Quite a lean on it, but if the folklore is to be believed, teams of horses couldn’t pull it upright.
Image credit: Jimit 16.6.03
Images
Close up of S face.
Image credit: Jimit 16.6.03
Close up of W face. If you squint, is there a circle around the cross?
Image credit: Jimit 16.6.03
From the South.
Image credit: Jimit 16.6.03
Articles
Felt rather sorry for this stone as it is miles from any (known) companion and is leaning badly. Asked at the local farm for permission to walk on their land and was asked for a contribution to the Devon Air Ambulance Service! Pretty cool and no prob. The farmer said that a dowser had found several lines emanating from it but was a bit vague about the details.
There are simple crosses carved near the top on all four faces and the top. I couldn’t see or photograph this as the top of the stone, even in its leaning condition, is 2M+ in height but it can be felt easily enough. The crosses are just two lines at right angles but do I detect a circle round the one on the W face?
The stone doesn’t seem to have been worked, except for the top which is fairly flat. To judge by the debris in the field, the local stone may split naturally into this form.
BTW. The stone is about 50M to the W. of the location shown on Streetmap, across the road somewhere about the “g” of “Long Stone”.
Disabled: Parking on verge opposite stone. Field was/is ploughed.
”The Long Stone, East Worlington: dropped by the Devil when he heard the bells of East Worlington church. (Hill, H. A., 1910: Quotidian Quotations: the East Worlington Kalendar for 1910).”
from
Notes on the Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain
L. V. Grinsell
Folklore, Vol. 90, No. 1. (1979), pp. 66-70.
Folklore says it was thrown here by the Devil and now cannot be moved; it has proved impossible to shift, even when using horses.
This longstone apparently has 5 crosses carved on it, one on the top and one on each side. This was presumably done to Christianise the stone.
Topics
Sites within 20km of Longstone (East Worlington)
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West Anstey Longstone
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Bremridge Wood
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Bow Henge
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Anstey Barrow
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Castle Close
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Twitchen Barrows
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Cadbury Castle
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Mounsey Castle
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Old Barrow
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Cranmore Castle
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Green Barrow
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Portford Bridge Stone
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Withypool Stone Circle
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Brightworthy Barrows
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Withypool Hill Barrow
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Sherdon Barrows
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