The Nine Stones at Winterbourne Abbas have an inglorious setting. Hard by the A35, there are only slim iron railings and a small ditch to shield the circle from the heavy traffic rumbling west. And for about six months of the year the ditch flows with water (the winter bourne), often overspilling and flooding the road.
Yet the surroundings used to be even less picturesque. Until a few years ago, a line of high‑voltage electricity pylons looped across the valley, humming and sizzling a few hundred metres from the monument.
