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Hidden East Anglia: Landscape Legends of Eastern England
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Significant
stones:
Apart from those with legendary tales attached to them, there are various other rocks scattered about East Anglia, relics of the last Ice Age, that may once have been significant in some way. Because most of the region has no visible native stone, people dragged these 'glacial erratic' boulders from where they were found and set them in positions that they felt important - some say they were used as markers on ancient tracks, or on boundaries, or perhaps they were used as meeting-places, or even as sacred pagan objects that formed the core of later Christian sites. Personally, I tend to think most were just used to protect the corners of buildings against traffic, to mark property boundaries, to act as mounting blocks, to be extra building material, or just to provide a local talking point! Whatever they were, below is a selection that I have record of in this region. (Note: I have so far been unable to find any stones in Cambridgeshire that have legendary tales attached, or sited in any possibly significant location.) ~ You can also go to the Stone Index - a complete list of just about every odd stone that I know about. It includes not only those featured on this webpage and those with legendary tales, but others that I've read or been told about, or have found myself. ~ Alphamstone, Essex: If there weren’t so many sarsen boulders laying around the village – on verges, under hedgerows, in gardens etc – those in and around the church of St. Barnabas (TL878354) would be more remarkable than they are. One count makes it nine in the churchyard, with another two protruding from the fabric inside the church itself.1 Two more are embedded beside the path leading up to the raised platform upon which the building sits. A Bronze Age urn cemetery has been found in and next to the churchyard, and a Roman villa complex just to the south – but there seems no evidence for the idea that the church sits on a burial mound.2 The notion that the boulders form the remnants of a stone circle is even more unlikely.3
Sources: 1. http://www.megalithia.com/places/alphamstone/ 2. http://www.ansellsfarm.co.uk/alphamstone/church/church.html 3. unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk - alphamstone
Bacton, Suffolk: A large boulder once lay here in a ditch by the roadside "near the entry gate that divides Haughley and Bacton". This would seem to be where the parish boundary crosses the road, which is called 'Boys Entry' on old maps (about TL035652). The stone was said to be 6 feet x 6 feet x 4 feet (1.8m x 1.8m x 1.2m), but I've scoured the area and can find no trace of it.
Source: 'The East Anglian Miscellany' (1911-12), Note 3403.
Bardfield Saling, Essex: There is a large stone buried in the grass just outside the entrance to the churchyard at St. Peter and St. Paul’s (TL686265).1 Plus a corner buttress of the nave of the church is built upon another very large boulder.2
Sources: 1. unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk - bardfield entrance 2. unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk - bardfield church
Barking, Suffolk: An old charter giving a perambulation of the bounds of the manor of Barking with Needham Market follows a route "...to a place called Deadmans-stone, and from the said Deadmans-stone to a Wood called Ditcheywood..." This seems to be the same stone mentioned to me by John G. Williams as being at TM082519, on the parish boundary beside Ditch Wood, near Tarston Hall, and may well be the same boulder seen here. Barnham Broom, Norfolk: Although still marked on O.S. maps, the 'Skipping Block' which once stood at this crossroads (TG074053) on the boundary between Barnham Broom and Kimberley no longer exists. Local people say that there was once a large stone here, with steps cut into it for use as a mounting block. Source: W. A. Dutt: 'The Ancient Mark-Stones of East Anglia' (Flood & Sons, 1926), pp.23-4. Beccles, Suffolk: Descend the left-hand set of steps from St. Michael's churchyard down into the road called Puddingmoor, and turn left for about 30 metres. A steep grassy bank (The Cliff) rises upon your left, and on the crest of this stands a large, pitted slab of grey rock, deeply embedded into the ground (TM421904). The stone is 1.4m long, 76cm high, and only 23cm broad, and the long axis is set exactly north-south. A local woman suggested to me that the stone marks the site of a mill, but that's