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The Ministry of Defence is the landlord of much of Salisbury Plain , the hundred thousand acres of chalky upland to the north of Salisbury. Flags warn casual trespassers away from MoD firing ranges and tank training grounds, while rather stricter security cordons off such secretive establishments as the research centre at Porton Down, Britain's centre for chemical and biological warfare. As elsewhere, the army's presence has ironically saved much of the plain from modern agricultural chemicals, thereby inadvertently nurturing species that are all but extinct in more trampled landscapes. Though now largely deserted except by forces families living in ugly, temporary-looking barracks quarters, Salisbury Plain once positively throbbed with communities. Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements left hundreds of burial mounds scattered over the chalklands, as well as major complexes at Danebury, Badbury, Figsbury, Old Sarum and, of course, the great circle of Stonehenge . North of Salisbury Plain, beyond the A342 Andover-Devizes road, lies the softer Vale of Pewsey, traversed by the Kennet and Avon Canal. Marlborough , to the north of the Vale, makes a good base for another cluster of ancient sites, including the huge stone circle of Avebury , the mysterious grassy mound of Silbury Hill and the chamber graves of West Kennet . Malmesbury, though in Wiltshire, is covered on the Cotswolds section of the website, as it feels more closely allied to that region than to the rest of its county, from which it's cut off by the M4 and the rail line.
Your Tip for Salisbury Plain and northwards
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