The Horestone (Swell)

Nearest town:
Chipping Norton (14km ENE)
OS reference:
SP17022489
OS sheet:
163
Latitude:
51° 55' 18.51 N
Longitude:
1° 45' 8.94 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of The Horestone (Swell) (Standing Stone / Menhir) by thesweetcheat

The Horestone on a beautiful spring day – two old tyres sit in the stone’s shadow.

Image credit: A. Brookes (6.3.2009)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 6, 2009
Image of The Horestone (Swell) (Standing Stone / Menhir) by thesweetcheat

Looking ENE – Stow on the Wold can be seen at the far right of the picture.

Image credit: A. Brookes (6.3.2009)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 6, 2009

Articles

The Horestone (Swell)

C
CARL Aug 8, 2011

Failed Visit 6.8.11.

I first looked for the stone from the minor road from the north but it clearly wasn’t there. I then went to have a look from the road to the south but the field was full of crop so again, no sign of it – I imagine it was hidden away under the crop.

One to visit after the harvest me thinks?

The Horestone (Swell)

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 6, 2009

Visited 6.3.2009, on a walk from Stow on the Wold. As indicated in Jane’s notes, the stone stands in the middle of a ploughed field, so any approach is a bit of a tiptoe through the crops. As I edged around the field, a startled deer jumped out from the remains of last year’s crop and ran across the field past the stone. The stone itself is odd, it sits down slope in the kind of place a Cotswold long barrow would sit, and it must be possible that this was once part of a barrow, as on its own it seems rather functionless. The south side of the stone has a from-the-sea-bed looking effect, green and grey and gnarly. The north side has a browner, crumblier look, like a fruit cake. Someone has sadly seen fit to leave two old tyres in the lea of the stone on its north side, although at least these were completely in shadow when I visited. After inching back across the field, I joined the road to the south-east – the stone is clearly visible from the field gate and over the hedge at this time of year, but will be lost in the crops come the summer. From here I headed north to Lower Swell and The Whittlestone.

The Horestone (Swell)

Jane
Jane Jan 26, 2004

Standing completely alone at the top of a field, nowhere near the field edge, crouches this rectangular megalith just 3 feet tall and 5ft 7ins wide. You just wouldn’t see it at all if the field was in full-crop. Today, planted with low-growing brassicas, I hmm-ed and ahh-ed about whether or not to trapse through the field to see it as there was no clear track. I decided to go for it, being careful to step between the plants. Like everything else round here its of oolitic limestone, pockmarked and weathered. There was something of immense pride about this stone. Definitely worth look-see.

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