Rhiannon

Operation on the Heart.
Gerard Francis Buncombe, nineteen, an undergraduate of Cambridge University, has been impaled on a fence surrounding the Druidical remains near Maidstone while mounting the ancient cromlech. He was removed to West Kent Hospital, where Dr Travers performed a wonderful operation. Two pieces of bone had been driven into the heart, causing a wound 1 1/2in. long. The wound was sewn up, there being nineteen stitches, and the patient bore the operation extremely well.

And I thought you had to be intelligent to go to Cambridge. Do be careful and try to contain yourself around the annoying railings.
Spotted in the Carmarthen Weekly Reporter, 29th June 1906 (and a million other papers).

This is rather a bizarre thing to post, but I saw one of the photos on this page is a sign saying ‘Ancient Monuments Can Be Dangerous’. Well, turns out that they are. So stop messing about (like Postman’s son in another photo), and make sure you drink your milk:

Capel Garmon. Accident.
A nasty accident befel the little daughter of Mr Roberts, the roadman, on Friday last, whilst some of the school children were out with the mistress inspecting the cromlech at Ty’nycoed Farm. It appears that the little girl fell into the cromlech and broke her thigh. She is under the care of Dr Prichard, and is progressing favourably.

And that was the last time that school went on a field trip (I expect). In the Weekly News and Visitors’ Chronicle for Colwyn Bay, 29th June 1906.

Great Orme Cromlech.
“Bartering the rights of the public.”
At a meeting of the Llandudno Urban District Council on Wednesday, attention was called by Councillor William Thomas to the fact that it was intended to make a charge of twopence for access to the Cromlech on the Great Orme, one penny of which was to be paid to the attendant for showing visitors the stone, while for the other penny each visitor was to receive a pictorial postcard of the Cromlech with information bearing on the subject as a momento.

Mr Thomas said he would move that, having regard to the fact that it could not be regarded as a satisfactory solution, the matter should be referred back to the Works Committee for further consideration. Mr McMaster stated that he had great pleasure in seconding, because since 1857 he had had unrestricted right to the field where the Cromlech was without charge or difficulty at all. In his opinion the arrangement was a very insidious and a crafty one. There was to be no charge as such for seeing the Cromlech, but one penny was to be charged for access to it and for the services of the person who would show it to the visitors, while the other penny would be charged for the postcard. In 20 years, perhaps, it would be said that the right of access and of restricting it had been acknowledged by the Council. He favoured further and fuller inquiry being made into the rights of the public to the field in question.

(...) Eventually it was decided by nine votes to two that the Council disapprove of the arrangement arrived at, and referred the matter back to committee for reconsideration.

In the Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald, 21st August 1908.

This should count as folklore really, as I’m not sure how ‘some antiquary’ knew about Druidical traditions, but there we are. Plus I’m not sure how the sun could have reflected off it with 300 people crowding around. Sometimes I think it might be fun to go to Stonehenge on the solstice and then I remember it’s always full of Other People :)

In The Presence Of The Sun.
Congregations at Stonehenge have of late no longer been rare. Last week some Wiltshire antiquary called public attention to the Druidical tradition respecting the altar stone, and its peculiar reflection of the sun at daybreak on the longest day. In consequence of this some 300 people proceeded to Salisbury Plain to witness the spectacle. At 3.44 a.m. the sun rose beautifully, and its resplendence upon the altar stone, sacred to ancient fire-worship, was grand in the extreme. Since this success, numbers of visitors have assembled at the Circle daily before daybreak. – Mayfair

Quoted in the Northern British Daily Mail, 12th July 1878.

I hope you will bear with me, as this is rather random, but it struck me as being the 1847 equivalent of The Modern Antiquarian website, with its encouragements to visit and share experiences of an ancient site, and also some instructions on how to get there. I particularly like that the efforts will “secure a day’s gratification”. I’m sure ladies would have also been welcome assuming they’d finished making the dinner, etc.

To the Editors of the Archaeologia Cambrensis.
Gentlemen, – Will you be kind enough to permit me through your medium to request some of the antiquaries of Swansea and its neighbourhood, to forward you a description, and whatever account may be procurable, of Carn Llechart. It will be found on the hill side, near the top ridge, indeed, of Mynydd Marn Coch, in the parish of Llangyfelach. From Swansea, the way to it is up the vale to Pontardawe, and then a lane on the left may be safely followed for a mile or so; a question addressed to the first cottager will then put the tourist right in the way of the circle, which he will find in a state of almost perfect preservation. If my friend Geo. Grant Francis, Esq. would give a day to this good work, he would at once secure to himself a day’s gratification and serve the cause for the promotion of which you so devotedly and successfully labour.
I am, Gentlemen, yours truly, D. Rhys Stephen. Grove Place, Manchester, 21 Sept. 1847

Archaeologia Cambrensis, v2 (1847).

Mr Coles records the details of these stones so carefully, and I love his bold drawings, which he must have enjoyed making. I think he’d be very sad to see two of the stones lying on the floor, and I do hope someone has put them back up again by now.

Upper Port, Castle Grant. – The Stones here stand on a level field nearly midway between Upper Port steadings and the Mill of Castle Grant, and about 1 1/2 miles distant on the N.E. from Grantown.

There are four Stones in all. I show them in a sketch-plan with their relative positions correctly given, but the interspaces are not to scale (See fig. 1.).

(a) The two South Stones. The East Stone stands 4 feet 3 inches in height, measured at the smooth, vertical, north side; but a long “foot” runs down at its S.E. angle, and if this represents the true base of the Stone, its height would be fully 5 feet. The basal girth is 9 feet 7 inches; the top is narrow and ridgy, and it appears to be composed of rough whinstone largely mixed with white quartz.
The companion Stone, standing nearly vertical 7 feet to the west, is of the same mineralogical composition, 4 feet 8 inches in height, with a rather flat top and a basal girth of only 4 feet 2 inches. In the view (fig. 2) these Stones are shown as seen from the west. This Stone is 117 yards Mag. S.20 degrees E from

(b) the Stone which stands next in order on the sketch-plan. It is of whinstone, with a pointed top, broadish sides, and a basal girth of 5 feet 7 inches. It is quite vertically set up.

(c) The last Stone of the group is of whinstone, somewhat tapering up from a base measuring 7 feet 7 inches to a “bevelled” top which is 5 feet 3 1/2 inches above the ground. Its broadest face is distant, nearly due west, 79 yards from Stone b.

It is impossible to even conjecture the meaning of the disposition of these four Stones at Upper Port, and there is no local information obtainable now regarding them.

The last two, so widely separated, are shown in the drawing (figs. 3 and 4) as seen from the south.

From ‘Report on Stone Circles Surveyed in the North-East of Scotland (Banffshire and Moray)..’ by Fred R Coles, in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (February 11th 1907).

I found this article while looking for fort-related folklore, and it made my blood feel a bit fizzy so I thought I’d share. Fortunately the Powers That Be protected the site – Mr Adkins literally couldn’t give less of a monkeys about it. Presumably he also owned Bomere Pool (scene of much folklore including a sword-wearing fish... maybe the reason why this place doesn’t need any). Not that he’d be remotely interested in that either.

No interest in hill fort site, farmer says.

A pre-Roman conquest hill fort, scheduled as an ancient monument, would be substantially destroyed by a farmer’s plan to build about 30 expensive houses on the site, it was said at a Ministry of Housing and Local Government inquiry at Shrewsbury yesterday.

But the farmer, Mr John Ivor Adkins, of Bomere Farm, Bayston Hill, near Shrewsbury, said that in the ten years he had been farming there, not one person has displayed an archaeological interest in the hill fort site on his land. “There is not even a notice indicating its existence,” he said.

Mr Adkin was appealing against the refusal of Shrewsbury County Council to allow him to develop a seven-acre site on his 200-acre farm for house building. The county council’s reasons for refusal were that the site was remote from the main village of Bayston Hill and was outside the area appropriate for development; an unclassified road which would serve the proposed development would create a traffic hazard at its junction with the A49; and the development site was an Iron Age hill fort dating from 300BC – AD 30, and scheduled as an ancient monument of national importance.

