Avebury Chapel Exhibition Centre

CPRE Wiltshire has a permanent stand in the new Avebury Chapel exhibition centre.  Why not visit it when you are next in the area?

Here’s what’s been happening during the second quarter (April-June) of 2023.

We now have eight organisations exhibiting under the heading of ‘A Living Landscape’:
o Avebury and Stonehenge Archaeological and Historical Research Group: posters on work led by Josh Pollard on the West Kennet palisades
o Avebury Community Orchard: text about Wiltshire apples, a quiz for schoolchildren, and an apple press
o CPRE Wiltshire: posters on hedgerows and local campaigns and pamphlets
o Friends of the Ridgeway: two posters and a map of the Ridgeway
o National Trust: one pull-up about its presence in Avebury
o North Wessex Downs AONB: large free-standing map of AONB, pull-ups, and pamphlets
o Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures: pull-ups on Jomon stone circles
o Wiltshire Museum: pull-ups entitled ‘Wiltshire in 100 objects’ with the associated guide and other pamphlets.

In addition a triptych photograph of the Ridgeway at Hackpen Hill is on display.

Other organisations have expressed interest:
o Avebury Papers: we hope soon to take delivery of posters on the project to digitise the Keiller archive (see (https://www.aveburypapers.org)
o Avebury Society: posters/pull-ups and text on Avebury ‘personalities’ (e.g. Aubrey, Beveridge, Keiller, Lubbock, and Smith) are being prepared
o Marlborough Downs Space for Nature: photos and text.

A rota of volunteers has allowed the chapel to open on most weekends. About 20 visitors come to the chapel on each day. An A board outside the chapel entrance now advertises the exhibition. Our gardeners do impressive work as does our cleaner. The chapel’s website is under preparation. Installation of WiFi functionality remains imminent. We are very grateful to all who contribute in a variety of ways.

There have been discussions with a group wanting to exhibit photographs and art over the period 13-23 July.

A group led by David Dawson used the chapel on 21 April and ASAHRG did so on 28 April. Through ASAHRG, a group of Oxford postgraduate archaeology students will meet in the chapel on 4 November.

James Holden gave an excellent and well-attended talk on nonconformist chapel architecture on 7 June. Stuart Raymond will talk on 8 July from 14h00 on Avebury’s history (‘Avebury without the stones’) and Fran Allfrey will do so from 19h00 on 12 July on the Avebury Papers project (‘Making Avebury – the past, present, future – and you?’).