Follow the same directions as if you’re visiting the Polisher Stone at the top-end of Overton Down where it meets Fyfield Down. From here, walk down the slope for a hundred yards or so where you’ll notice, just above the long grassy level, a line of ancient walling running nearly east to west. It’s very close to the yellow marker in the attached aerial image shot to the right. If you walk along this line of walling you’ll find what you’re looking for.
Archaeology & History
Overton’s Holed Stone
As I’ve only been here once, and briefly — under the guidance of the Avebury expert Pete Glastonbury — my bearings on this site may need revising. There are two distinct sections of walling here: one has been excavated by Peter Fowler and his team; the other hasn’t. (correct me if I’m wrong Pete) And in Fowler’s (2000) fine survey of this area he does not describe this very distinct holed-stone in the line of walling, or adjacent “linear ditch F4”, as it was called. But then, many archaeologists don’t tend to find items such as these of any interest (unless their education stretches to other arenas, which isn’t usually the case). But the stone seems to be in a section of walling that isn’t in their survey; standing out in aerial imagery as a less well-defined, but still obvious line of walling that is closer to the fence, 70-80 yards north, with a decidedly Iron-Age look about it!
But, precision aside! — as you can see in the photos, the holed stone here isn’t very tall — less than 2 feet high; though we don’t know how deep the stone is set into the ground. This spot is on my “must visit again” list for the next time we’re down here!
There’s nowt specific to this stone, nor line of walling, nor settlement (as far as I know), but it seems right to mention the fact that in British and European folklore and peasant traditions, that holed stones just like the one found here have always been imbued with aspects of fertility — for obvious reasons. Others like this have also acquired portentous abilities; whilst others have become places where deeds and bonds were struck, with the stone playing ‘witness’ to promises made.
References:
Fowler, Peter, Landscape Plotted and Pierced: Landscape History and Local Archaeology in Fyfield and Overton, Wiltshire, Society of Antiquaries: London 2000.
Stone Circle (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NY 37 50
Archaeology & History
Listed in Burl’s (2000) magnum opus, this is another long-lost megalithic ring, whose exact location seems to have been forgotten. An early description of the site by William Whellan (1860) told us that,
“There was formerly a circle of rude stones, ten yards in diameter, near the village, supposed to have been the remains of a Druidical temple; and a little distance from it, was a tumulus, three yards high and eight in diameter.”
More than a hundred years later in Waterhouse’s (1985) fine survey, he described the circle, saying:
“It lay near the village of Dalton…near the River Caldew… An 18th century account describes it as consisting of ‘rude’ stones…set in a circle of diameter about 27m. East of the the centre of the circle were four large stones lying on top of each other. They may have been the remains of a cist, or possibly a tumbled cove, like that inside the circle-henge of Arbor Low in Derbyshire. A tumulus may have stood nearby.”
There are however some discrepancies in the descriptions between Whellan and Waterhouse. In the former, the site of Chapel Flat is talked of separately as being the abode of a hermit in the lost chapel of St. Wynemius, “in a deep and romantic part of the vale of Caldew.” The description of the stone circle immediately follows this, but is spoken of as merely being “near the village.”
Does anyone know anything further about this once important site? Did the lost hermitage on Chapel Flat actually have anything to do with the stone circle?
References:
Burl, Aubrey, The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 2000.
Waterhouse, John, The Stone Circles of Cumbria, Phillimore: Chichester 1985.
Whellan, William, The History and Topography of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, Comprising their Ancient and Modern History, W.Whellan: Pontefract 1860.
Near the western end of the Middle Ridge, south of Dryas Dike, it’s probably best reached following the same directions to find carving no.435, walking past it but then following the footpath down onto the moor 100 yards further down the slope. Walk along here for about 200 yards till you get to the boundary stone. You’re close!
Archaeology & History
Sketch of carving 446Smiley Stone carving
First described by Stuart Feather and described by him in 1966, this small rounded stone comprises of nine or ten cup-markings with a long, enclosing line that circuitously goes around four or five of them. It’s a curious-looking design which, from one angle, gives the impression of a smiley face — hence the name (this is Boughey & Vickerman’s name for it — not mine!).
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Feather, Stuart, ‘Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings – no.43 and 44: Middleton Moor, Ilkley,’ in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 11:4, 1966.