Mr Stephen Brown, Q.C., for Mr Adkins, said the site was on poor agricultural land and there was no objection to the building proposals by the Ministry of Agriculture. Dr Michael Thompson, inspector of ancient monuments in the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, said the proposed development would leave only a third of the hill fort site unmolested. Cross-examined by Mr Brown, Dr Thompson agreed it might be possible to excavate the site at the developers’ expense when building operations were being carried out. But his Ministry’s main object was to preserve the fort as a memorial rather than as a site for archeological and scientific investigation.

The inquiry was closed.

In the Birmingham Daily Post, 4th May 1966.

You can say I’m being a little imaginative with this. But there is some evidence that there was a Roman temple here. And Iron Age coins were also found here, so I’d like to suggest it had significance in prehistoric times too. I mean it is a weird hill and would surely attract attention :)

Sometimes, you just don’t want to know the truth do you. But I’m good at believing several incompatible things at once. So I think I can retain heart and inspiration from the fossil sea urchin illustration. But whilst now discovering that it is a Lie!!

James F. Dyer wrote to the Luton News (12 August, 1954) to explain. He says the Five Knolls used to be ten knolls. In 1887 two of them were completely levelled by a “steam cultivator.” Worthington Smith excavated those two, and in 1890 he gave a lecture about them. It sounds like he wasn’t even there when the bones were uncovered and the farm labourers had already cleared lots away. WS said in the lecture, “Now the girl who was buried on the Downs had twelve of these (fossilised sea urchins) buried with her, presumably to preserve her in her sleep from the attacks of demons. In the earth that was thrown out of the entire tumulus, 91 additional fossil ‘echini’ were found.”

So all those other sea urchins might just have been naturally in the soil. How dull. But that would be a lot of sea urchins, surely?

Dyer goes on: “As my friend Leslie Grinsell (undoubtedly the leading authority on barrows in Britain) has said, ‘The essential fact regarding the ritual behind placing even a dozen micrasters in the grave remains unaltered; they were obviously regarded as possessing some protective power, about which new light may be forthcoming after the Barton Barrow excavations in September. But that Smith’s drawing has taken considerable licence, there is no doubt, and that in none of the four copies of the drawing published in his life-time, did he attempt to make it clear that the drawing was merely an imaginative reconstruction’.”

Well. It’s a bloody good drawing. Even if I feel somewhat let down.

For many years what remained of the stone circle called the Soldiers Trench on Brackenhall Green, Shipley Glen, had been difficult to find with the result that the tens of thousands of visitors who annually pass that way were ignorant of this interesting prehistoric relic. When the Bradford Corporation Parks Department demolished a large rockery nearby in the autumn of 1952 it was suggested that the boulders from it be placed around the circle in such a way that it would become apparent to anyone. A full report on the project would be published in due course, so that no one could be in any doubt as to which boulders formed part of the original circle and which were the subsequent additions.

The late Mr W.P. Winter had told Mr Sidney Jackson in the 1930s that the rockery in question had been made from boulders taken from the circle, but as it was not known from which particular spot each one was taken it was obvious that to replace them on the line of the actual circle would only lead to confusion, and it was therefore decided to construct a false circle around what remained of the original at a distance of three to four feet.

The local archaeology group moved the stones into position (juniors dug the holes, men moved the stones, and the ladies backfilled the earth and replaced the turf, division of labour you see).

Info found in the ‘Shipley Times and Express’ for 15th September 1954.

Haven’t found a story. But this is quite cool:

Remains of what were undoubtedly British trackways connecting Musbury with Hochsdon and Membury and also with more distant camps, no fewer than twelve of which are visible in ordinary weather, and, of course, could be communicated with at night by means of the beacon-fire, can be distinctly traced.

The camps include those at Woodbury, Sidbury, Blackbury, Dumpton, Hembury, Belbury, and Stockland, in Devonshire; Neroche, in Somersetshire, to the north; and Eggardun, in Dorsetshire, to the east. The panoramic view of the Valley of the Axe is one of the best throughout its extent, and the eye ranges far beyond that lovely tract – over hill and dale, with water, timber, and all the other accessories of a perfect English landscape.

p. 750 in “The Book of the Axe” by George Pulman (1875).

There is a standing stone about four miles away from here. It stands in a field on the right hand side of the road as you go to Derry. The ground on which it stands belongs to William McDaid, who purchased the land a year ago from a man named Johnson. It is situated in the townland of Ardmore, Muff, in the parish of Iskaheen, Co. Donegal. It consists of a rectangular block of regular shape and is about seven feet high, four feet wide, and about two feet deep. It stands exactly on its end. The side facing the South is indented with little cup-like insertions, with a sort of rings or halo around them and about two inches out from them.

The late Mr Hart who lived at Kilderry Castle (once the residence of Sir Cahir O’Doherty) employed a number of men and got them to dig around the stone to see if they could unearth a grave or other, which might account for its being there. The earth that they dug out was carefully examined, but nothing was found, only two large iron balls resembling cannon balls but much larger.

Collected by Hugh C. Byrne, for the Schools Collection of folklore in the 1930s.

... The figure is not always visible; he is most often to be seen in bright summer mornings and evenings, or during the winter, when there is a hard frost, or a slight fall of snow. Sometimes you may see the giant distinctly half a mile off, but on approaching the spot the turf appears as smooth as on the adjacent hills.

[...] We may add that this remarkable figure is about to be restored, and that the vicar of Glynde, near Lewes, Sussex, is treasurer to the Restoration Fund, which has been headed by the Duke of Devonshire. Small subscriptions of half-a-crown are solicited in preference to larger sums, so as to excite a widely-extended interest. The first sod for the restoration has already been turned by Mr Phene, but the work has been suspended for a time to allow persons interested to see it in its original condition.

The Graphic, 7th February 1874. The campaign seem to have progressed at some pace, as the newspapers in April report that the outline had been completely restored (with white bricks).

White Horse Hill, Berks, 1780.

The Scowering and Cleaning the White Horse is fixed for WHIT MONDAY, the 15th Day of May, on which Day, a SILVER CUP will be run for, near the White Horse Hill, by PONIES that never started for any Thing; and to be the actual Property of Persons belonging to the County of Berks; the best of three Two-Mile Heats. To start at Ten o’ Clock.

The same Time, A THILL HARNESS will be run for by Cart Horses, &c. in their Harness and Bells, the Carters to ride in Smock Frocks without Saddles. Crossing and jostling, but no Whipping allowed.

A FLITCH of BACON to be run for by ASSES.

A good HAT to be run for by MEN in SACKS; every Man to bring his own Sack.

A WAISTCOAT, 10s. 6d. Value, to be given to the Person who shall take a Bullet out of a Tub of Flour with his Mouth in the shortest Time.

Several CHEESES to be run for down the White Horse Manger.

SMOCKS to be run for by Ladies; the second-best of each Prize to be entitled to a Silk Hat.

CUDGEL-PLAYING for a GOLD-LACED HAT and a Pair of BUCKSKIN BREECHES, and WRESTLING for a Pair of SILVER BUCKLES and a Pair of PUMPS.

A JINGLING MATCH by eleven blindfolded Men, and One unmasked with Bells, for a Pair of BUCKSKIN BREECHES.

A GRINNING MATCH through a Horse’s Collar for Five Shillings.

An APPLE to be taken out of a Tub of Water for Five Shillings.

Riding down the Hill upon Horses Jaw Bones, for 2s 6d.

And sundry other Rural Amusements.

(The Horses to be on the Hill, and entered by Nine o’Clock. – No less than four Horses, &c. or Asses to start for any of the above Prizes.)

Oxford Journal, 13th May 1780.

Cairnconan’s Famous Pictish Dwelling. A summer evening ramble. (From a Correspondent).

[...] Cairnconan Hill is by far the highest point in the district. Looking backward from the top of the hill the sea, the steeple, the water tower, and the chimney stacks of Arbroath stand out against the horizon. The Law Hill, Parkhill, and Lunan Bay can easily be traced, and still further eastward we can trace Bolshan Hill and the braes of Rossie. From the top of the hill on a clear day portions of no fewer than five counties can be seen, the range extending as far as the Firth of Forth with the faint outline of the Lammermoor Hills in the far distance. From the same point the Grampian range of mountains seem but a short distance away, but the light is deceptive and in reality they are a long way off. Dark Lochnagar is far away dimly outlined against the northern skyline. [...]

