papageno
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Beauchamp Roding Puddingstone
Jun 10, 2011, 23:58
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Hi
First time poster here. Does anyone have any information about the Beauchamp Roding Puddingstone stone? It's next to a church (or the church is next to it).
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=10506
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Littlestone
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Re: Beauchamp Roding Puddingstone
Jun 11, 2011, 07:08
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Short entry here by Earthstepper. Might check it out over the weekend. Meanwhile you might be interested in this amazing little fella at Broomfield.
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moss
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Edited Jun 11, 2011, 19:19
Re: Beauchamp Roding Puddingstone
Jun 11, 2011, 18:11
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papageno wrote: Ah thanks. Looks interesting, but a bit far for me to cycle from here.
The Beauchamp stone and church are a fair bit off the main road, with a dirt road leading to the church and a dead end. Feels like the church location was not chosen for accessability, but perhaps because of the stone, or that the site had some significance.
We went today, and it is a very tranquil setting for a church. Following the course of the brook through the fields and the first thing you notice is that the church is set on the highest part of the ridge, surrounded by a ditch on all sides. Information on the web says it is of 'considerable antiquity'. The church is pure Norman, no roman materials or stones are part of the building.. Given that the Saxon Greensted church is only a few miles away, it might have been a similar Saxon settlement, and there is also a barrow just outside Chipping Ongar according to my map.
The stone is odd, sharply angled but it has traces of puddlestone, it sits at right angles to the church, maybe it was part of the Puddingstone Track, but there is no evidence of a track now. Two large badger holts on either side of the churchyard under old yews and rabbit burrows galore, probably shows that the mound of earth on which the church sits is pretty porous...
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Littlestone
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Re: Beauchamp Roding Puddingstone
Jun 11, 2011, 18:26
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Got out there today and have added a couple of more pics to the site.
It’s a bit of a mystery: it’s on a rise, with a nearby water source (similar to so many pre-Roman sites round here) but it feels very different somehow (no Roman tiles in the church fabric that we could see for example). The stone itself is lovely but not much of a pudding – more like a sarsen with a bit of pudding here and there. Can’t even be sure if it’s standing as it was originally intended - the very flat edge (now vertical) might once have been its base.
Arguments for the stone being something more than just a boundary marker, or another stone from the Puddingstone Trail, is its location in the north-east part of the churchyard and, for this neck of the woods, pretty unusual in size.
Moss has written more about it here - http://northstoke.blogspot.com/2011/06/stbotolphs-church-puddingstone.html
Thanks for the pointer – found a nice pub on the way back as well ;-)
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papageno
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Re: Beauchamp Roding Puddingstone
Jun 11, 2011, 18:48
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Ah thanks. Looks interesting, but a bit far for me to cycle from here.
The Beauchamp stone and church are a fair bit off the main road, with a dirt road leading to the church and a dead end. Feels like the church location was not chosen for accessability, but perhaps because of the stone, or that the site had some significance.
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Littlestone
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Edited Jun 12, 2011, 13:59
Re: Beauchamp Roding Puddingstone
Jun 12, 2011, 12:58
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No prob papageno – we only live a few miles from the place.
Apart from Broomfield there’s also Ingatestone which is closer to you and Ugley - details posted on the Portal by Thorgrim (Earthstepper on TMA). Thorgrim’s done a lot of work on Essex stones so you might want follow some of his links to places.
Happy hunting :-)
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papageno
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Re: Beauchamp Roding Puddingstone
Jun 12, 2011, 13:30
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Wow, I can't believe you went out there on the basis of my query. Do you know of any other sites in the area? I'm based in london, and it was a 60 mile round trip to get there and back on the old bicycle. I felt a bit strange approaching the church, it being so isolated and quiet. Like I was intruding on its solitude. Indeed, it is a very peaceful place.
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