LOCALLY based soldiers are to move an eye-catching 20 foot high giant man of steel from its current position just off the A303 to the very fitting ancient setting of Stonehenge over 18/19 June 2012.

Personnel from 32 Regiment Royal Artillery, based in Larkhill, will dismantle the six ton statue known as “The Ancestor” at its current site just off the A303 outside the Holiday Inn at Solstice Park near Amesbury, on Monday 18 June.

Then the following day, Tuesday 19 June, the team of six soldiers will take the parts to Stonehenge, where they will put it back together near the World Heritage Site, where it will remain until after the Summer Solstice on Thursday 21 June.

“The Ancestor”, which depicts a man on his knees in praise of the sun, is a big as a double-decker bus. It was created by Andy and Michelle Rawlings with thousands of randomly cut steel pieces welded on to a super-sized steel frame.

It took them nine months and they did it by eye and without computer aided design.

Following the Summer Solstice, The Ancestor, which now wears a crown fitted with copper diamonds following its crowning to mark the Diamond Jubilee, will be moved to Hudson’s Field in Salisbury for the Olympic Torch event in July.