TV archaeologist Phil Harding from Channel 4's Time Team returned to a Wiltshire megalithic monument that helped shape his career. The former Marlborough Grammar School student was invited to help launch a new residents' pack for people living in Avebury (England) and the surrounding World Heritage Site.
     Each pack contains a book about the village with articles on the archaeology, history and natural history. The original idea for the pack came from Avebury researcher Brian Edwards. He discovered that many residents did not understand how the various organisations involved with the World Heritage Site worked. In the book Values and Voices which has been edited by WHS officer Sarah Simmonds there is a forward written by Lord Avebury who attended the launch.
Lord Avebury's grandfather bought Avebury in 1875 to stall a building contractor who intended breaking up the stones for building materials and building houses with them.
     Peter Tate, formerly a National Trust custodian at Avebury for 20 years, returned to talk about his work and his love for the village. He recalled a very young Phil Harding looking around the Avebury stones many years earlier and expressing an interest in their archaeology. Mr Harding said that although Stonehenge attracted many visitors it lacked being part of a community like Avebury.

Source: Gazette & Herald (24 July 2008)