The neolithic monument buried beneath a county town
Hidden beneath a shopping arcade and an unremarkable supermarket car park in a historic county town lies an enormous 4,000-year-old open secret.
Built during the neolithic period, what remains today of Dorchester henge is located beneath the modern town.
Unlike Stonehenge, which is widely considered England's most famous prehistoric monument, the Dorset town's henge was not built with stone, featuring instead an enormous palisade of large oak timber posts.
Radio Solent's Steve Harris has been finding out more about the monument's history.
"It's huge, right in the centre of Dorchester here," said Joe Doak, vice chair of Dorchester Civic Society.
The henge was discovered in archaeological excavations carried out in the 1980s, during construction work for the supermarket and shopping complex.
"They [archaeologists] discovered the holes where these massive timbers were placed and that led to the dig and the exploration and producing of artefacts.
"They think that it was actually built quite quickly, put up maybe in a couple of years.
"The other thing that's been revealed or suggested is that it burnt down. Basically they found charcoal and burnt material in the pits.
"They don't know whether it was done, shall we say, positively as a sort celebration of someone, a tribal leader or something, or as part of a conflict."
The palisade extended about 1,312ft (400m) around much of central Dorchester as it is now, said Doak.
In the basement of the multi-storey car park, many people may not pay much attention to a series of large red circles, measuring about 3ft (1m) in diameter.
They are, in fact, a visible reminder of where the palisade once went through the site.
"There were 21 holes [for the timber posts] found in this development," Doak said. "But other holes were found in adjoining sites over time, so they kind of pieced it together to work out [that] this was a huge circular palisade.
"It is great that we can stand here in the contemporary world full of motor cars and see this pattern that was created almost 4,000 years ago."
