A PLAQUE was unveiled at Avebury on Saturday to commemorate its World Heritage Site status.

Chairman of the World Heritage Site partnership, Alistair Sommerlad, unveiled the plaque in the National Trust Old Farmyard to recognise the village's status as an internationally significant site for its outstanding prehistoric monuments.

This marks 30 years since Avebury, along with Stonehenge, was granted the status by UNESCO for its outstanding Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments which date back over 5000 years ago.

Sarah Simmonds, Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site Partnership Manager, said: "The Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site is made up of two truly unparalleled landscapes within which outstanding prehistoric monuments are still clearly visible to the visitor.

"At Avebury the massive bank and ditch of the henge, 1.3km in circumference, encloses the largest Neolithic stone circle in the world. Nearby Silbury Hill is the largest manmade prehistoric mound in Europe.

"The scale of the monuments and the phenomenal human endeavour needed to create them is awe inspiring and an important part of what makes their World Heritage Site status so well deserved."

The unveiling of the plaque marks the beginning of the celebrations across the World Heritage Site which includes a 30th Anniversary conference to be held in Devizes on Saturday (November 19).

Jan Tomlin, General Manager for the National Trust Wiltshire Landscape, added: "We are really excited to have the World Heritage Site plaque at last. It will remind visitors just how extraordinarily important Avebury is on a global scale for its outstanding Neolithic and Bronze Age remains."