unlikely. It now overlooks the river Waveney, which was once an inland arm of the sea. W. A. Dutt reckoned that this stone was the original sacred site of Beccles, and determined where the town was built.1 R. C. Dunt, writing in 1931, said that "Generations of increasingly-civilised boys and girls have encircled this stone, sat on it, jumped off it, chipped at it, but failed to dislodge it or even to remove...the glacial markings of an ice age; nor have they...concerned themselves much with such questions as these: Is it a relic of pagan rites, an isolated remnant of an old watch-tower, a rough block of building stone brought down by river barges long ago, and was it placed there or elsewhere as a 'Mark Stone' of an 'Old Track'?"2
Sources: 1. W.A.Dutt: 'Ancient Mark-Stones of East Anglia' (1926), p.12. 2. 'Norwich Mercury', 18/4/1931. Beccles, Suffolk: Again in Beccles, a few feet from the river bank at the bottom of a garden in the street called Northgate, lies a large granite boulder known to the owners when I was there in the 1970's as the Barsham Trysting Stone (TM422907). This is of a roughly 'mushroom' shape, with a circular top, 1.4m across and 61cm high. It originally stood at TM3958954, near a pond in Rectory Paddock, in the village of Barsham. The story related to me by the owners is that, in the 1930s, a certain Doctor Worthington made a bet with the rector that, if he could move the stone, he would roll it to Beccles, 2 miles east, and use it in his rock garden. But a surviving daughter of the then Barsham rector, Canon Baron Suckling, tells me that her father gave it to a Dr. Woodhill of Beccles "during the late 1920s".1 She had always assumed it to have been a mounting-block. The name of the stone could be a more recent addition, since none of the locals who remember it ever knew it by any name. One writes: "...we local lads used to sharpen our pocket-knives on it; it was always a resting-place for the children, and I can remember during the summer months having lessons on and around this stone".2
This informant also voiced the opinion of several other villagers that the stone should never have been removed, and should now be returned to them.
William Fowler, writing in 1947, mentioned this stone as "a very fine one", adding that "it was lying embedded at the crossways leading from an old track at Barsham Hall, close to a circular pond among a few fir trees. In the
unskillful removal that followed it was considerably damaged, but sufficient remains to show its original size and
shape".3
Sources: 1. Information from Mrs. M. Eggington of New Barnet. 2. Information from Benjamin Sayer of Barsham. 3. The 'Eastern Daily Press', 4/11/1947.
Beccles, Suffolk: In a garden directly across Northgate from the Barsham Trysting Stone above is another granite rock, this one 1m x 60cm x 60cm high (TM421907). Back when I saw it in the late 1970s, it was reported to be in danger from Water Board diggings. Although some call it the Brampton Stone (after the village 5 miles south of Beccles), I haven't been able to find anything about it. The garden belongs to Staithe House, former home of Dr. Woodhill from the Trysting Stone story, but whether he was also responsible for moving this stone here, I can't say. More recently, I've found that another boulder was given to Dr. Woodhill by a man named Samuel Banns, but this one came from a field at Burgh St. Peter, across the river in Norfolk. Yet another rock is also supposed to be here, referred to in the 1930s as Redisham Stone.
Beechamwell,
Norfolk: The Cowell Stone, a small glacial boulder, is to be found on
the grassy verge of a track called Salter's Way just north of the A1122
Swaffham to Downham Market
Braintree, Essex: A sarsen stone is embedded in the ground right next to the western wall of St. Michael’s church (TL756229). It’s positioned rather oddly, as it seems to be right next to the foundations, but not a part of them.
Source: http://www.sulismanoeuvre.co.uk/ Bramford, Suffolk: A huge, flattish glacial boulder can be seen within St. Mary's church, built into the foundations of a pillar in the nave (TM127463)1. A photo of it can be seen here. Another very large glacial erratic in Bramford can be found in - and supposedly gave its name to - Gippingstone Road. It stands in the angle of a fence outside Cherryfields Sheltered Housing.2 Sources: 1. W.A.Dutt: 'Ancient Mark-Stones of East Anglia' (1926), p.13. 2. Barry Cross photos on Flickr
Brent Eleigh, Suffolk: There is a group of at least three substantial glacial rocks embedded at an 'ancient crossroads' in this village.
