Simon Close
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Standing Stone of unknown provenance in Glos
Feb 24, 2024, 02:50
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About 15-20 years ago I was made aware of a 'standing stone' very close to where I grew up, it is situated deep in the grounds of a public school in Gloucestershire.
I took some photographs (35mm film only, so not the greatest quality) and more or less forgot about it until chatting about such things with my Sister and ex Brother-in-Law on Christmas Day last year. Then last week while tidying up my old laptop I re-found the scanned negatives and I've stuck them up on the Megalithic Portal.
https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=59671
I have no idea whether it's a genuine antiquity and it looked like it had been re-erected at some point, possibly from another location. I used to play around in the area when I was a kid 50 years ago, I don't remember it being there then but my 10 year old self would have had very little interest in such things! Had it been lying flat I almost certainly wouldn't even have noticed. There were a couple of large chunks next to it which looked like they could have been broken off the stone itself.
I haven't been back to it since I took the photos and have found no reference to it in online records or on maps.
It's 3km from the well-known Minchinhampton Longstone and 2.5km from Rodborough Horestone that amazingly was found in someone's garden in 2001.
Any thoughts/information would be welcome.
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thesweetcheat
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Re: Standing Stone of unknown provenance in Glos
Feb 24, 2024, 07:12
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Ooh, that's interesting. It's very angular and sharp at the edges, I assume it's a limestone slab so you might expect more erosion if it was Bronze Age, but it's certainly not impossible that it's a fallen stone which has been re-erected. Is it on any boundaries (estate, parish, etc)? There are a few smaller standing stones on Minchinhampton Common that are probably medieval or post-medieval boundary stones of some kind.
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GLADMAN
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Re: Standing Stone of unknown provenance in Glos
Feb 24, 2024, 09:42
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Ultimately it comes down to landscape context, I guess. Same as with cairns and barrows where you have to ask yourself 'if it's not genuine, what other reason could there be for it being here?'
I'm aware from my wanderings that farmers are apt to erect 'scratching posts' - although no doubt the odd fallen monolith re-erected did the job in that respect? Was this land ever part of a farm?
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Simon Close
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Re: Standing Stone of unknown provenance in Glos
Feb 25, 2024, 00:52
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Yes almost certainly a limestone slab.
Roughly near the Minchinhampton/Nailsworth boundary. so a boundary maker is possible.
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