The Helstone

Also known as:
Kingston Russell Standing Stone, Monument No. 451057 and Standing stone west of Kingston Plantation
Nearest town:
Bridport (11km W)
OS reference:
SY573915
OS sheet:
194
Latitude:
50° 43' 15.41 N
Longitude:
2° 36' 17.87 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of The Helstone (Standing Stone / Menhir) by formicaant

Still visible within the crop, this view is taken from just below Long Bredy bank barrow.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 27/07/2007.
formicaant
formicaant Jul 27, 2007
Image of The Helstone (Standing Stone / Menhir) by Moth

Photo ‘kind of’ gives an idea of the way the lie of the land made it feel like the site of a circle to me

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Dec 5, 2003

Articles

The Helstone

Moth
Moth Dec 3, 2003

Access depends whether you take notice of signs saying things like ‘private’. If you didn’t, you could drive quite close along a tarmac access road. To walk to the stone from there, you’d just need to cross the intervening hundred or so yards of field – depending whether in crop or not.

Otherwise you could follow Juamei’s instructions

Thursday 18 September 2003
Juamei‘s fieldnotes say just about everything. All I want to add is that something about this site, maybe the openness of the valley that Juamei refers to, made me feel quite strongly that it may originally have been a circle.

No evidence. No signs. But then the field has so obviously been ploughed and cultivated for so long that once any stones had gone, there’d be no evidence. And then again, why leave this stone and clear the rest? So perhaps it’s just me.

The Helstone

juamei
juamei Jan 1, 2003

[visited 27/12/02] This is a large diamond shaped stone in the middle of a valley, just off the A35 to the North (stop at the carpark / layby before the turn off to Long Bredy). Its further west than The Nine Stones and looking at the map, I’m guessing the original track from The Nine Stones followed the valley floor, went past this stone and then crossed the A35 and headed down and round to the Valley of Stones. Its on arable land so visits in the summer may be unsuccessful.

The stone reminds me of some of the shapes at Avebury, but unlike them it stands alone, overlooked by various barrows but seemingly rarely visited. I picked my way carefully across the field to inspect it closely and was amazed at the openness of the valley from the stone.

Miscellaneous

The Helstone
Standing Stone / Menhir
Chance
Chance Apr 14, 2016

Details of stone on Pastscape

[SY 57259149] MONOLITH [OE] (1) “Standing stone.” (2) A rough block 6 1/2 ft high. 9 ft long and 2 1/2 ft wide. A standing stone (3) “Monolith” (4). (3-4) STANDING STONE [OE] (5) Scheluled Ancient Monument. (6)
This sarsen stands in a ploughed field. It is 2.2m high, 2.7m long at the base, and 0.5m thick. From the base it tapers to the top, assuming a triangular outline. The stone leans slightly to the S. There are no soil marks or indications of any other stone in the vicinity. (7)

Sites within 20km of The Helstone

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