Source: Barry Cross photos on Flickr
Broomfield, Essex: The church of St. Mary with St. Leonard stands at TL705105. On grass verges outside the lych gate are two smallish sarsen stones, but the significant rock here is a puddingstone boulder built into the exterior south wall of the church, protruding out in a very odd position about 20cm above ground level.
Sources: http://www.essexwt.org.uk/geology/sites2.htm http://www.essexinfo.net/broomfield/broomfield-past-present/
Carlton Colville, Suffolk: In this suburb of Lowestoft, a small stream known as the Running Waters (or Kirkley Brook) is bridged on its way from the source in the village to the marshy ground by Lowestoft harbour. This site (on the 1799 Award Map, named as Blacksmith's Heath), is said to have once been a ford on a track that led up to the ancient encampments and burial mound (now long gone) on top of Bloodmoor Hill. Roughly at this spot (approx. TM524905) stood a large stone 'way-mark' at the crossroads, now a roundabout. It was supposed to have been buried nearby in 1925 for road-widening purposes, but a local author wrote in 1953 as if it was still visible then.
Sources: W. A. Dutt: 'Ancient Mark-Stones of East Anglia' (1926), p.8. Rev. B. P. W. Stather Hunt: 'Flinten History' (Lion Press, 1953), p.13.
Cawston, Norfolk: Glacial boulders known as 'bluestones' were commonly found in this area, as evidenced by the names Bluestone Plantation and the former Bluestone railway station. Two such rocks can still be found today just inside the entrance to Church Farm, and by the path to the south porch of the church. (In north Norfolk, Bluestone Farm at South Creake is also said to be named after such a boulder, but I don't know if one actually exists there.)
Source: www.cawstonparish.info/Finds.htm Cockfield, Suffolk: About half-way along the road from Cockfield to Felsham is a threeways junction where Felsham Road and Bury Road meet (TL925560.) Embedded in the grassy triangle in the middle of the junction is a small glacial boulder, roughly conical in shape. By itself, this is nothing more than another erratic, of little significance. However, just a few metres away on another grassy verge is a landmark known as the Hundred-stone. Looking rather like an old milestone, this three-sided object may date from the 18th century, and once had visible on it the words "This marks the bounds of three hundreds and three towns." The hundreds that met here were Babergh, Thedwastre and Cosford, while the 'towns' whose parish boundaries still meet at this point are Cockfield, Felsham and Thorpe Morieux. As the geographical unit known as the hundred dates from Saxon times, I can't help but wonder if the little boulder wasn't the original 'hundred-stone' here. Sources: Churchill Babington: 'Materials for a History of Cockfield, Suffolk', in 'Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology' (1880), p.18. 'Suffolk Fair' (Vol.1, No.8 Dec. 1971) p.19-26.
Colne Engaine, Essex: Although the parish boundary crosses the A1124 about 50m away, the substantial glacial erratic block on the wide grass verge outside Parley Beams Farm at TL837291 has been described as a boundary stone. A second stone was noted there in the past.
Source: unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk - colne engaine Corton, Suffolk: A tiny hamlet called Newton Cross used to exist between Corton and Hopton on the east coast, but was swallowed up by the sea around the 14th century. In 1826, two stones were recorded here: "Note, that in the Prambulacon-way dividing Corton and Gorleston, stands a White Stone, anciently called John-a-Lane's Crosse...and at the west end of the sayd Prambulacon-way stands another stone where Corton, Hopton and Gorleston meet". Croxton, Norfolk: In the Park here is said to stand a large glacial boulder marking the parish boundary, in a gap in an earthen boundary bank which is also part of the Icknield Way (approx. TL860880).
Drymere,
Norfolk: At TF782064 stands a sharp-edged sandstone block 1.2m high, close to
Sources: Information from Ben Ripper of Swaffham. Shirley Toulson: 'East Anglia; Walking the Ley Lines & Ancient Tracks' (Wildwood House, 1979), p.86. Dunton, Norfolk: The 'Longfield Stone' rests (or rested) on Gallow Hill near the village of Dunton, and was the scene, in 1561 and 1568, of the Court for the Gallow Hundred. Source: W.A.Dutt: 'Ancient Mark-Stones of East Anglia' (1926), p.17.