The farmer of West Grange related an amusing story to us about the ancient dwelling place. Almost every year it is visited by many more or less interested visitors. The interior of the weem or house is concave, the stones overlapping each other. The entrance at the top is very narrow only allowing the entrance of a sparely built man, and the depth of the floor of the dwelling is about 8 feet from the door or opening.

One day a number of years ago a visitor of rather small stature rather imprudently ventured to descend into the cavity. When it came to the getting out he found to his consternation that it was quite impossible for him to reach the top. He howled himself hoarse, and might have stayed there for a long time as the “house” is seldom visited and is at a considerable distance from the roadway. However by means of piling up a quantity of loose stones that had fallen down into the interior of the dwelling place he managed to scramble out.

The moral of all this is – don’t visit the “Pict’s house” at Cairnconan unless accompanied by friends and don’t venture into places that you do not see some way of getting out of.

Mr Garland also informed us that the “house” is now very much diminished in size from its original state. It was at one time connected with another chamber by a long narrow passage covered with flagstones, but this interior chamber is now filled up and is not open to visitors.

Arbroath Herald, 23rd July 1920.

A group of students, working through the night on the Sussex Downs, north of Brighton, have cut a 200ft reclining figure of a woman in the chalk face of Wolstonbury Hill, which overlooks the main London to Brighton road. The students used shovels, picks and garden tools to cut the figure in the turf.
One of them said today :“The famous Long Man of Wilmington, near Eastbourne, was getting lonely so we thought it time to provide him with a mate.”
The students hold their annual rag day at Brighton on Saturday.

Devon Echo, 14th October 1959.

Long Meg is now 12 feet high. Camden said “15” but Mr Robin Collingwood reminds me that this was Camden’s conventional figure; when he was in doubt as to an exact statement he put down 15. Various authors, not measuring for themselves, have simply followed him. Hutchinson’s 18 feet I take to be a misprint for 15.

Todd, who first reduced the height to 12 feet, mentioned that the stone was hollow at the top, “like a dish or a Roman altar”; and Gough repeated this. What it really is like was found by Mr George Watson, who got a ladder and climbed up to see. He found a V-shaped groove running across the stone in a northerly direction, very broken and jagged, as if it had been struck by lightning. Possibly the stone was thus injured between Camden’s time and Todd’s – the greater part of a century. Probably, however, Camden overstated the height.

At any rate the stone was not hollowed at the top to serve as an altar, or to make the Danish King’s seat less insecure.

A reminder to do one’s own research, even if it means remembering a ladder. From a report of a meeting of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, in the ‘Penrith Observer’, 26th July 1921.

Mystery mine of Ivinghoe where ancient Britons worked flints. Amazing finds.

For 3,000 years travellers on the ancient Icknield Way threw anything they did not want into an old flint mine by the roadside. Long centuries of rubbish gradually filled it up, the top caved in, and eventually all trace of the mine was lost. Recent work in laying a waterpipe has revealed this storehouse of the centuries, and the discoveries made there bid fair to cause acute controversy amongst archaeologists.

Sheltered beneath the bluff face of Ivinghoe Beacon – the gaunt spur of the Chilterns overlooking the vale of Aylesbury – runs the ancient Icknield Way, and into its stones is knit the history of Southern England. Today a reporter followed again the road which once resounded to the martial tramp of Roman legions. Since the dawn of Britain’s history travellers have stopped at this point. Today they still do so, and but a stone’s throw away is the old mine.

To Mr W. Cobell, the one-armed garage man, these remarkable discoveries are due. Badly wounded in the War, an open-air job was necessary to keep him fit, and he now contrives to combine making a living with his hobby of archaeology. Mr Cobell led the way to the old shaft, half-hidden between a hawthorn hedge. Forty feet down into the solid chalk this old mine sinks into what was once a rich seam of fine flints. Four feet across, it is just wide enough for a man to straddle his legs. That revealed how the ancient miners ascended and descended probably 3,000 years ago. A series of footholds had been cut on either side of the shaft, and today young Sam, the enthusiastic excavator and purveyor, clambered down in the same old way, disdaining the modern rope and tackle. With an electric torch he illuminated its gloomy depths – the bottom is not yet reached – and showed where another tunnel leads away into the heart of the hill.

At the bottom of the shaft a magnificent flint axe with a giant left-handed grip has been found. There were also other rude weapons and arrow heads of flint, flakes and chippings, spear points, bones of animals, and similar traces of the ancient British village which once occupied the site. “These were the people who dug the mine and worked it until the flints ran out,” Mr Cobell said. “Then it was just left open and became the rubbish pit for anyone passing by on the road.” Above the prehistoric debris came traces of the Roman occupation of Britain. A roof tile of unmistakeable Roman make and a chimney tile bear the footprints of a dog that walked over them while they were wet and drying in the sun. Its footmarks can still be seen. A bronze coin of the Roman period has also been found, but its exact date has yet to be determined. Vast quantities of pottery of the early Iron Age were mixed in indescribable confusion with Roman wares, Anglo-Saxon wares, and pottery of successive peoples down to the fine medieval glazes. Fragments of 16th and 17th century glazes lying on top of all this accumulation have definitely been identified.

A few yards away is another curious hole made by these prehistoric miners. It may have been the floor where the flints were worked. The tremendous number of flakes found suggest that it was, but it was also the scene of a great fire, for which there is no explanation at present. Charred bones, burnt wood, and scores of flints scorched and split by intense heat are still there. Mr Edward Holis, curator of the Buckinghamshire County Museum at Aylesbury, said: “I know of nothing in England like this mine, if mine it be. The variety of the debris from so many periods of history is amazing, and until the site has been fully examined by experts it is impossible to say what is the real solution.”

In the ‘Gloucester Citizen’, 25th August 1932.

I’m glad HornbyPorky’s fieldnotes say the graffiti is gone. I thought I’d add this to show the indignities have been going on for a while. I hope when McDonalds crumbles these stones will still be here.

On Saturday, the Greater Edinburgh Club, under the leadership of Mr Sterling Craig, visited “Edinburgh’s Stonehenge,” a group of four large stones at Lochend, opposite the point where the new Glasgow road branches off the old road to Broxburn. For 4000 years these megaliths have stood like the peak of a submerged mountain rising out of the ocean of prehistoric darkness, but testifying to the existence of a lost continent.

Local tradition says that there was originally an avenue of standing stones, 350 yards long, crossed by a shorter double row of megaliths about 80 yards from its western end. A Bronze Age burial ground, 30 yards in diameter, of much later date, has been erected in the northern part of the crossing. The eastmost megalith is eleven feet high and three to four feet broad, and the others are about six feet in height, standing at the souther, western, and northern extremities of the crossing avenues.

The unity of the monument is now difficult to recognise, because it is broken by a deep railway cutting and a wide road. The terminal megalith (now in a piggery) is obscured from the rest by a large advertisement hoarding, but it undoubtedly belongs to the same period as Stonehenge and was erected by the same fogotten race.

In The Scotsman, 23rd May 1938.

Witts, in his ‘Archaeological Handbook of the County of Gloucester’ (1883) says:

It is 100 feet long, its greatest width being 50 feet, and height five feet; its direction is east and west, the highest portion being towards the east.

The mound was cut in two about fifty years ago to make room for a cottage and some pigstyes; the latter now occupy the centre of the barrow! During the excavation one human skeleton was found. Probably this is the only instance in the county of a prehistoric burial place being turned into a pigstye!

Not really tea-time viewing, but I’ve posted a photo of an apparently ‘trephinated’ skull found in a long barrow at Bisley (perhaps this very barrow... it’s a bit confusing). It was found by Dr. W. H. Paine from Stroud, in 1863. We read: “this is only a partial trephination, the operation having been abandoned either on account of the death of the patient or an unwillingness on the part of the priest-doctor to proceed with it.” How about the unwillingness of the patient?! This 1923 paper by Thomas Parry even has some photos showing his (patientless) experiments into how it might have been done. A fascinating and ghastly subject to ponder on.

In a field called Croeslechau about two miles eastward of this town or village [Talgarth] but in the parish of Bronllys and on a farm called Bryn-y-groes, is a cromlech, not merely interesting on account of its antiquity, but from the circumstance of a white thorn growing close, and indeed under part of it, which has gradually raised the horizontal or covering-stone several inches out of its original position; it is therefore not only venerable as a relic of very ancient days but as a natural curiosity.

