AN AWARD-winning TV producer is hoping to give Wiltshire residents a glimpse of the past by rebuilding Stonehenge at a top-secret location.

Darlow Smithson Productions, winners of the Outstanding British Film Award at the 2004 BAFTAs for Touching the Void, will be producing two programmes about the monument that will coincide with the Summer Solstice celebrations.

The programme makers will use polystyrene blocks to recreate a scale model of Stonehenge at a secret location near the original monument.

The replica Stonehenge will be built on the same alignment as the original and will give viewers the opportunity to see what the famous landmark would have looked like thousands of years ago.

The programmes will be presented by John Suchet and Kate Sanderson and will include a mixture of pre-recorded footage and live experiments.

Darlow Smithson researcher Nacressa Swan said: "We are very keen to get local people involved in the production, both as extras and as manpower for the experiments."

Local people are being invited to take part in a live experiment that will involve moving a ten tonne block, using a technique known as stone-rowing.

The extras will take part in a ceremony that will be shown at the end of the programme. The ceremony will look at how ancient Britons might have celebrated the Summer Solstice.

Although we know where the giant stones came from, it is still unclear how Stonehenge was created and what purpose the monument served.

It is hoped the programme will show why thousands of people travel to Stonehenge every year to celebrate the solstice. The documentaries will be screened on Channel Five at 9pm on June 20 and 21.

If you are interested in taking part in the programmes, contact stonehenge@ darlowsmithson.co.uk

History of Stonehenge

STONEHENGE is a landmark recognised around the world but how much do we really know about the ancient stone circle?

It is widely believed Wiltshire's most prominent landmark was built in three phases, over a period of 1,000 years.

Phase one is thought to have started over 50 centuries ago in 3100 BC. The discovery of 56 holes by John Aubrey in 1666 lead English Heritage to believe this version of Stonehenge was a circle of wooden timbers surrounded by a ditch and a bank.

It is believed the ditch was dug with the shoulder bones of oxen, a theory that is backed up by the carbon dating of bones found on the Stonehenge site.

In 2500BC, some 600 years after the wooden monument was built, the second and perhaps most amazing phase began.

In what could be regarded as one of ancient man's greatest feats, bluestones from the Prescelli Mountains in Pembroke, South Wales, were brought to Stonehenge.

The stones were dragged to the sea, floated on huge rafts and brought up the River Avon, before being dragged overland to the Stonehenge site, a journey of 245 miles. Once the five-ton stones arrived they were laid out in a circular formation, but work was never fully completed. In 2300 BC, after 200 years of abandonment, the third and final phase began.

The bluestones were rearranged and even bigger stones were brought from the Marlborough Downs 20 miles away, the heaviest of which weighed about 45 tons. These sandstones were hammered into shape and arranged in the circular formation that we see the remains of today.

The famous landmark was built on the alignment of the rising mid summer sun, hence the Summer Solstice celebrations.