The Calderstones - South Liverpool's Stonehenge

[johnreppion]

The unabridged version of the article is now available for free online at http://www.dailygrail.com/Guest-Arti...ones-Liverpool

The vestibule at Calderstones park is now fully glazed. The stones remain in their wood and plastic cocoons at present.

[johnreppion]

It has been nearly two years now since I first posted about my concerns for the condition of the vestibule and the Calderstones themselves.



Currently the vestibule is once again open to the elements. One of the stones (Stone D, I think) is fully exposed to the weather. Two of the six stones are currently wrapped in plastic (not the one beneath the hole in the roof though).

Nigel Sharpe, the Parks Development Officer at Liverpool City Council Parks & Greenspaces, sent me a document which was prepared for a viewing of the stones which happened recently in conjunction with The Reader Organisation (who now run the manor house at the park, will soon be reopening the cafe, and will eventually, it seems, be in charge of the Calderstones themselves.

The Calderstones – a City Council résumé (January 2014)

It is now fifty years since the Calderstones were relocated to the Harthill vestibule building, which then provided the impressive entrance to the city’s new Indoor Botanic Collection. Sadly the glasshouse complex is no more but fortunately the Stones endure.

Since the closure of the Botanic Collection show-houses in the mid 1980s, the Stones have been relatively low key, largely as a result of limited Council resources. More recently, in 2009-10 we worked closely with Merseyside Archaeological Society (MAS) and National Museums Liverpool (NML) to prepare a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) project to conserve and raise awareness about the Stones. This bid proposed using replica Stones to create a facsimile of the Neolithic chambered burial mound, with the original Stones transferred to NML for conservation. Unfortunately this bid was unsuccessful owing to HLF concerns about the limited access available to the original Stones.

The HLF bid process helped raise LCC awareness about the significance of the Stones and it was recognised that the vestibule building was in urgent need of remedial works to protect the Stones. In 2013 works commenced to reinstate the integrity of the vestibule, including arboricultural works to adjacent trees. Severe City Council budget constraints works have meant that work has been progressed in phases and remain incomplete.

Once works are completed it is intended to include general interpretive information about the Stones for park users with contact details for enquiries and visit requests. It is hoped that these works may actually comprise only an interim measure - the Calderstones are included in an ambitious masterplan developed by The Reader Organisation to create an International Centre for Reading and Wellbeing focussed on the Mansion House in Calderstones Park.

I was surprised to read that there had been a plan to relocate the stones (something which I am against, unless it is an absolute final measure to protect them).

As things stand, the way I understand it, Liverpool City Council’s Park’s & Greenspaces are still responsible for the stones at present but lack the budget to make the vestibule weather tight. There is a plan (outlined in the document quoted above) to repair the vestibule, improve signage, and make the stones viewable by appointment, but there is no budget for this at present. At some point after this proposed renovation the Reader Organisation will take over care of the stones. I have a meeting with The Reader Organisation later today and I will find out what they would plan to do if and when that happened.

[johnreppion]

I had a very encouraging meeting with George Hawkins of The Reader Organisation yesterday and was very impressed with their proposed plans for the Calderstones in 2015/16
However, the stones are still currently in a very dangerous position and it seems that they may remain in that state for many months, if not years, to come if some action is not taken.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hello John or anyone

What is the latest situation in regard to the Calderstones?

Thanks

Chris

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