Theophilus Jones, History of the County of Brecknock, v2, 1809.

The RCAHMW’s 1986 inventory of ancient monuments in Brecknock puts the site 500m south west of Pontithel, and includes a description by Edward Lhuyd from about 1700.

In Ireland surely a barrow with a strange hawthorn (white thorn) would have been given a wider berth... an indication that the fairies were living there and wouldn’t be happy about any disturbance. But maybe things don’t work that way in Wales. The barrow was destroyed in the first part of the 19th century and it’s not very obvious where it was.

From the Western Daily Press, 18th August 1939.

Historic Wilts Stone Circle Damaged.
Mr Norman Cook, curator of Avebury Museum, stated yesterday that the soldiers who were encamped at Avebury, Wilts, last week, did considerable damage in the stone avenue which adjoins the famous stone circle there, and left behind them filth and litter and refuse from the camp kitchen.

Mr Cook, who was speaking at a Swindon Rotary meeting, said: “They parked themselves in the Avenue on August 9. They had 119 tanks, a camp kitchen, etc. with them. When they had gone it was found that this crack regiment had left a permanent record of their visit.

“To our horror we found they had cut inscriptions commemorating their visit on our stones, although personal assurances had been given that no harm would come to the monument. They left an indescribable amount of filth and litter. It will cost us a tremendous amount of money. One inscription may remain forever to record their visit.”

It is understood that the War Office is investigating the matter.

I expect the War Office very soon found itself with more pressing matters, unfortunately, given the date. I like the way Norman is taking it personally, about ‘our stones’. I wonder if the graffiti is still visible, how disgraceful. But I wonder whether there were really 119 tanks? It seems a very specific number, as though he’d counted them, but also somewhat incredible – more crowded than the car park today down the road? And why were they allowed on an archaeological site when they had the rest of the Marlborough Downs? Rather confusing.

Sir,
- It is unfortunate that the Office of Works should have disregarded the Garrol stone circle, so nobly situated, and so impressive. On my last visit (the 15th) I was shocked to find that the woodmen in clearing up the cut wood had piled and burned a large quantity of heavy brush in the very centre of the circle, thereby cracking, displacing and disfiguring the stones and chamber slab of the inner circle.

I could be scathing at this juncture, but it is seldom fruitful of happy results. I will only say that if rude men were the builders (by no means proved), our present civilisation is turning out ruder and cruder ones to whom nothing whatsoever appears to be sacred.

I foresee, too, that during re-afforesting by the Department further disfigurement will take place – and possibly complete obliteration.

This circles is a source of great interest to strangers, as I well know, and therefore a valuable asset to a locality endeavouring to popularise itself. But apart from this cheap side-view, the Garrol circle is an inspiring object, fascinating and fruitful of thought, and of the highest human and historical interest. May some kind hand protect it!

-Arthur F. Leslie Paterson,
Birkwood, Banchory.

The fight for Stones goes on. A letter in the Aberdeen Press and Journal, 24th July 1936.

Ascending Parbold Hill and proceeding eastward in the direction of Standish, says [Mr Price, honourary secretary of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire], a slight decent is made into the ravine called Sprodley Wood, locally known as Fairy Glen, and along this wood runs Sprodley Brook. Shortly after passing over Sprodley Brook, in a field on the left may be seen a grass-covered mound, which from time immemorial seems to have been called Boars Den.

[...] From this plateau a magnificent view presents itself at every point of the compass. Northwards, beyond the silver streak of the Ribble estuary, rise the Cumberland Hills; nearer, and trending eastwards, may be seen Pendle Hill, Bleasdale Moors, Longridge Fells, Rivington Pike, and Anglesark Moors; southwards, Standish, Billinge Beacon, and Ashurst; and westward stretches a vast plain, with the Welsh mountains faintly outlined across the Mersey estuary. Few sites in Lancashire could rival this in its command of the ancient landmarks and beacons of the county, and the estuaries of the Ribble, Mersey, and Dee.

In the Wigan Observer, 25th May 1904.

The Tolmen of Constantine.
Mr. R. Edmonds called attention to this rock – the finest of its kind in Britain; it is ten time as large as the Logan Rock, which is estimated at 70 tons. The Tolmen (or holed-stone) is about 33 feet long, 19 broad, and 15 high. Of this fine relic, Mr. Edmonds said that unless a subscription be immediately set on foot to purchase the rock, together with that portion of the cairn which it covers, there is reason to fear that the fragments will soon form part of the national buildings now in progress at Chatham or Plymouth, as the granite quarries have already reached within a few feet of it. If the three Royal Societies of Cornwall were to interest themselves in the preservation of this noble monument and effect its purchase, the comparatively small sum thus expended would confer honour on all its contributors, but if it were suffered to perish, the disgrace to our native county would never be effaced.

A warning against complacency when it comes to believing other people will look after the best interests of our monuments in their landscape. In the Royal Cornwall Gazette, 12th October 1849.

The following letter from “The Proprietor of Stonehenge” appeared in the Times, of Thursday last:-

In a recent impression of the Times “A Visitor to Stonehenge” complains of the general damage done in thirty years past, and of particular damage done on the day of his visit. I believe no one of our old monuments has suffered less during the period first mentioned, and, considering the thousands who annually visit it, I think the public deserve much credit for the very little damage done.

On inquiry I find that about a fortnight ago an individual of the mechanic class brought a large sledgehammer, and, notwithstanding the remonstrances of a person who is usually at the stones holding horses, persisted in breaking the corners of two of the fallen stones. This is the only recent damage I can find, after a careful inspection. If I knew his name and place of residence, I should assuredly try what the law could do in such a case of wilful mischief; but, speaking generally, and judging from results, I believe an appeal to the public interest in such monuments and to the good feeling so generally entertained is the best preservative.

In the few cases of attempted mischief I am bound to say that the operative class are not those principally implicated. A member of the professional classes was one evening found, in the interests of science, as he asserted, endeavouring to ascertain the depth of the foundations. He apologised in the county paper, and the matter dropped.

A respectable paterfamilias, who arrived in a well-appointed barouche, was heard by a relative of mine asking for “the hammer and the chisel.” On being requested to desist from the intended operation, the answer was, “And who the deuce are you, Sir?” On being told the petitioner claimed to be the proprietor of the threatened institution, he declared he had always believed it “public property.”

In another instance three young men, being found on the top of two of the standing stones, stated they were about to carry off a piece of what is called the Sarsen stone for a relative of one of them, who was a distinguished archaeologist. On my writing to that gentleman, depracating a renewal of his relative’s visits with such intentions, he assured me no relative of his would be guilty of such an act, adding, as a further assurance, that the act was unnecessary, as he already possessed a piece of the stone in question; he added, “given him by a friend.”

I think I can re-assure the public mind as to the question, and I may surely ask those who take an interest in it, when they see attempts of the sort, to offer one of those good-natured remonstrances which will carry weight with the offender, and are sure to enlist the sympathy and assistance of the great body of bystanders.

Re-reported in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal, 23rd September 1871. I love the dry retelling of the anecdotes. And the final paragraph surely still holds as good advice today.

A few weeks since, a labourer employed in digging flints, near Hollingbury Castle (the ancient earthwork or camp on the summit of the hill between Brighton and Stanmer), discovered an interesting group of antiquities, placed very superficially in a slight excavation on the chalk rock. It consisted of a brass instrument, called a celt; a nearly circular ornament, spirally fluted, and having two rings placed loosely on the extremities, and four armillae or bracelets for the wrist, of a very peculiar shape. All these ornaments are composed of a metallic substance, which, from the appearance of those parts where the green patina, with which they are encrusted, has been removed, must have originally posessed a lustre but little inferior to burnished gold. They are clearly either of Roman or Anglo-Roman origin, and probably were buried on or near the site of interment of the individual to whom they belonged.

From the Salisbury and Winchester Journal, 7th February 1825. It seems they’re in the British Museum now: I found their photo here. Not quite so flash as a gold torc but I like them. They’ve got a very modern minimal look about them.

From volume 7 of the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1870).