East Mersea, Essex: In 1975, with much local pomp and ceremony, a smallish ovoid boulder was erected beside East Mersea Road, just where the boundary between East and West Mersea crosses the road (TM036142). A plaque attached to it proclaimed “Deremy’s Stone. Boundary of the manor of West Mersea granted by King Edward the Confessor to the Monastery of St. Ouen in AD1046”. This glacial erratic, found in a ditch nearby, was believed to be the very boundary stone mentioned in an 11th century charter; but even at the time of the ceremony, doubts were raised.1 Those doubts have indeed since been proven well-founded. An 18th century rendering of the charter turned out to be badly translated, assigning the non-existent personal name Deremy or Deramy to a number of supposed locations – including a real boundary stone which would have been several miles away on the mainland, at about TM007188.2
Sources: 1. merseamuseum.org.uk - deramy stone 2. http://keithbriggs.info/deramy.html
Eastwood, Essex: At the church of St. Laurence & All Saints (TQ861888), a 65cm long sarsen stone actually bursts through the floor between the pews.
Source: http://www.essexfieldclub.org.uk/portal/p/Geology+Site+Account/s/St.+Lawrence+Church+boulder
Fordham, Essex: There is a largish sarsen stone built into built into the base of the wall on the south side of the tower arch at All Saints church (TL927280). There are two similar stones on Ram’s Farm nearby, the one beside the gate being about 1.2m high (and allegedly puddingstone, not sarsen).
Source: http://jaykay.uphero.com/Church%20Guide.pdf
Foulsham, Norfolk: A stone in the bottom of a ditch at TG021258, just east of Littlemore Farm, is said to mark where the parish boundaries of Foulsham, Twyford and Guist meet.
Source: Letter 'Ancient Mark Stones' in the 'Eastern Daily Press', 16/9/1925.
Fyfield, Essex: At the church of St. Nicholas (TL572067), a large sarsen stone underpins each corner of the tower.
Source: http://www.fyfield-village.org/church_history.html
Gorleston, Norfolk: In 1926, W. A. Dutt wrote that "In Church Lane, Gorleston, near by the church, there is a large granite boulder".1 This was in the context of ancient stones that might mark a pre-Christian sacred site. I went looking for this stone in the early 1970's and instead found two - though neither could hardly be termed 'large boulders'. One, roughly 60cm x 45cm x 20cm high, is set into the ground close to the wall just outside the Church Lane entrance to St. Andrew's churchyard. The second is slightly larger, but of a more regular, ovoid shape, set into the pavement at the foot of a telephone pole, about 20 metres further along Church Lane.
More recently I've found a record in the Gt. Yarmouth Borough Archives dating from 1922, entitled 'Church Lane, Gorleston, Re-siting of Standing Stone'. This would appear to be a third stone, about 40 metres west of the first one, not far from the junction of Church Lane with Church Road. The record is unfortunately just a surveyor's plan, showing the position of the stone before and after re-siting. The length is shown as 3 feet (1.09 metres), while the widest point looks to be about 65cm. No indication of height is given, but this would seem a far more substantial object than the other two, and could justify being termed both 'boulder' and 'standing stone'.
By the looks of it, the outer face of this stone was right at the edge of the roadway, about 2 metres from the churchyard wall, and was turned slightly and moved about a metre closer to the wall. There seems also to be a portion of a fourth stone sticking out from the base of the wall itself. These rocks are certainly not there now, and weren't when I visited in the 1970's. The nearby road junction has been changed at some point from a triangular traffic island to a large oval roundabout, and I suspect that the road, pavement and churchyard wall were remodeled at the same time, obliterating all traces of this 'standing stone'. However, I'm still investigating, and hope to uncover more information in the future.
Source: 1. W.A.Dutt: 'Ancient Mark-Stones of East Anglia' (1926), p.13.
Great Bardfield, Essex: At St. Mary’s church (TL678303), two big sarsen stones jut out from beneath the corners of the chancel.
