The Kennet District lies within an area which is renowned for it's high quality environment. Covering 375 square miles Kennet adjoins the Districts of Swindon, North Wiltshire, West Wiltshire and Salisbury. Largely rural and agricultural in character, it boasts some of the finest landscapes in England with some 60% designated An Area of Outstanding Beauty as part of the North Wessex Downs, and a further 20% has been appointed a Special Landscape Area.
Avebury Stone Circle
The largest stone circle in Europe, Avebury formed the centre of one of the most impressive Neolithic ceremonial landscapes in Britain.
The great circles, 200 standing stones arranged in an outer and 2 inner circles, surrounded by a massive bank and ditch, were the focal point of the area. They were connected by the West Kennet Avenue of standing stones to the Sanctuary on Overton Hill. Hundreds of great sarsen stones from the downland around, often weighing over 20 tones, were used in the construction of the site, some 2500 – 2200BC. It is thought that the circles may have taken centuries to complete.
Destroyed by local people during the Medieval and later periods, the stones were partly restored to their original positions by Alexander Keiller in the 1930s.
The site is now owned and managed by the National Trust.
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