Tag: Churchill

Cornwell Stone, Salford, Oxfordshire

megalithix

Standing Stone:  OS Grid References – SP 2770 2785

Getting Here

Go west along the A44 from Salford village ’til just before the crossroad with the A436. 100 yards before here there’s a small left turn, downhill, past Hollis Hill Farm and Park Farm. Before reaching Cornwell at the bottom, walk into the fields to your left and find the township boundary (on 1:25,000 OS maps), which is marked with old hedges.  It’s in here!

Archaeology & History

Walk along the line of old hedges, checking either side if it’s overgrown, until you find this well-worn three-foot tall standing stone (exact coordinate SP 2770 2785) standing in the hedgerow. It’s a cute little thing which may have marked the old boundary line, but it has a distinctly prehistoric feel and look to it, in a region where many old prehistoric remains still linger…

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul & Wilson, Tom, The Old Stones of Rollright and District, Cockley: London 1999.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Boulter’s Barn Stone, Churchill, Oxfordshire

megalithix

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SP 2938 2569

Also known as:

  1. Churchill Stone

Getting Here

Boulter's Barn standing stone, Churchill (Tom Wilson)
Boulter’s Barn stone (© Tom Wilson)

This stone stands on the south-side of the B4450 just north of the crossroads, halfway between Churchill and Chipping Norton.  Generally troublesome to see at first as it tends to get hidden in the hedgerow, but it aint too difficult to locate with a bitta patience.

Archaeology & History

First described in O.G.S. Crawford’s (1925) fine survey of megalithic remains following a letter he received from a local man, Mr A.D. Passmore, who first drew it to the attention of archaeologists.  Crawford told:

“This stone is a little over a mile southwest of Chipping Norton station.  It stands in the hedge on the northwest side of the road and is about four feet high… Nothing more is known about it, but it seems not unlikely that it may be of considerable antiquity.”

A few years later Leslie Grinsell (1936) mentioned it in his fine survey of prehistoric English tombs and associated remains, describing here, “a large stone which may be the remains of a megalithic monument.”  Tom Wilson then illustrated it in our crappy little Old Stones of Rollright (1999) work (which really needs updating and expanding).  It’s a cute little stone and may have once served as a companion to a prehistoric tomb as there are many others nearby.  It is also quite close to one of the local boundary lines and, p’raps, might once have served as a marker hereabouts.  We might never know…

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul & Wilson, Tom, The Old Stones of Rollright and District, Cockley: London 1999.
  2. Crawford, O.G.S., The Long Barrows of the Cotswolds, John Bellows: Gloucester 1925.
  3. Grinsell, Leslie V., The Ancient Burial Mounds of England, Methuen: London 1936.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian