A hunk of rock that for years sat on the doorstep of a stately home in Wiltshire has been identified as – possibly – the largest meteorite to have fallen on Britain.
The lump of stone, which weighs 90kg, fell to Earth some 30,000 years ago and is thought to have survived almost whole because it was preserved firstly in the frozen conditions of the last ice age and then in chalk after being built into a burial mound.
After being excavated from the mound in the 19th century it lay for at least 80 years on the front doorstep of Lake House near Salisbury, latterly the home of rock star Sting.
It has spent the last 20 years in storage in the Natural History Museum in London until scientist Colin Pillinger pieced together its history, helped by old copies of Country Life that showed it in situ at Lake House.
The meteorite has gone on display at the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, whose curators are billing it as "possibly the biggest to have ever fallen on the British Isles".
Pillinger said he had begun to explore the history of the Lake House stone while he researched another smaller meteorite that was buried at an iron age fort in Hampshire. "That's the great thing about science," he said.
"You often start off with one thing and then end up with a different story altogether."
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