-date=29 May 2024 |via=British History Online}}</ref>

More recently the land has been part of a grassland reversion scheme, returning the surrounding fields to native [[chalk grassland]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stonehengeconsultation.org/Stonehenge_Consultation_Booklet.pdf |title=The Future of Stonehenge: Public consultation |year=2008 |publisher=English Heritage |page=2 |access-date=18 July 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111202210539/http://www.stonehengeconsultation.org/Stonehenge_Consultation_Booklet.pdf |archive-date= 2 December 2011}}</ref> This process continued in 2022 when the National Heritage Lottery Fund (NHLF) gave a grant to the National Trust to acquire another 170 hectares of the Stonehenge Landscape.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Trust acquires land of exceptional archaeological importance around Stonehenge {{!}} National Heritage Memorial Fund |url=https://www.nhmf.org.uk/news/national-trust-acquires-land-exceptional-archaeological-importance-around-stonehenge |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=www.nhmf.org.uk}}</ref>