Source: unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk - gt bardfield
Great Hockham, Norfolk: The huge sandstone boulder on the village green here was actually found in a pit about ¾ of a mile away, and moved to its present site around 1880. It has no ancient significance, but the custom has now arisen for the stone to be turned over on special occasions, beginning with Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. This considerable effort by the community has also taken place in 1977 for Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee, in 1995 to mark 50 years since V.E. day, at the Millennium, and for the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002. In April 2008 it was turned to celebrate the fact that Hockham Woods had been saved from quarrying.
Sources: former webpage: www.hawitage.co.uk/ActionGroupEvents/tabid/155/Default.aspx former webpage: www.wayland.org.uk/sites/images/Gt%20Hockham/hockham5.jpg http://greathockham.org/village_stone.aspx
Great Leighs, Essex: Rudge notes a puddingstone boulder at the north wall of the round tower of St. Mary’s church (TL738155).
Source: E. A. & E. L. Rudge: ‘The Conglomerate Track’ in ‘Essex Naturalist’ (1952), Vol.29, p.30.
Hadleigh, Essex: A 45cm diameter sarsen boulder is reportedly built into the south wall of St. James the Less church (TQ810870).
Source: http://www.essexfieldclub.org.uk/portal/p/Geology+Site+Account/s/The+Rayleigh+Hills
Hempnall, Norfolk: At TM255902 three parishes and three ancient Hundreds (Earsham, Depwade and Loddon) meet, at a spot marked on an 1826 map as Baron's Duel Stone. As there is no record or tradition of any duel having taken place there, and as the name may originate from 'doelan', an early English word for 'boundary', it's thought it might refer to a pre-Saxon marker stone. The road at this spot is still called Barondole Lane.
Sources: Walter Rye: 'Songs, Stories & Sayings of Norfolk' (Agas. H. Goose, 1897), p.31. www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid=MNF13180
Hoe, Norfolk: Hoe is a small parish a little north of East Dereham, next to Beetley and Gressenhall. On a grassy triangle outside the former Chapel Mill, near to the boundary with Beetley, stands a glacial erratic (TF978168), about which has grown the local belief that it marks the very centre of Norfolk. However, this tale hasn't been traced further back than the 20th century. As the occupier of the Mill House in the 1890's was an antiquarian collector, it's possible that he acquired the boulder after it was dug up locally, and moved it to his land. A picture of this sandstone block can be found here.
Source: www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid=MNF50488 Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk: A glacial boulder is said to have been uncovered around 1855 during the digging-up of the foundations of the south aisle of the church here, and preserved in the churchyard (TF707435). Source: W.A.Dutt: 'Ancient Mark-Stones of East Anglia' (1926), p.13.
Holyfield, Essex: At the junction of the B194, a footpath, and an old track leading up to Aimes Green, is a largish puddingstone block (TL387030). Apparently some cal it ‘Puck’s Stone’, but that may only be because the old track has long been known as Puck Lane. This was the first boulder that Dr. Rudge found and claimed for his supposed ‘Puddingstone Track’ theory.
Source: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=7571
Ingatestone, Essex: The name of this parish means ‘Inga at the stone’. At the time of Domesday Book, four manors here were simply called Inga, but later needed to be differentiated, the manor containing the church being Latinised in 1254 as ‘Ginges ad Petram’. The existence of a large sarsen boulder in the churchyard of St. Edmund & St. Mary (TQ651996) probably accounts for the ‘petram’ part of the name, although some have previously theorised that it referred to some lost Roman milestone on the long straight Roman road that runs through the village. The churchyard stone was originally part of the church fabric, being found in 1905 during building work.
Two more large boulders at the entrance to Fryerning Lane nearby, and several more small rocks along the High Street have led some recently to propose that perhaps all the stones were once part of one larger boulder, or less likely, that they are the remains of a stone circle.
Sources: http://www.essexfieldclub.org.uk/archivetext/s/030/o/0223 http://everyday-scientist.blogspot.com/2006/06/june-18-2006.html
Lowestoft, Suffolk: In the modern heating chamber, but embedded solidly under the fragmentary ruins of the old Saxon round tower here at the 14/15th century St. Margaret and All Saints church (TM538905) in Pakefield, is a squarish sarsen stone about 1.2m x 1m high. In 1934, during excavations to make the heating chamber, it took workmen three days to chisel off a small corner of the stone to admit a furnace, and at the same time they came across human bones, 'far from any known grave'. Some say that it was a 'pagan altar stone'. Even in recent times, some respect seems to have been paid to it, since the entire wall area around has been whitewashed, while the stone has been allowed to keep its original sandy-brown colour.