Just below Black Hill in the Middleton Moor Enclosure, little more than 10 yards east of the footpath on the east side of Loftshaw Gill, the slope drops down and into a slight ‘bowl’ in the landscape. Here it is!
Archaeology & History
This is a previously undiscovered prehistoric settlement, enclosure, or something along those lines! We came across it in April 2005 and is found amidst the mixed heather and bracken and has a scattering of small stones, as if in the wake of a dried stream from bygone times. But whatever stream might once have been here, it’s long since fallen back to Earth — but at a point where a few rushes (Juncus conglomeratus) can be seen we find the aged remains of a large oval enclosure.
Similar in form to the other remains located up here by Eric Cowling (1946) in the 1930s and ’40s, when Richard Stroud and I first found this, structural remains of distinct lengths of walling were visible – but once the vegetation started growing back here again, it was almost impossible to discern.
Faint remains of enclosure walling
The main archaeological remains comprises of an oval-shaped structure, with what seemed liked a distinct Bronze Age note stamped on the walling — though it could be earlier, but without excavation it’s impossible to say. Most of the walling was just above ground-level, making it difficult to appreciate in the photo. It measures approximately 40 feet north-south and 33 feet east-west. The walling itself averages between 18-24 inches wide and was no more than one-foot tall at the highest. Near the middle of the enclosure there were further sections of walling indicating different ‘rooms’ in the overall structure of things here.
Like I say, we unfortunately couldn’t get a decent image of this site cos the vegetation was already covering it up. So if you wanna see it, gerrup there soon after the heather burning’s been done here — otherwise it’s gonna be at least another year before you getta chance to see anything. In Richard Stroud’s photo here, you’re looking at the bottom curve of the enclosure. You can just make out the line of walling near the centre of the picture, and two-thirds the way to the right you can see the enclosure wall curve closer to the bottom of the photo. (the site obviously requires a much better assessment from someone far more competent than me!)
References:
Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
From the little hamlet of Langbar, head up to the steep footpath to Beamsley Beacon and from there along the footpath get yourself between the giant cairn known as The Old Pike and Round Hill. About halfway between these two points the moor levels out (with brilliant views in all directions) and 200 yards southeast of the upright boundary stone, this well-defined carved rock is just a few yards north off the footpath. It seems to be just over the boundary line of Middleton Moor and onto the Beamsley Moor side (not that you give a shit when you’re up here ambling about – but the cartographers like to get things right I s’ppose!).
Archaeology & History
…and from another angleSketch of the design
Near the very top of the moor this one — this is a small carving that I rediscovered in March 2005, much of it covered in peat and heather. It’s very similar to some of the central designs found on the Baildon Moor cup-and-ring carvings, with four cup-markings (3 are deep) in a slight arc to the southern edge of this small, squared stone, very much like carvings 126 and 130 in the Boughey & Vickerman (2003) survey. However, unlike the Baildon Moor examples, no burials seem to accompany this carving—although the surrounding heather may be hiding other archaeological remains.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Follow the same directions to reach the Middleton Moor carvings, numbers 436 and 437, up along the footpath. This is the easiest to find as it’s right beside the footpath – as Richard Stroud’s photograph clearly shows.
Archaeology & History
Drawing of CR-435Middleton Moor CR-435
Near a cluster of other cup-and-ring marked rocks, this decent example can be found besides what may be a prehistoric trackway running roughly east-west over the Long Ridge to Foldshaw Ridge. Amazingly, this stone was never previously catalogued until Boughey & Vickerman’s survey in 2003. Just goes to show what y’ can find if y’ gerrof yer arses and look for yerselves! Comprising at least thirty cups and several lines, one faint cup-and-ring is discernible on the western edge of the stone.
If you walk westwards, back up to the hilltop from here (only a couple of hundred yards), a single upright stone which some might consider megalithic, stands right before your eyes! An excellent spot!
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Follow the same directions to get to the Middleton Moor Carving 437, along the Ridge Way footpath, and this stone is just a few yards away.
Archaeology & History
This all-but insignificant carving was first described in Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) survey, as a “small rough grit rock sloping into turf” with what may be two faint cup-markings etched on its surface. Unless you’re a bittova rock-art fanatic, this might not be of much interest to you! (thanks to Richard Stroud for use of his photo!)
