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Hidden East Anglia: Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk
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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 the region has no visible native stone, people dragged these 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. 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, here are a few that I've found in this region: 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, but I've scoured the area and can find no trace of it. Source: 'The East Anglian Miscellany' (1911-12), Note 3403.
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. 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 yards. 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 4½ feet long, 2½ feet high, and only 9 inches 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 present owners as the Barsham Trysting Stone (TM422907). This is of a roughly 'mushroom' shape, with a circular top, 4½ feet across and 2 feet high. It originally stood at TM3958954, near a pond in Rectory Paddock, in the village of Barsham. The story related to me by the present 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 3 feet x 2 feet x 2 feet 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. 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 road, at the approximate junction of the Roman Fen Causeway extension and the prehistoric Icknield Way (TF767093). Marking both parish and Hundred boundaries, it's been thought to be a way-marker, a boundary stone, or even a Roman milestone. This rounded sandstone rock is about 3½ feet by 3 feet by 10 inches above ground, nowadays with an Ordnance Survey benchmark on it, and a brass bolt driven into the top. The name may derive from Cow Hill, supposedly an old name for the area where it stands. Bramford, Suffolk: A huge glacial boulder built into the fabric of the north-east tower buttress here is said to project into the church, far above the level of the nave floor (TM127463). Source: W.A.Dutt: 'Ancient Mark-Stones of East Anglia' (1926), p.13.
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. 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 4 feet high, close to a crossroads on minor road from Swaffham to Beechamwell. It was moved, possibly in the 1970s, from Forestry Commission land to the north, at about TF791070, and though clearly glacial, some like to say that it was once part of a meteorite. 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.
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: www.hawitage.co.uk/ActionGroupEvents/tabid/155/Default.aspx www.wayland.org.uk/sites/images/Gt%20Hockham/hockham5.jpg http://greathockham.org/village_stone.aspx 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.
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 4 feet x 3 feet 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.
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 1'6" high across the road south-west of the church. It stands at the entrance to a long narrow pathway than runs towards the hamlet of Cess. 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. 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 is among farm buildings of Ramsholt Lodge." (c.TM300425). Source: Editor's note to 'A Relic of the Glacial Sands' by William Fowler (1932). Rumburgh, Suffolk: An 'immense stone' standing at the north end of the common is said to have been buried here when the lands were enclosed. Source: 'The East Anglian Miscellany' (1907-8), Note 2128. Swaffham, Norfolk: An irregularly-shaped glacial boulder, 3½ feet x 3 feet x 3 feet 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. 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. 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. Winterton, Norfolk: In a road called The Lane, near its junction with Black Street, is a large granite boulder known to the natives simply as 'The Stone' (TG495195). This has been painted black, and is roughly 3 feet x 2 feet x 2 feet high, with an east-west long axis. Only a few yards away, four roads meet to form the marketplace, and the stone used to be a favourite spot for the old fishermen to sit and tell yarns. Wortham, Suffolk: The jagged length of stone 3½ feet x 1½ feet x 1½ feet high in the churchyard is commonly called Wortham's Sacred Stone. W. A. Dutt said in 1926 that it had been removed to inside the church, but I found it to be still in its earlier position (TM084788). The rector at the time could give me no further information. Source: W.A.Dutt: 'Ancient Mark-Stones of East Anglia' (1926), p.13. |
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