Kennet Avenue

{{short description|Prehistoric site in Wiltshire, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2017}}

{{more citations needed|date=October 2010}}

{{Infobox UNESCO World Heritage Site

| image = Avebury, West Kennet Avenue, Wiltshire, UK - Diliff.jpg

| image_upright = 1.2

| caption = Kennet Avenue in 2014

| location = Wiltshire, United Kingdom

| part_of = Avebury Section of Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites

| criteria = {{UNESCO WHS type|(i), (ii), (iii)}}(i), (ii), (iii)

| ID = 373bis-002

| coordinates = {{coord|51.423|-1.848|type:city(50)_region:GB|display=title, inline|format=dms}}

| year = 1986

| extension = 2008

| locmapin = Wiltshire

| map_caption =

}}

Kennet Avenue or West Kennet Avenue is a prehistoric site in the English county of Wiltshire. It was an avenue of two parallel lines of stones 25m wide and 2.5 km in length, which ran between the Neolithic sites of Avebury and The Sanctuary.

Excavations by Stuart Piggott and Alexander Keiller in the 1930s indicated that around 100 pairs of standing stones had lined the avenue, dated to around 2200 BC from finds of Beaker burials beneath some of them.{{Cite web |title=History of West Kennet Avenue |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/west-kennet-avenue/history/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=English Heritage}} Many stones have fallen or are missing, however. A second avenue, called Beckhampton Avenue, led west from Avebury towards Beckhampton Long Barrow.{{Cite book |last=Gillings |first=Mark |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1cfr8sf?turn_away=true |title=Landscape of the Megaliths: Excavation and Fieldwork on the Avebury Monuments, 1997-2003 |last2=Pollard |first2=Joshua |last3=Wheatley |first3=David |last4=Peterson |first4=Rick |last5=Cleal |first5=Rosamund |last6=Cooper |first6=Nicholas |last7=Courtney |first7=Paul |last8=Coward |first8=Fiona |last9=David |first9=Andrew |date=2008 |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn=978-1-84217-971-0}}

Maud Cunnington righted some of the stones during her work there in the early 20th century. Keiller restored the northern third of the avenue in 1934–1935.{{cite book|last1=Orbach|first1=Julian|title=Wiltshire|last2=Pevsner|first2=Nikolaus|last3=Cherry|first3=Bridget|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2021|isbn=978-0-300-25120-3|series=The Buildings Of England|location=New Haven, US and London|page=121|oclc=1201298091|authorlink2=Nikolaus Pevsner|authorlink3=Bridget Cherry}} There are currently 27 upright stones and 37 concrete pillars marking original stone locations.

The avenue is within the Avebury section of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. It is in the freehold ownership of the National Trust, and a scheduled monument in English Heritage guardianship.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1015547|desc=West Kennet Avenue and an earthwork bank east of West Kennett Farm|access-date=6 December 2020}} It is managed by the National Trust on behalf of English Heritage, and the two organisations share the cost of managing and maintaining the property.{{Cite web|title=West Kennet Avenue, Avebury|url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/west-kennet-avenue/|access-date=2020-12-06|website=English Heritage}}