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Head for the gorgeous little hamlet of Langbar, a few miles northwest of Ilkley. Less than ½-mile before the village, keep your eyes out for the footpath bearing east onto the moors at Moor End Farm (right-hand side of road if you’ve travelled from Ilkley). Walk along the Long Ridge footpath to where the fields on your left finish and the moorland proper opens up. Hereabouts, check the stones in the heather to your right! If you amble about looking, you’ll find it!
Archaeology & History
Crap drawing of CR-437
This is another one of those carvings for the purists amongst you. Less than ten yards off the footpath on Long Ridge is this medium-sized rock with several cup-marks, and lines, on both its top and vertical faces. Boughey & Vickerman (2003) think there to be at least five cups on the top, with perhaps nine on the vertical east face, though some of these are debatable. (the drawing I’ve done is from their book)
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
We were graciously guided to this spot by local archaeological authority, Pete Glastonbury — which is good, cos otherwise it’d have probably taken us all day to find the damn thing! Best way to get here is out of the Avebury circle, east, up for about a mile up the Herepath or Green Street till you hit the ancient track of the Ridgeway. Turn left and walk up the gentle slope for another 350 yards or so, then note the footpath on your right. Go down the slope for about 150 yards, keeping your eyes peeled for the smooth rock with the slits in it, not far from the Holed Stone!
Archaeology & History
Although classified on the Wiltshire Sites & Monuments Record as an “unclassified feature,” this is one of a number of whetstones (as we call ’em up North) that feature in various settings in and around the Avebury region: literally, a rock used for sharpening axes, daggers and other metallic artifacts. First rediscovered in the spring of 1963 by a Mr Inigo Jones when he was out exploring the many rocks hereby for rare lichens and any more cup-markings like the one at nearby Fyfield Down, the site we see today is merely a long piece of stone with five or six long lines or grooves cut into the top-end, along which the ancient weapons and tools slid and cut into the rock, sharpening them.
It was thought until recently that this was the prime function of this stone; but following excavation work done here by Pete Fowler and his team in 1963, it seems that the stone actually stood upright! Digs were made on three sides of the stone and some earlier disturbance seemed apparent:
“The material appeared to be redeposited on top of an earlier ground surface, inferentially of medieval or earlier date. At the north end of the sarsen bench, the lip of a pit or trench was partly excavated. It showed clearly in plan as a feature dug into the top of an undated surface level with the disturbed top of the clay-with-flints; it was filled with flinty, clayey humus similar to that through which it was cut. In the top of that fill was a heavily weathered sarsen, c 0.6m by 0.45m, and a cluster of smaller, broken sarsen stones. The hole was at least 0.45m deep, its bottom as excavated marked by an increase in the density of flints. The evidence, though incomplete, suggested very strongly that the feature was part of a hole dug to take the pollisoir as an upright stone.” (my italics, Ed)
In the same dig, a medieval coin of King John (1199-1216) and the remains of a medieval horseshoe were found beneath the stone, giving Fowler and his team the notion that the stone had been split and pushed over at this period. Consistent evidence of activity from the neolithic period onwards was expected and found here.
In Lacaille’s (1963) original description of the site, he gave a most accurate description of the dimensions of the stone and its incisions. Highlighting its proximity to a cluster of other stones, as well as being close to a wide ditch, Lacaille’s measurements were thus:
“From 1ft (0.31m) above ground at its south end the regular surface of the sarsen slopes to the grass, its main axis being aligned about 15° west of the true north and south line. In length the stone measures 5ft 6in (1.68m) above the grass, and 2ft 10in (0.86m) in width.
“Closely grouped in the south-eastern corner of the sarsen there are six hollows. In plan the largest and southernmost is of long elliptical shape, 1ft 8in (0.5m) long and 9in (0.23m) at widest and 1in (0.0254m) deep. From its wider end near the eastern long margin there protrudes a short groove. Beside this, and curving slightly inward, there is another groove, 1¼in (0.028m) wide and ½in (0.013m) deep. It is as long as the large basin-like cavity. Next to it there runs one of similar length and width, but of only half the depth. In turn, a third groove, ½in (0.013m) wide, 1ft 8in (0.5m) long, has been worn at right angles to the long edge but to a much deeper hollow than its companions. At 2in (o.051m) to the north a lesser version of the main basin occurs. Like this it measures 1ft 8in (0.5m) in length, but is only 2¼in (0.058m) wide and ¾in (0.016m) deep. Vague in places over its interior length of 10in (0.25m), but attaining a maximum width of 1¼in (0.028m), a last hollowing shows faintly at both ends and nowhere deeper than 1/8in (0.0032m).”
The Polisher & its marksCeloria & Lacaille’s 1963 drawing of the stone
It appears that this fallen standing stone was being used to sharpen knives and axes whilst it stood upright and, in all probability, as a result of this ability would have been possessed of magickal properties to our ancestors. Metalwork was an important province of shamanism and smiths, whose practices were deeply enmeshed in the very creation of mythical cosmologies. Hence, the simple act nowadays of sharpening metal tools onto rocks would not have been a mere profanity to the people who came and used this stone to re-empower their weapons, but would have been entwined within a magickal cosmology. The spirit inherent in this stone would likely have been named and recognised. Today it is forgotten…
It also seems that this standing stone was part of some ancient walling. Aerial views clearly show it along the line of some sort of enclosure that runs down the slope, along the bottom and back up and around. In the same stretch of this enclosure walling we find the Holed Stone a little further down the slope. And holed stones, as any student of folklore and occult history will tell you, have long-established magickal properties of their own…
References:
Fowler, Peter, Landscape Plotted and Pierced: Landscape History and Local Archaeology in Fyfield and Overton, Wiltshire, Society of Antiquaries: London 2000.
Grigson, Geoffrey, The Shell Country Alphabet, Michael Joseph: London 1966.
From the Avebury stone circle, walk out eastwards and straight up the ancient Ridgeway for about a mile until it levels out and meets up with the adjoining track upon the hilltop. Instead of going left or right, go straight across and onto the footpath that crosses Overton Down, until you reach the wide horse-racing track lookalike called ‘the Gallops.’ Stop – don’t go on it – and follow the fence down for a coupla hundred yards till you’ll see the fenced-off rise with a modern ‘barrow’ enclosed within. You’re very close! From here, go another 100 yards or so down and keep your eyes on the rise of land with rocks scattered around it. That’s it!
Archaeology & History
From all accounts, there’s been nowt of any consequence written about this site — which is bloody incredible to be honest!! We came here on a fine day (that’s Mikki, Geoff and June) in the company of the local Avebury magus, Pete Glastonbury. Crossing Overton Down towards an experimental “barrow” that some archaeo’s have knocked-up, the rise in the land here stands out quite clearly, saying (at the very least), “look at me!” But until Pete Fowler (2000) first described this “unrecorded kerbed round barrow” a few years back, it had escaped the noses of all previous archaeological surveys! How!?
What the hell do archaeologists in the Avebury area do with themselves if they can’t pick this sorta monument out!? But anyway…
Overton Down cairn – looking NW
This is quite a large rounded cairn structure by the look of it. At least 30-feet across, probably kerbed from the initial look (only for a few minutes, sadly). Local writer Terence Meaden has apparently found the site of some importance in his studies (not yet published). Its position here in the landscape was what caught my attention more than anything: it stands on the crest of the hill and has superb uninterrupted views far across the Avebury landscape. This siting was obviously quite deliberate. Less than 100 yards due north of here are two curiously placed stones which may ‘frame’ the cairn for a southern lunar alignment. I had no time to look at this really, so it would be good if some local Avebury dood could check this out. The outlying stones may be merely fortuitous, but it’d be good to know for sure!
The site has been plotted amidst a mass of landscape changes dating from the neolithic to medieval periods. It seems probable, on first impression, that the ‘cairn’ is of Bronze Age in character (though could be earlier), but until detailed analysis has been made we obviously won’t know for sure. A short distance to the south we have the much-denuded Overton Down site X1: another Bronze Age burial that yielded three beaker graves when Fowler excavated the place in the 1960s.
For those of you into geomancy, meditation and the subjective realms of genius loci, this one really grabbed me. Give it a go and lemme know what you get. But please, no stupid pagan or New Age offerings — the site doesn’t need that sorta thing.
References:
Fowler, Peter, Landscape Plotted and Pierced: Landscape History and Local Archaeology in Fyfield and Overton, Wiltshire, Society of Antiquaries: London 2000.