December 1866. The Donations to the Library and Museum were as follows, and thanks were voted to the Donors:-

1. By Samuel Gordon Esq. and J T Blackley, Esq, Castle-Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire.

Large Caldron, formed of very thin plates of yellow bronze, the bottom being formed of one large sheet, and the sides of various smaller portions, all riveted together. It is patched in various places with additional bronze plates of various sizes riveted on. The caldron measures 26 inches in diameter across the mouth, the sides being straight, but bulging out to the extent of 1 inch above the rounded and flattened bottom. Part of the circumference of the mouth, where the handle had been attached, has been torn away.

The caldron was dredged up by the donors from Carlingwark Loch, Kirkcudbright, and contained

an adze, 7 inches in length, 2 inches across the face (Plate 1 fig. 1);

three axe-heads, measuring from 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches in length, and 2 to 2 1/2 inches across the face (figs. 2, 3, 4) – each of these tools have small projections of the metal on each side of the half-hole;

four small picks or hammers, with narrow extremities, from 6 to 7 1/4 inches in length (fig. 5) and apparently a broken half of another hammer-head, 4 inches in length;

hammer-head with flattened ends (fig. 6);

portion of a small saw, 6 1/2 inches, with blade 1 inch in breadth – a portion of the wooden handle remains riveted to the blade (fig. 7);

portions of a fine cut saw, 2 1/2 inches in length and 1 1/2 inch in breadth;

nine portions of double-edged blades, with pointed extremities resembling sword points, from 2 1/2 to 6 inches in length, and from 1 1/2 to 2 inches in breadth;

nails of various lengths, one with a large head, with a cross marked on each side (fig. 8);

small slender chisel, 5 inches in length, 3/4 of an inch across the face; portion of another chisel; three punches, 4 3/4 to 5 3/8 inches in length (fig. 9);

four split bats with eyes (figs. 10 and 11);

two large holdfasts; six hooks, varying in size from 2 1/2 inches to 5 inches in length (fig. 12);

iron buckle (fig. 13);

two handles with loops, apparently the handles of a bucket, one rudely ornamented with punched parallel lines (figs. 14, 15, 16);

wooden handle (fig. 17);

an iron implement (fig. 18);

iron tripod or ring, with three feet, apparently for supporting a pot (fig. 19);

and an iron frame, with numerous bars, and having two feet, the other two apparently awanting, the whole resembling a rude gridiron; five pieces of iron handles, one measuring 5 3/4 inches in length by 1/4 of an inch in breadth, has a loop at each extremity (fig. 20);

snaffle horse-bit, with check-ring 3 inches in diameter (fig. 21);

file, 9 3/4 inches in length and 1 inch in breadth; various scraps of iron plates; portions of iron hoops or bands perforated with holes.

That’s a lot of stuff. I started to regret typing the list. There are a few more things listed but I got the impression they were other stuff being donated by the two men mentioned, rather than stuff found in the caudron. There’s a photo of the cauldron here on the NMS database, along with all its miscellaneous contents.

VANDALISM.
To the Editor of Saunders’s News-Letter.
SIR- Yesterday, being in the neighbourhood of Glencullen, with two friends, we went to inspect a cromlech between that place and Ballyedmonduff named “Giant’s Grave” in the Ordnance map. Imagine our surprise and indignation at finding only its site; it had recently been literally quarried away, perhaps, for some purpose for which any other stones would have answered just as well, and this too, at no great distance from quarries now being worked.

Archaeologists should learn from such cases as this, which unfortunately are only too common, the importance of never passing one of these structures without taking a sketch, or better still, if possible, a photograph, and measurements of it. It is much to be regretted that landed proprietors do not adopt proper precautions for the preservation of these interesting relics of remote antiquity from wanton destruction.

I am, sir, your obedient servant, W.H.S. Westropp, MRIA.
Blackrock, October 11, 1867.

In Saunders’s News-Letter, 15th October 1867.

The farmers’ sons and daughters of the parishes surrounding Eggardon Hill held their annual private picnic on the hill on Whit-Monday, and were joined by a number of friends from a distance. The Askerswell band was in attendance, and dancing commenced shortly after four o’clock. During the evening a great number of persons went on the top of the hill to enjoy the extensive scenery. About six o’clock they all sat down to an excellent tea, and as evening drew on the band played almost without ceasing, and dancing was kept up with great spirit. Through the kindness of the Misses Toleman, of Witherstone, and Misses Wrixton, of King’s, there was an abundance of refreshments. The party broke up about 11 o’clock, and left the hill cheering and congratulating each other upon their evening’s enjoyment.

Fun on the hill reported in the 20th June edition of the Bridport News, 1868.

From inquiries that Canon Willcocks was good enough to get made for me amongst some of the oldest inhabitants of the district, it appears that the pillar-stone was always known as “the Clonegall stone.” Gall is an ancient term for a pillar-stone; and “Clonegall,” in the present instance, would no doubt signify “pillar-stone meadow.”

From

A Gallaun near Ballindangan, Co. Cork.
(By Courtenay Moore, Canon, M.A., Council Member C.H. and A.S.)

“Some months ago, a Corporal Oscroft of the Royal Engineers, who was engaged in this district, told me of the existence of the Gallaun. I went out on Saturday, July the 16th, to find it out. Stopping at the level-crossing of Ballindangan, on the Mitchelstown and Fermoy Railway, I asked an old woman at the gate-house about it; but whether it was owing to her deafness or ignorance, she could give me no information. However, help was at hand, a bright, intelligent girl, just entered on her ‘teens, who overheard the conversation, and who answered to the name of Mary Kate, came forward and said she knew the stone and the way to it. Under her guidance I started off, and in about seven minutes we reached the place.

The Gallaun is a remarkable one, standing by itself in a field near the railway line. It is a monolith, ten feet nine inches in height, and five feet in superficial breadth; it is greatly scored and fissured, doubtless by the atmospheric influences and ice-action, but I could not see any human inscription on it of any kind. There is a small elder tree growing out of a cavity near the top.

The Gallaun is out of the perpendicular, probably owing to some yielding of the earth at the base, and inclines at an angle, roughly speaking, of some 12 or 20 degrees. It would be a great pity if this inclination increased, and that the stone should eventually fall.

On returning to the gate-lodge at the level crossing, I made some further enquiries, and by this time Mary Kate, my guide, was recognised by all and sundry as the proper authority. She said the Gallaun was in the town of Kilnadrow, “Spill it for him, Mary Kate, spill it for the gintleman,” said her grandmother. Mary Kate accordingly “spilt it.”

[...] The thickness of the stone is about one foot six inches. How much of it is under ground I have no definite idea; judging from the inclination, there is probably not very much. An old woman, who lives in the locality, informed me that a number of years ago, a man was ploughing up the field in which the Gallaun stands. The plough struck against a large flat stone, which he raised, and found under it an earthen urn containing some human bones. He replaced the urn, covered it up, and it has never been disturbed nor re-discovered since. At all events, the existence of the Ballindangan Gallaun is worth recording as a remarkable specimen of its class of pre-historic antiquities.

In Historical and Topographical Notes etc...‘ collected by J G White (1905).

I love that these sound just like TMA fieldnotes, with chatty remarks about the difficulties of finding the stone, and the quirks of the people met in the process.

[The Daff Stone] is the name popularly given to a large stone which lies on a low mound of earth in a field close to the Moneydig cross-roads. It is roughly diamond-shaped, the longer diagonal reaching 7 feet, and the shorter about 4 feet. The average thickness is from 1 foot 9 inches to 2 feet.

[...] Recently, Mr. S. K. Kircker and myself, happened to be driving past the place. Noticing the stone, we stopped to have a closer look at it. To our astonishment we discovered that it was the cover-stone of a sepulchral chamber. Clearing away some dead thorn-bushes which were about, we found that the stone did not quite cover the chamber at one particular spot. We were afterwards told that the bushes were designed to prevent some young lambs, which were in the field, from falling through the opening thus formed.*

Making his way, with much difficulty, into the chamber by this “open door,” Mr. Kircker, after taking some measurements, made a further discovery. He reported that one of the upright stones forming the chamber had some curious markings or scribings upon it.

I immediately secured some paper from a neighbouring shop, and he made me a rubbing, which, though not very satisfactory, showed at least that the stone was rudely decorated. [...]

The word “Daff” means in Irish ‘a vat or tub’; and certainly the appearance which the chamber presents to anyone looking in justifies the name. Seven large stones form the staves of the ‘cask’, if I may so call it, and the cover-stone furnishes the lid.

