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Standing Stone / Menhir
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‘Roche / Menevagar Longstone’ - 30.3.2003
Known as the ‘Roche Longstone’ by Craig Weatherhill who says in “Cornovia: Ancient Sites of Cornwall & Scilly” (Cornwall Books - 1985, revised 1997 & 2000), “This fine Bronze Age menhir was moved to its present position a few years ago as its original site on Longstone Downs (at SW984561) was to be swallowed by the extension of china clay working. Excavations found that this broad, pointed slab, 3.2 high, had replaced an earlier stone, which in turn, had taken the place of a wooden post”.
Cornovia says it stands at ‘Holmleigh Crescent’ and shows a picture of it. I was so busy looking for Holmleigh Crescent and / or a big bare stone, that it took me a while to actually see it. It’s actually in ‘Harmony Close’ - maybe they’ve changed the name of the road because it doesn’t look like it’s been moved again. And it now is almost surrounded in shrubs and flowers (all very nice but a bit unnecessary, and obscuring the plaque that tells us that it was moved in August 1970). It’s on the road towards St. Dennis, very close to the main road (the B3274) - literally 40 metres from the main road, just past the launderette.
As I had driven from St.Breock Downs towards Roche on the B3274 I the china clay works on the hill opposite dominated the skyline. I don’t think I‘d seen anything quite like it before. Note the names on the OS map around the area where the stone came from - ‘Great Longstone China Clay Works’, ‘Longstone China Clay Works’, and ‘Longstone Downs’.
There must be something about the name Roche – have a look at what Four Winds says about the standing stone at RochestownThis post appears as part of the weblog entry Another Kernow Week |
Posted by pure joy
6th April 2003ce
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