necessitate most people what they think Stonehenge is worth and they would likely tell you it ’s priceless . But if you could take Sir Cecil Chubb , he ’d tell you it was worth £ 6,600 .
It ’s knockout to think now , but the prehistoric repository has n’t always been assailable to the public . For contemporaries , the land it resist on belonged to the Antrobus family . Although the administration tried to step in to avail protect the site , the house slump the offers — until one of the large out stonesfell victimto a storm on December 31 , 1900 . When it tumble , it take one of the top stones , known as a lintel , down with it . The header cracked in half , get these piece the first Stonehenge fatal accident since 1797 .
After word of the damage spread , people start trespassing on Antrobus property to see it for themselves ( and retrieve memento ) . In response , the family fence the attracter in and set out point a fee to see it . But one good thing did come from the price : Whether it was out of concern for the monument or simply due to the devote customers , antiquarians were in conclusion permit in to helprestorethe stones in 1901 .
In 1915 , Sir Edmund Antrobus , the last Antrobus heir , was toss off in combat . The internet site went up for auction , and that ’s where Sir Cecil Chubb step in . He did n’t serve the vendue intending to buy a composition of history , but when he visualise the stone were up for sale , herealizedhe had an opportunity to purchase his married woman a one - of - a - kind natural endowment . His wife , it was said , was n’t especially pleased with the motion .
Just three years later , perhaps regret his original investment , Chubb gifted Stonehenge to the land . He should n’t have secondly - guessed it , though — a2010 estimateput the monument ’s worth at £ 51 million , or nigh to $ 80 million .