Source: Rev. B. P. W. Stather Hunt: 'Flinten History' (Lion Press, 1953), p.35.
Magdalen Laver, Essex: Many people have noted and photographed the puddingstone that was incorporated into the foundations of the north wall of St. Mary Magdelen church (TL513083) before the wooden tower was built.1 But both Rudge2 and Lindsay3 say there are in fact two. And no one seems to mention “the largest puddingstone monolith of the Essex section” (of Rudge’s alleged ‘Puddingstone Track’) which he records in a field west of the church (TL511083).4
Sources: 1. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=10762 2. E. A. Rudge: ‘The Statistical Evidence for a Conglomerate Alignment in Essex’ in ‘Essex Naturalist’ (1952), Vol.29, p.180. 3. Jack Lindsay: ‘The Discovery of Britain’ (Merlin Press, 1958), p.278. 4. E. A. & E. L. Rudge: ‘The Conglomerate Track’ in ‘Essex Naturalist’ (1952), Vol.29, p.23.
Martham, Norfolk: From the church notes of St. Mary the Virgin church at Martham, a few miles north-west of Gt. Yarmouth: "The Domesday Book mentions a church here, built on an ancient pagan site, and a markstone on the trackway leading to it can still be seen opposite the church yard." This 'markstone' can found at TG454184, being a roughly square block of sarsen about 45cm high across the road south-west of the church. It stands at the entrance to a long narrow pathway that runs towards the hamlet of Cess.
Metfield, Suffolk: A large boulder, described as a puddingstone, can be seen near the corner of the church in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist here.
Methwold, Norfolk: A local man wrote many years ago of a triangular space where roads divide for Feltwell and the Hythe, "which has long been known as the Cross Hill", and that there stood an ancient standing stone that had been 'reconsecrated' in Christian times by having a wooden cross-shaft mortised into its upper surface. Ben Ripper of Swaffham told me of a similar stone having once stood by a farm gate next to St. Andrew's church at East Lexham. Newton-by-Castle Acre, Norfolk: According to reports in the 1970s, a large glacial erratic was found built into the foundations of the church here during building work (TM831155), but it may well have been covered up again. Pleshey, Essex: The parish boundary runs past the little grassy triangle at the junction of Bury Road and The Street, at TL647143. On that triangle, next to the guidepost, sits a dark grey boulder with a lighter underside which SEAX, the online catalogue of Essex Records Office, records as a boundary marker. A small fragment of another stone sits close to it. However, SEAX seems to confuse this boulder with something called the ‘Pleshey Stone’,1 or what the Essex Chronicle calls the ‘Richard Stone’.2 Previously on the village green, or set into a wall at Mount House, recent sources2,3 say this is actually a stone from Pleshey Castle, and is now on the wall inside Holy Trinity church. Inscribed ‘Ricardus rex ii’ as a reminder of the royal patronage of the castle, this definitely has nothing to do with the rock at the junction.
Sources: 1. unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk - pleshey 2. ‘Essex Chronicle’, Thursday, August 14, 2008 3. http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk/result_details.asp?DocID=783812 Ramsholt, Suffolk: "Mammilated Sarsen Stone from the (Lower Eocene) Reading beds is rare in the north; but it occurs in frequent blocks through the Stour valley in the south. One such block similar to the smaller monoliths of Stonehenge, was found last March by Mr. Englehart and us among farm buildings of Ramsholt Lodge." (c.TM30714). Source: Editor's note to: William Fowler: 'A Relic of the Glacial Sands', in 'Transactions of the Suffolk Natural History Society' (1932-4) Vol.2, p.12.
Sproughton, Suffolk: All Saints church has glacial erratic rocks built into the walls near the base of its exterior fabric. These aren't particularly large, so like others in similar positions, it's quite possible that they were just handy building material rather than of any pre-Christian significance.