[...] The stone marked X on the plan is the one which carries the scribings. They occur at about one-third of the height from the bottom as exposed, and cover a space 1 foot 7 inches broad by 1 foot high. On an average they are one-tenth of an inch in width. They are made up of five figures; the largest is a spear-shaped one, and runs almost across the entire space occupied. It also occurs below the other four.

The edges of the blade are formed by a series of scorings, at least five or six on the upper edge, and ten or twelve on the under one. The ends are open, and seem to curl outward – one of them certainly does. The space between these ends is filled with a smaller triangular figure, shaped like an arrow-head, with longish wings and no stem. A similar figure, but longer and sharper, occupies the top corner to the right.

The left-hand corner opposite this is taken up with a circular ornament, 5 1/2 inches in diameter. The circle is incomplete, or penannular, three inches or so of an are being wanting [sic]. There is no cup at the centre, but there are some five straight lines running downwards from the centre to the circumference, two of which are very distinct.

Though the rubbing shows only one circle, or rather partial circle, there are what seem to me faint traces of other concentric circles within this. Mr. Kircker is inclined to think that originally it was a spiral – and it may have been so; but the surface of the stone is so rough, and the scribings so faint, that it is impossible to make anything more out of the figure than what appears on the rubbing.

Between this circular figure and the point of the large spear-like one underneath the others is a fourth ‘broad arrow.’ Its point is in the opposite direction to that of the ‘spear’ and also of that which is within the open ends. In both these instances the direction of the point is determined by the shape of the space to be filled with the ornamentation.

I may add, before I leave this, that on the large stone directly opposite to the one bearing the decoration – the largest one, indeed, of all the uprights – there are a few lines scored, but there is no approach to a pattern [...]

From George R Buick’s article in the 1904 Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.

I love the way there’s a sense of excitement as they explore the stones. And this* made me smile, I bet they found this out when the farmer came over to see what the hell they were up to, and told them off for removing the branches he’d deliberately put there.

It seems to me that there must be some quite complicated designs on the stones. And this would be very cool to see. But when I tried to find out about them on the internet, I drew a blank. The NISMR page is pretty sparse. The additional details link suggests the Official Visit in 1997 didn’t notice any carvings at all. But George and his mate Mr Kircker didn’t imagine them, surely? They took some rubbings of them – twice, because the first set went astray. You couldn’t imagine them twice.

I know what I’d do if I lived nearby, I’d be over there with a torch and a camera.

Summary of Proceedings of the Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club for the years 1865-6.
[...] The first [Excursion] of the season, to Wantage, the Berkshire White Horse, and Uffington, was a success in every way, due chiefly to the admirable arrangements made by Mr. Wasbrough for the transit and conveyance of the members. Under this gentleman’s guidance the chief points of interest in the birth place of King Alfred were visited [...]. Leaving Wantage the members proceeded in carriages to the foot of the Downs, and essayed a blast upon the blowing stone (a mass of perforated silicious sandstone, said to have been formerly used for sounding an alarm over the neighbouring country).

The united efforts of all Bath were unable to produce a sound from the trumpet shaped hole. A native trumpeter, however, being found was more successful, and satisfied all present that when in its original place on the top of the Downs a most effective alarm could be raised.

Manton Down Barrow Destroyed.
Discovery by Youth Hostel Party.
From our correspondent, Swindon, April 27.

The Long Barrow at Manton Down, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, which is believed to date from about 2,200 B.C., has been destroyed. Its destruction was discovered yesterday when a party of Youth Hostel Association members were taken to inspect the tumulus by Mr. N. Thomas, curator of Devizes Museum, and Mr. L.V. Grinsell, curator of the Department of Antiquities, City Museum, Bristol. Trees in the area had also been cleared.

Large stones which composed the barrow are scattered over a fairly wide area. Gathered around a solitary small tree are big sarsen stones at the point which was probably the burial chamber. Some now stand on edge. In a half circle from the rubble which originally composed the mound are groups of uprooted bushes and trees.

Mr. Thomas said to-day: “Mr. Grinsell and I are reporting the matter to the chief inspector of monuments at the Ministry of Works.” The title of the barrow, he said, was something of a misnomer. It was, in fact, one of the shortest of the barrows, of which there are several in the locality. He put its length at about 80ft., and it would, he thought, have been about 3 ft. to 4ft. high. It was scheduled as an ancient monument.

Featuring my favourite folklore icon, Mr Grinsell. From The Times, April 28th, 1953. Can you imagine their faces (or the language). The next part of the story is in another post below.

The Longhouse Cromlech, Pembrokeshire.

Mr. E. Owen Phillips, of the Cathedral Close, St. David’s, writes thus to the Times:- I have just returned from visiting the celebrated Longhouse cromlech, which, I am glad to say, remains in its integrity, untouched by the rude had of the destroyer, and I am thankful to believe likely to remain so.

Mr. Griffiths, the owner of the farm on which the Cromlech stands, accompanied me to the spot, and I have his authority for stating that he takes the greatest interet in this magnificent monument of prehistoric archaeology and in its preservation. His father-in-law, a former tenant of the farm, spent much time and labour, in clearing away obstructing rubbish, in order to bring the cromlech into bolder relief and afford a better view of it all round – a great improvement, as it certainly presents a more grand and striking appeance at present than it did when I saw it some years since.

On my asking Mr. Griffiths for an explanation of the statement which appeared in a letter to The Times of September 6, that a labourer who was engaged in grubbing up stones near the monument to fill in a gap in a fence, said that he, the owner, “threatened to overthrow and demolish the monument altogether in order to construct a new bank across an adjacent field!” Mr Griffiths replied that “there was not a word of truth in it, nor any foundation for the statement, and that very probably the man was hoaxing the stranger.”

Mr. Griffiths complains and feels aggrieved that, assuming the statement to have been made, Mr. Greville Chester did not call on him to ascertain the truth or otherwise of it; the more so as Mr. Chester must have passed within a few yards of his house on returning from the cromlech. The disturbance caused by the stones, which are now to be seen filling up a gap in a fence, does not in the slightest degree interfere with the stability of the cromlech, which the public will be interested to know the present landlord is as anxious to preserve as carefully as it has been in the past.

At the same time, I agree with Mr. Greville Chester that it was an oversight, at least, on the part of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners “not to insert a proviso in the deed of sale for the preservation of so important a monument of prehistoric archaeology;” since the farm might have found a purchaser in one whose conservative interest in this grand old monument was less than that of the present owner.

In The Cambrian newspaper, 19th September 1890.

At a distance of somewhat more than a mile from Clun, in a field to the right, near the hamlet of Whitcott Keysett, stands one of those extraordinary stones which are usually classed under the title of Druldical monuments. It is a flat, broad stone, of very irregular shape, placed upright in the ground, in which it is evidently inserted to a considerable depth. Above ground it measures eight feet three inches in height by seven feet broad.

From ‘Wanderings of an Antiquary’ by Thomas Wright, 1854. (It’s curious that I added this site to the database myself, a million years ago – it must have a bit of folklore to go with it?).

The dolmen at PERTHI DUON, in the parish of Llanidan, three-quarters of a mile S.W. by S. of the (New) Church, is first mentioned by Rowlands. He says: “There is a shapely cromlech on the lands of Blochty... now thrown down and lying flat on its supporters”. This was in 1723. From a sketch which he gives we see that it was called “Maen Llwyd”.

[..] In the Arch. Camb. of 1846 a correspondent writes of this monument: “About twenty years ago (1826) brass or copper chisels were found in digging under it, when it fell down... there are still three uprights under it”.

From ‘The Megalithic Remains of Anglesey‘ by E N Baynes, 1911.

After this manner our Horse is formed, on the side of an high and steep hill, facing the North west. His dimensions are extended over an acre of ground, or thereabouts: his Head, Neck, Body and Tail, consist of one white line; as does also each of his Four Legs. This is done by cutting a trench into the chalk, of about two or three feet deep, and about ten feet broad. The Chalk of the trench being of a brighter colour, than the turf which surrounds it, the rays of the afternoon’s Sun darting upon it makes the whole figure visible for ten or a dozen, nay fifteen miles, if I am rightly informed.

