Witch’s Stone

Nearest town:
Horsforth (4km WSW)
OS reference:
SE280373
OS sheet:
104
Latitude:
53° 49' 51.24 N
Longitude:
1° 34' 28.28 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Witch’s Stone (Standing Stone / Menhir) by FolkAroundAndFindOut

The Witch’s Stone looking like it is auditioning for the part of The Spirit Of Dark & Lonely Water public information film from the 1970s…

Image credit: Folk Around And Find Out
FolkAroundAndFindOut
FolkAroundAndFindOut Nov 9, 2024
Image of Witch’s Stone (Standing Stone / Menhir) by thesweetcheat

Looking across Meanwood Beck, with the clapper bridge in the foreground.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.2.2009)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Feb 22, 2009

Articles

Witch’s Stone

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Feb 22, 2009

Visited 21.2.2009, approaching along the beck from the south (along the “Meanwood Valley Trail” footpath). Plenty of snowdrops and crocuses in evidence, making for a lovely spring day. The stone is an attractive pointed piece of granite, five feet or so tall. It is a striking bright green colour, from the moss and lichen covering it. Being granite, it would take a lot to wear it down and there are certainly marks which could be water erosion lines.

However, it is quite “sharp” along the edges, which may indicate a younger age. I have been looking at the available editions of the largest scale OS maps (County Series 25 inch to the mile) from the 1880s onwards, up to the latest 1:1250 scale OS maps. The stone is not marked on any of them, which is odd if it has always been there – having said that, it’s odd that’s it’s not shown on the OS even now, as it is certainly substantial enough to merit a “stone”. My visit also took me to the Uni campus at Beckett Park, where estate maps of the area from the earlier 18th century are on display – until the early 18th century this whole area was owned as part of the landholdings of nearby Kirkstall Abbey, so it would be interesting to know what the Cistercian monks would have made of a prehistoric pagan monument being on their land, if it was there then.

Worth a visit, Meanwoodside is easily accessible and has a car parking area.

Witch’s Stone

David Raven
David Raven Dec 5, 2007

The local historian Arthur Hopwood told me about this stone.

It’s his opinion that this is one of the many stones erected around the beckside by Edward Oates, who bought this land in 1834.

Mr. Oates put up the large stones around the pond just north of this, and also installed the ‘clapper’ bridges found there. It seems he had a thing about having ‘ye olde looking stones’ on his estate.

Edward Oates was a member of the Mill Hill Chapel, in Leeds City Centre, and apparently brought some of the stone from there, including the two rough stone ‘pillars’ that are to be found near the pond, a little further up the beck from here.

Topics

Josie and the Witch's Stone photos... 9
Paulus
Paulus
Sep 2005

Sites within 20km of Witch’s Stone

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.