Old Stones of the Cotswolds & Forest of Dean: A survey of megaliths and mark stones past and present

By D.P. Sullivan

A Survey of Megaliths and Mark Stones - Past and Present: This guide to old stones in the Cotswolds and Forest of Dean is designed for the curious, the megalith hunter, walker and antiquary alike. It shows the stones' locations, history, folklore and legend.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reardon Publishing
• Release date: Sep 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781874192688

Book preview

G-Tewkesbury

INTRODUCTION

A glance at the Ordnance Survey or any guide to prehistoric sites in England will reveal little in the way of ancient stones in Gloucestershire. The county can boast a considerable number of long barrows whose megaliths remain largely buried, but no stone circles and, apparently, few standing stones. The reality, however, is a legacy of many monoliths, lost megaliths, forgotten mark stones, boundary stones, once venerated natural rocks and ancient milestones scattered all over the county.

In the research for this survey an invaluable source of information has been Ο G S Crawford’s Long Barrows of the Cotswolds, published in the late 1920s, which lists many sites, both natural and man-made. Crawford’s interest in long barrows led him to conclude that most standing stones were either remains of the chambers of denuded barrows, or, at best, natural boulders, or recent erections. In some cases it is now accepted that certain prehistoric standing stones were unlikely to have been part of a long barrow and that they were erected for some, now, unknown purpose.

Alfred Watkins of Hereford, in the 1920s, postulated that single standing stones were erected to mark ‘the old straight track, prehistoric trading routes which made their way in dead straight lines across country, linking prominent topographical features. He coined the term ley to describe these ancient alignments. The full account of his discovery and theories can be found in his book The Old Straight Track. Mark stones were placed along the track to guide the traveller and were often placed at the crossing point of two leys. An important stone in the Forest of Dean, in the parish of Staunton, is the Long Stone. This is located at the crossing point of two major alignments of ancient sites, running north-south and east-west. A description of ‘The Leyline Cross’, is given by its discoverer, Ray Wright, in his book Secret Forest.

Much recent thinking into the ley hypothesis has linked ancient standing stones to a form of terrestrial energy. Dowsers, water diviners and certain sensitive people claim to be able to detect this energy which is prominent at certain specific locations. This detectable effect is probably electromagnetic in origin, and it has been suggested that prehistoric man was aware of these forces and marked their location with sacred structures such as stone circles and standing stones. In this way these special places could always be recognised and readily located.

A research project was set up some ten years ago to investigate scientifically whether the ‘energies’, believed by dowsers and fringe antiquarians alike to be present at ancient sacred sites, had any basis in reality. This investigation was the Dragon Project and its tentative conclusions can be found in Paul Devereux’s Places of Power, the first attempt to frame the findings of the Project in a theoretical context. Devereux suggests that sacred places may have been selected or sited by prehistoric peoples in order to utilise specific environmental effects to enhance magical, shamanistic and other activities and rituals that took place there. He shows that many ancient sacred sites are associated with anomalous geophysical effects such as strange lights, paranormal events and electromagnetic energy effects. Similar effects, in relation to some of the Gloucestershire stones, are described in the following survey.

The record of folklore, anecdotal evidence for anomalous phenomena and the body of evidence from dowsers and psychics, who claim to have detected energy effects at ancient sites, suggests that our ancestors may have developed a technology whereby their shamans, priests or holy men could interact with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness brought about by contact with localised electromagnetic energy fields. Such fields occur naturally at venerated spots and were marked, and possibly enhanced, by the erection of megalithic structures such as stone circles and standing stones.

It is notoriously difficult to date the erection of a standing stone, but