The Horse at first view is enough to raise the admiration of every curious spectator, being designed in so masterlike a manner, that it may defy the painter’s skill, to give a more exact description of that animal: which were it not so apparent, would hardly gain belief with an antiquary, who considers to how low an ebb the art of drawing was sunk at that time; as appears from the works of their best makers, the Saxon coins, and the jewel of King Alfred, described by Dr Hickes and others, and now preserved in the Museum at Oxford.

If we consider it further, we must otherwise allow, that no small skill in Opticks was requisite, both for the choice of the ground, and for disposing rude lines, as they appear to a person on the spot, in such a manner, as to form so beautiful a representation.

And again, if durability was intended, the ingenuity of the artist will appear still greater. For from its barren soil, and steep situation, it has nothing to fear from the inroads of the plough, the grazing of larger cattle, or the stagnation of waters; all of which contribute more or less to efface things of this sort.

When I saw it, the Head had suffered a little, and wanted reparation; and the extremities of his hinder legs from their unavoidable situation, have by the fall of rains been filled up in some measure with the washings of the upper parts; so that in the nearest view of him, the Tail, which does not suffer the same inconvenience, and has continued entire from the beginning, seems longer than his legs. The supplies which nature is continually affording, occasion the turf on the upper verge of his body, for want of continuity, to crumble, and fall off into the white trench, which in many years time produces small specks of turf, and not a little obscures the brightness of the Horse.

Though there is no danger from hence of the whole figure being obliterated; yet the neighbouring inhabitants have a custom of Scouring the Horse, as they call it; at which time a solemn festival is celebrated, and manlike games with prizes exhibited, which no doubt had their original in the Saxon times, in memory of the victory.

This falling of the turf into the trench is the reason likewise, why the country people erroneously imagine, that the Horse, since his first fabrication, has shifted his quarters, and is got higher upon the Hill, than formerly.

Francis Wise, who is convinced it’s all down to the Saxons (and unfairly rubbishes the latter’s drawing skills to compound his error), in ‘A letter to Dr Mead concerning some antiquities in Berkshire’ (1738).

In the hedge on the left hand of the lane, and two hundred and seventy feet from the yard, lies the remarkable stone called by Dr. Stukeley, from its resemblance, the coffin stone, as only one side appears next the lane, the other parts being concealed by the mould, which in length of time has accumulated under the hedge, so that bushes and two elm-trees spread their roots on the surface of the stone.

It is in length fourteen feet two inches, in depth two feet, and in breadth about six feet, as near as I could guess by thrusting a stick under the hedge and roots with some difficulty. In the field adjoining, are several very large stones a little beneath the surface of the earth, some of which lie so fleet*, that it is with difficulty the men can plough it; and in some parts of it they appear level with the surface, as the tenant shewed me. Stones of great magnitude likewise lie dispersed about the moat and yard, which give the place a romantick appearance; and one before the barn measured nine feet and a half in length, and seven feet in breadth.

Another, much broader and of greater size, is at the upper end of the yard, near the spring-head. All these stones are irregular as when first taken from the earth, but , through the great length of time and injuries of weather, are become smooth; and of the same kind, and similar to to those which compose the celebrated British monument called Kits-Cotty-House, situated at a small distance from this place [...]

From John Thorpe’s ‘Custumale Roffense’ (1788). *fleet = shallow

Restoration of the Celebrated “Buckstone” Rock.

The above wonderful mass of old red sandstone conglomerate, which was celebrated all through Britain as a rocking stone and Druidic altar, it will be remembered, was accidentally thrown from its position on the summit of a high wooded hill, about three miles from Monmouth, on the road to Coleford, on the 10th of June last. Not only were the people of the immediate neighbourhood indignant, but the London daily papers took the matter up very warmly, the Standard especially.

The huge mass is the property of the Crown, and is too well-known far and wide to again need description in these columns. As soon as he heard of the catastrophe, Mr. C. H. Crompton-Roberts, of Drybridge House, Monmouth, offered £100 towards its restoration. The Mayor of Monmouth and others put themselves in communication with the Crown authorities, who ultimately determined to restore the celebrated rock at the entire expense of the Crown.

The undertaking was one of great difficulty, the huge mass having its chief block, about 50 tons weight, turned upside down, and partly buried in the earth. The enormous top slab, or stratum, had slipped off and fallen beyond the chief block, but right side up.

Messrs. Payne and Son, stone contractors, of Lambsquay House, Coleford, were appointed to carry out the work. The contractors erected two enormous cranes and a powerful crab on the hill above the fallen rock. Then large baulks of timber were placed with the ends under the chief block, and iron rails were laid on these baulks. About six tons of chains were attached to the chief block for the purpose of “skidding” it up to a position for turning, which, after a considerable time, was accomplished. The top stratum was then hoisted adjacent to the chief stone, and the large corner was also brought to a convenient position. This was the work of months.

A plateau for the stone to rest on was then made, with an enormous iron bar let into the solid rock beneath, a bed of cement made of the best material, mixed with similar stone to the Buckstone ground up, having been prepared. The top slab was then raised into its position, being cemented and cramped on, and the corner was afterwards affixed by the same means.

The result is that the work is now completed in a most satisfactory and highly creditable manner. The rock, when the cranes, &c. are removed, will, as it now stands, scarcely, if at all, appear to have sustained any alteration, especially from the road below. Mr K. Tudor Williams, photographer, of Monmouth, has shown us some photographs of the Buckstone both before and after the overthrow and in the course of being lifted. We understand that the rock will be railed round, to prevent future mishap, and that an opening will be cut between the rock and the road, so as to afford a good view of the Buckstone to those who pass by.

From the ‘Western Mail’, December 15th, 1885.

On the 10th instant, this celebrated stone, which weighs about thirteen tons, and which fell from its ancient situation on the night of the 19th October, 1815, during one of the most violent and destructive storms of wind ever remembered in that part of the country, was replaced by the united and indefatigable exertions of Lieut. GOLDSMITH and Capt. GIDDY, with the aid of the materials and machinery employed about the Logan Rock, and which the Honourable Navy Board consented to grant them for so laudable a purpose.

From ‘The Morning Post’, December 16th, 1824. Goldsmith and Giddy must have been on a roll and thought they might as well sort out the quoit after their success at the superb Treryn Dinas. I suppose Goldsmith thought people might then let him off for toppling the logan stone in the first place?!

In 1844 I visited [Anglesey] and took a drawing of the double cromlech at Llanvaelog, one of the best in the island. One cromlech was erect; the other by its side, thrown down: or rather, I should say that the two constitued the remains of a large chambered mound – perhaps of a cromlech with a passage, as at Bryn Celli in the same island.

The cap-stone of that which was erect measured thirteen feet and a half in length by about five feet in depth and width at the thickest part. The cap of the fallen one was broken in two, but when entire it was not less than fifteen feet long. Fortunately this drawing remains in my portfolio; and it shews the importance of preserving memorials of these early monuments, whenever opportunity offers, made with all possible care; for since then the fallen cromlech has utterly disappeard; and the upright one has been so seriously damaged, that its destruction will now be the work of only a few winters – all through the sheer stupidity of men!

I had occasion to pass by the spot last summer, and on going to renew my acquaintance with this venerable monument, found nothing more remaining than what is represented in the accompanying engraving. An “improving tenant” had come upon the farm. He wanted to repair his walls; and though the native rock cropped out all around, he found it more convenient to blast the fallen stone, the very existence of which was probably unknown to either the landlord or his agent. Hence the fallen one disappeared. The tenant, however, seems to have been in some degree aware of the importance of the erect cromlech; for he cut a kind of trench all round it, and by subsequent ploughings has left it standing on a kind of low mound. Formerly it stood in a grass field, among gorse bushes, with no wall near it, and only some broken embankments with Anglesey hedges on the top.

A few years ago the land came by inheritance, on the death of Lord Dinorben, to the present possessor of Kinmel; and the tenant, desirous of shewing respect to his new landlord, determined to celebrate the occasion with a bonfire. This fire he lighted on the top of the cromlech; and though the stone was five feet thick, the action of the fire and the air split the ponderous mass right through the middle, crossways! Of course this injury was not intended; but it was well known and lamented in the neighbourhood, – for several labouring people mentioned the circumstance to me, and regretted it. As it now stands, the combined action of autumn rains and winter frosts will infallibly enlarge the crack, and will complete the disintegration of the stone. The cap, too, stands now on only three stones, and is in the most imminent danger of coming down altogether, for one of them supports it by an extremely small point, very near one of the sides of the triangle of gravity; and so fine is this point, that it is a wonder how it can withstand the great pressure bearing upon it.

