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Aldbourne Blowing Stone

Natural Rock Feature

<b>Aldbourne Blowing Stone</b>Posted by ChanceImage © Chance - May 2008
Nearest Town:Marlborough (10km SW)
OS Ref (GB):   SU265756 / Sheet: 174
Latitude:51° 28' 41.52" N
Longitude:   1° 37' 6.13" W

Added by Rhiannon


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<b>Aldbourne Blowing Stone</b>Posted by Chance <b>Aldbourne Blowing Stone</b>Posted by Chance <b>Aldbourne Blowing Stone</b>Posted by Chance

Fieldnotes

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As you can see the stone is next to the village phone box and 3 meters from the Crown Inn. It has survived the water co., BT and the electric co. laying cables and digging trenches around it.

I have my doubts if this is the "Blowing Stone". It fits the position for the description above, but as for the small deep hole at one end, it looks like this section has been broken off. The area were the grass is growing may had been where the small boys blew. Who knows. None of the locals I spoke to knew anything about it.

The stone lies opposite the village pond, which has half a dozen stones around it. Any one of these could be a "Blowing Stone" and some looked far more impressive.

The famous Blowing Stone at Uffington is much more of a man's "Blowing Stone", fit for a king.

Chance - May 2008
Chance Posted by Chance
16th May 2008ce
Edited 16th May 2008ce

Miscellaneous

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Not the more famous Blowing Stone at Uffington, but another similarly holey sarsen. According to Katy Jordan (in 'The Haunted Landscape') this one lies near the Crown Inn in Aldbourne, on the pavement east of the village pond. It has a small deep hole at one end. Apparently it was 'powerful enough to really get on villagers' nerves when small boys repeatedly sounded the stone'. I was interested to read that the local blacksmith was hired (at some unspecified time) to plug the hole (a perfectly reasonable request, but it brought to my mind the mythological aspects of the blacksmith). Although the plug was (allegedly) later removed the stone is now silent. When KJ asked about it at the pub, no one seemed to know anything about it (her information originally came from a 1975 book by local author Ida Gandy). Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
23rd August 2004ce
Edited 29th September 2004ce

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Photographs of the Aldbourne blowing stone, from Liminae.
wysefool Posted by wysefool
15th April 2008ce
Edited 16th May 2008ce