The Man Who Went Shopping For Dining Chairs and Accidentally Bought Stonehenge.
On September 21, 1915, a British barrister named Cecil Chubb was given a very simple task by his wife, Mary. She sent him to a local auction in Salisbury with strict instructions: buy a nice set of dining chairs for their home.
But as Chubb sat in the auction house, he got distracted. "Lot 15" came up for sale, a 30-acre plot of land featuring a crumbling, dilapidated ring of ancient rocks.
@VisionaryVoid
The bidding was incredibly sluggish, and on a complete whim, Chubb raised his hand.
When the gavel fell, he had just purchased Stonehenge for £6,600 (roughly $800,000 today). He proudly presented the 5,000-year-old megalithic wonder to his wife as a surprise "birthday present."
Mary was absolutely furious. She didn't want a pile of ancient rocks; she wanted her dining chairs.
Who among us hasn't just dropped 800 grand on something worthless that then turned out to be of cultural and anthropological significance, on a bored whim
Three years later, tired of his wife’s complaints and realizing the immense historical weight of his impulse purchase, Chubb donated the entire monument to the British government.
He attached one strict condition: the public must always have access to it. Today, it stands protected forever, all because a husband couldn't stick to a shopping list. #globalmuseum
The public must always have access? How's that going?
I've only been once. Couldn't get near.
@MHowell
I've never visited that pub. The first time I went to Avebury we drove up from London in the middle of the night to see the dawn over the circle, so it was a little early. The second time I went from a wedding in Newbury to see it again and there wasn't time for a drink.
It looks very cool though.
@MHowell @OneInterestingFact @globalmuseum
It's very much worth the time. Take a half day at least and walk right around it to really get the scale of the place.
We met Mum & Dad there for lunch and a wander - which wasn't long before Mum's stroke and loss of mobility.
@OneInterestingFact @globalmuseum yeah it's very expensive. Better to look from the road at a distance. Only the 'druids' get access around the solstice, really.
But also, millions of people touching it over decades would mess it up.
@noodlemaz @OneInterestingFact @globalmuseum
You can book to go inside the Stonehenge circle. It's very, very popular so you need to book will in advance.
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/stone-circle-access-visits/
@OneInterestingFact @globalmuseum
He didn't say the public must have access for free.
It is a very long time since I was there but at the time the stones were fenced off and if you wanted in you had either to work for the government agency that looked after them or become a druid.
Is that what public access means?
@OneInterestingFact @globalmuseum
There didn't used to be any fence. I walked amongst the stones. But the stones were getting vandalised. people scratching their names into them, chipping bits off, painting crap on them, etc. I'm sure that wasn't what was meant by publicly accessible either but people are arseholes.
@OneInterestingFact @globalmuseum
The number of visitors got so great that it eventually outweighed what was sustainable.
"In 1963, in an effort to minimise erosion, the inside of the circle was gravelled. By 1978 there were so many visitors that access to the stones had to be restricted."
Pfffft.
Of course not.
I was lucky enough to go when access was fully open. Of course I didn't touch the stones, but I can still close my eyes and feel their presence half a century later.
@gray17 @globalmuseum Thank you for the excellent sleuthing!
Because this post came from a museum site, it didn't even occur to me to scrutinize the image.
My god, we live in exhausting times.
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