The stones are all of a metamorphic character, containing crystals of quartz, chlorite, and feldspar; almost granitic in texture.

Ten men, with three or four horses and some powerful levers, would repair this cromlech in a single day, and guarantee its preservation for ages. But will they do so?

H.L.J.
Oct. 25, 1863.

An impassioned article called ‘Cromlech at Llanvaelog, Anglesey’ in Archaeologia Cambrensis Jan 1864. Both of HLJ’s sketches are in the Images section above.

The Kilmarth Rocks are a lofty range of half a mile in length, running east and west, about two miles northward from the Cheesewring, and in the parish of Linkinhorne, Cornwall. The westernmost pile, represented in the sketch, stands on the summit of this elevated ridge, and is in itself about twenty-eight feet high. It overhands at least twelve or fifteen feet towards the north, and when viewed from the east appears so slightly based, that a man or a strong gale might suffice to shove the whole mass over the tremendous precipice; but when surveyed from the western side its foundation appears more solid, and it will require perhaps many ages to subvert the wonderful pile.

The immense size of many of the granite rocks of which this ridge is formed, and the rude and heterogeneous manner in which they lie one upon another, together with the wildness and extent of the surrounding panorama, overpower the mind with awe and astonishment at the grandeur of the operations of Nature. Towards the north is seen the top of Launceston Castle, also, in clear weather, the Bristol Channel and Lundy Island; to the south-east Plymouth, its Sound, and Mount Edgcumbe; and towards the south-west the Deadman Point and the English Channel, with the bleak midland hills of Devonshire and Cornwall.

A large rock-basin, of about three feet diameter and one foot deep, is on the summit of one of the eastern rocks of Kilmarth.

I would go for the rock basin alone, I love a rock basin.

From
The Cheesewring, Kilmarth Rocks and Trevethy Stone, Cornwall. Penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Jan 23, 1836, 28-29.

...I propose to give a few hitherto unpublished particulars [of the Tolven stone]. It stands at the back of a small farmhouse in Tolven (or Tolvan) Cross, about half a mile from Gweek, on the road from Helston to Truro, and just at the intersection of that road, with a less important one connecting Constantine and Wendron.

The farmhouse was built in 1847 by a John Moyle, whose descendants still occupy it. At the time the house was built the surrounding countryside was wild moorland, overgrown with furze and bracken, and this was cleared by Moyle to make the present Tolven Cross Farm. The two adjoining farms – Upper Tolven and Lower Tolven – were already in existence at the time Moyle commenced to reclaim his little corner of moorland.

When he built the house the Tolven Stone was lying flat upon the moor at the intersection of the roads, and a few feet only from the back wall of the house, and the old man was struck with the idea that by raising it up on one of his edges he would be spared the necessity of building some three yards of the wall separating a little patch of garden from the farmyard, or rather, a pathway from the farmyard to his back-door. This he did, and the stone stands today in the place where the old man put it.

John Moyle died thirty years ago, but his daughter-in-law, who lived in the same house with the old man for some years previous to his death, is still living there with her daughter and grandson, the latter farming the land attached to the house.

One can’t help thinking that the weirdness of the stone is the reason people walking on the ancient roads crossed at that spot (because it was an interesting and obvious landmark). But I’m not sure Mr Beesley would go for this theory. His theory is that the holed Men-An-Tol and this stone are holed because they’re cross bases. That’s a big stone to pick for a cross base though, you have to admit. He says I therefore leave my case in the hands of my readers, who, if they cannot accept my solution of the mystery, will, I feel sure, be tolerant. Ah if only there’d been the TMA Forum in those days. But no, you had to go and find a goose for a quill and boil up some ink, write it in your best handwriting and pop your exasperated response in the post. By which time you probably did feel quite tolerant. Ah they’d have loved the forum wouldn’t they.

From ‘What is the Men-an-tol?’ by George J Beesley, in The Antiquary 8 (April 1912)

The first druidical remain which I shall mention, is called the Rocking-Stone, and two different views thereof are exhibited at No. 1 and 2 of the etched plate attending these remarks.

It is situated so as to be a boundary mark between the two town-ships, Golcar and Slaighthwait in the parish of Huddresfield, on what is called Golcar-Hill, and gives the name of Hole-Stone Moor to the adjoining grounds.

The size of it is about ten feet and half long, nine feet four or five inches broad, and five feet three inches thick. It rests on so small a center, that at one particular point, a man may cause it to rock, though it has been damaged a little in this respect by some masons, who endeavoured to discover the principle on which so large a weight was made to move.

From ‘Druidical Remains in or near the Parish of Halifax in Yorkshire, discovered and explained by the Rev. John Watson, MAFSA and Rector of Stockport in Cheshire’, read at the Society of Antiquaries, Nov. 21, 1771. (Archaeologia v.2).

The grid reference is where the stone is marked on the 1880 map.

There is a local tradition that this stone once occupied a site other than that on which it now stands. It was said that up to about eighty years ago it stood at a rath near by known as the rath Feerwore. Some years ago Patrick Lyons who had been employed by the late Mr Dolphin of Turoe for 40 years a herd pointed out the exact spot was about 10 yards to the west of the rath called Feerwore where the stone once stood. Excavations were made there and some animal remains together with a cist were found. The contents of the cist are supposed to have been human remains indicating cremation and the animal remains a funeral feast.

This is from the Schools Collection of the 1930s. The excavations are reported in the The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, v 14 (1944).

Does anyone know what’s happened with the stone? Did it go to the museum? Did it come back again? Is it still in that bizarre shed? The poor thing deserves a bit of respect.

1930s schoolgirl Maura Cryan wrote so nicely and enthusiastically about this edifice for the National Folklore Collection’s Schools project, I think it would be nice to reproduce her words here.

Situated on an eminence in the MacDermott’s demesne, Clogher, is an old Fort or Fortification. From its location, the plan by which it is laid out, and the thickness of its surrounding walls, one comes to the conclusion that it must have at some time in early history being used for defence purposes. This fort is perfectly circular in shape having a very fine entrance about six feet wide. Enclosed by those walls which are about nine feet wide is a plot of ground about twenty perches in extent, which is uniformly raised to the centre; thereby having what might be termed a nice foot path all around by the inner base of its boundary walls.

There are three underground tunnels in this enclosed area. One, which is by far the longest, has both an entrance and an exit, with a distance of at least twenty yards between. To explore this tunnel a light is required as it leads for most of the way under the main wall. The other two tunnels have only one opening and might be best compared to fairly large sized rooms. One of the latter tunnels is in the enclosed area itself. The other has an entrance under the wall very convenient to the main entrance.

The walls which are about ten feet high have on the inside platform (part of the wall itself) about six feet from the ground which evidently goes to show it was used for defence although local history does not give us much information on the matter. Although another feature which creates the curiosity of the many sight-seers who annually visit it are the huge rocks perfectly placed in position some of them set as high as five or six feet from the ground.

To prove its antiquity, this relic of earlier days, was handed over years ago by its owner to the Royal Antiquarian Society for preservation. This body spent a large amount of money in putting the entire place in order: great care being taken to make no change in its original plan. To further protect from trespass or damage a substantial wire fence was placed around it leaving between the fence and its outer wall a four-foot wall for sight-seers to use. I understand during the time the Society was engaged in its reconstruction among things found were bones and some gold ornaments which were sent to Dublin for expert examination.

This fort is beautifully situated on the top of a hill whose sides being nicely wooded add greatly to its appearance.

Nighthawking – not a recent phenomena (since morons have always existed). I liked his restrained anger:

The hearths and benches of this interesting [hut] circle, which I left complete in the evening, were destroyed before 5.30 the next morning – no doubt by some of those who, fancying that no one could be foolish enough to dig unless he was finding treasure, haunted us during the whole summer, and destroyed much that would otherwise have been of permanent interest. One day I found they had removed the turf from another circle, for the sake of destroying the cooking-hole – a procedure that almost justifies language that would relight the fire.

From the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall v13 (1895-8) – in an article by Thurstan Collins Peter.