Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument of huge standing stones on Salisbury Plain in southern England, built in stages from around 3000 BC to 1500 BC. On 21 September 1915 it was sold at auction, as part of a local estate, to a local man, Cecil Chubb, for £6,600.^[1] In 1918 he gave it to the nation. It is the only prehistoric monument known to have changed hands at an auction where the bidding was not done by rocks.

The sale

According to a popular account, Chubb went to the auction intending to buy some chairs and bought Stonehenge instead, possibly as a present for his wife. Whether or not that is exactly how it happened, he bought it, and three years later handed it over to the government, on condition that the public could visit it.^[2] He was made a baronet the following year.

Stonehenge is therefore the only ancient monument to have gone home from an auction with someone who came for a chair.

The stones

The large stones, called sarsens, came from around 25 kilometres away. The smaller bluestones were brought from the Preseli Hills in Wales, more than 200 kilometres away, around five thousand years ago. How exactly this was done is still studied. The stones are arranged so that the sun rises in line with the monument at the summer solstice.

• Built: c. 3000–1500 BC.
• Bluestones from: Wales (200+ km).
• Sold: 1915, for £6,600.
• Given away: 1918.

See also

• Boulder – a stone of the same general idea
• Chair – what the buyer reportedly came for
• Sun – which it lines up with
• Moai – large stones, with faces

References

1. Gavel, G. (1915/2005). Lot 15: Stonehenge. Fictional reprint.
2. Sarsen, S. (2011). “He Came for the Chairs”. Auction History 6,600: 1.
3. Bluestone, B. (2002). From Wales, Somehow. Plain Press.