A TOPPING out ceremony was held at the new Stonehenge visitor centre on Wednesday as the last piece of steel to support the canopy roof was welded into place.

The zinc and timber roof has been designed to blend into the landscape and to let in more sunlight in the winter while creating shade in the summer.

Sitting beneath the canopy roof are two pods, with a glass building housing the café, shop and education space and a sweet chestnut-clad pod containing the exhibition galleries, membership area and toilets.

Loraine Knowles, Stonehenge director for English Heritage, said: “It is fantastic to see the building taking shape and to see how well it sits in the landscape. “Progress with the creation of the interior spaces for the museum galleries, education area, shop and cafe is equally exciting because it is now possible to see on the ground how these great new facilities will be experienced by our visitors.

Steve Quinlan, partner at Denton Corker Marshall, who designed the visitor centre, said: “We are really enjoying this stage of the project with the various pieces of the puzzle coming together and our vision finally starting to come to life. This project has been a great challenge, but a very rewarding one.”

English Heritage’s £27million project to transform the visitor facilities at Stonehenge will see the new centre open in December, with the existing facilities to be demolished and grassed over by next June.