Source: Barry Cross photos on Flickr
Stalham, Norfolk: Out in the fields at TG378261 the parishes of Stalham, Ingham and Brumstead meet. It's reported that a large stone was struck (and presumably destroyed) by a plough here, and it's possible that this was a boundary marker of unknown age.
Source: www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid=MNF8242 Swaffham, Norfolk: An irregularly-shaped glacial boulder, 1.1m x 1m x 1m high, can be seen set into the pavement in Lynn Street, near the Post Office (TF818089). This has possibly been moved from the crossroads leading to the marketplace from the north, where a wayside cross was erected in the 16th century, and removed to make way for the present Butter Cross. The local antiquarian Ben Ripper had the theory that, after the assassination of the Roman usurper Constantine the 3rd century, the kin of the Swafas (his heathen mercenaries) arrived in the area and began to divide up the land. At Swaffham they placed the boulder - 'Swafa's Stone' - and so gave the town its name. Its past use as a mounting-block has been suggested.
Takeley, Essex: On the grass at the main crossroads in Takeley (TL561212) can be seen a massive sarsen stone 1m x 1m x 40cm high and weighing about a tonne, with a little plaque on it. This was placed here with some ceremony in 2003, after being discovered during an archaeological dig on a car park site at Stansted Airport. The sharp edges suggest human working, but investigation shows these to be natural ‘fracture surfaces’, caused during movement during the Ice Age. The stone was found in a purposefully dug pit next to a round house from the Bronze Age, its position suggesting that it was a meaningful, perhaps sacred, object to the people.
Source: http://tlhs.org.uk/our_artifacts.htm Threxton, Norfolk: The Thetford antiquary Tom Martin wrote in about 1740 of "An ancient stone at ye runne of water between Threxton and Saham Toney. Query what it is?" There is a possibility that this might have been a Roman milestone, as it was quite probably within a known Romano-British settlement on the line of the Peddar's Way. Tilty, Essex: The church of St. Mary used to be the chapel of Tilty Abbey, and in the churchyard is a small, pudding-coloured, nicely rounded puddingstone.
Source: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=a312&file=index&do=showpic&pid=11787
Washbrook, Suffolk: A huge sarsen stone is to be seen at the base of St. Mary's church tower here, at TM109426.
Source: Allan Jobson: 'Suffolk Villages' (Robert Hale, 1971), p.89.
Wherstead, Suffolk: Two substantial sarsen stones underpin the south-west buttress of St. Mary's church here.
Source: Barry Cross photos on Flickr
Wicken Bonhunt, Essex: The (possibly) pre-Conquest chapel of St. Helen here (TL511334) has a small puddingstone used in the fabric, but the significant feature is the large sarsen underpinning one corner of it.
Source: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=12440
Wickham St. Paul, Essex: At the grassy triangle enclosed by three roads (TL816367) where the Seven Sisters trees used to stand, author Jack Lindsay was told there was a ‘big stone’; but he couldn’t find it, and a man who lived nearby didn’t know of it.1 However, this may well be the stone that seems to be embedded in the grass verge at the northern point of the junction, at the entrance to Seven Sisters Cottage. The fact that there is not only a stone at a threeways, but a named group of trees as well, seems to suggest a significance to the positioning.
Sarsen stones can be found at the north-east and south-east corners of All Saints churchyard (TL827371), and there are said to be others close by near the Hall. A wide low mound at the centre of the churchyard has been suggested as a possible ancient burial mound.2
Sources: 1. Jack Lindsay: ‘The Discovery of Britain’, (Merlin Press, 1958), p.205-6. 2. unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk - wickham st.paul
Wormingford, Essex: Rudge records a sarsen boulder beneath the south-west buttress of St. Andrew’s church (TL932322).
Source: E. A. Rudge: ‘The Statistical Evidence for a Conglomerate Alignment in Essex’ in ‘Essex Naturalist’ (1952-6), Vol.29, p.185.
Wortham,
Suffolk: The jagged length of stone 1.1m x 45cm x 45cm high in the
churchyard
Source: W.A.Dutt: 'Ancient Mark-Stones of East Anglia' (1926), p.13. |
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