Before the birth of geology, people must have had an explanation for some of the strange boulders and rock faces found in the English landscape.
Magic Mother Stones
Across the land, particularly in Essex, there are numerous unusual stones to be found, both large and small. Farmers once believed that there was no real point in picking stones from their fields as the land would ‘only grow more’. One tale tells of a Colchester farmer whose old uncle kept a “Mother-stone” on his window-sill believing that pebbles were its offspring. Giant Plum Pudding stones Essex has many ‘pudding stones’ - so called as they resemble giant plum puddings containing small browny-red pebbles like currants - were once believed to be imbued with magical and medicinal powers.
Conglomerates
Technically known as ‘conglomerates’, stones varied in size from a few centimetres across to about two metres and resemble concrete. When Pope Gregory’s missionaries attempted to convert the pagan Britons to Christianity in AD 596, the holy brothers did all they could to discourage devil stone-worship, yet superstition has lingered on in some parts of the county even today. Large stones were often built into the base of churches such as those at Broomfield, Fyfield, Dunmow and North Stifford. A line of boulders stretches from the River Lea towards Epping Upland, Marks Tey, Waltham Abbey and Ugley Green. Some believe the stones were used as markers by the early tribes of East Anglia.
The Ghostly Moving Stone at Beauchamp Roding
An interesting story surrounds the huge stone found in the churchyard at St Botolph’s at Beauchamp Roding in Essex. In centuries past when the villagers started building the church they chose a site near the village, dragging the huge stone down that had stood on top of the hill. Next morning it had gone, and was back on top of the hill. Undaunted, the stalwarts dragged it down again, only to find it back on top of the hill. After this had happened for the third time, the villagers gave in to divine intervention and built the church on the hilltop.
Leper Stone
A large stone can be seen at Newport known as the ‘Leper stone’. Some believe it was the spot where villagers left food for the lepers, others say that it was used for cleaning coins that might have been handled by the lepers before being passed to the stall-holders of the market nearly. The cleansing water was contained in the hollow top of the stone.
Ancient stones
Boulders and stones gave their names to many English towns and villages such as Leytonstone (meaning the stone at Leyton). In 1780 Philip Morant wrote: ‘On the road to Epping is Leyton Stone, most probably from one of the Roman military stones placed there.’ Alphamstone near Colchester probably takes its name from the large stone built into the west wall of the nave of St Catherine’s Church and believed to date back to the Bronze Age. There is also Ingatestone, whose great boulder, brought down during the last Ice Age, is now split into two pieces which are positioned at the junction of Fryerning Lane and the High Street.
Source:
Morant, Phillip, The History of the County of Essex, privately published (1780)
Kent, Sylvia, Folklore of Essex, Tempus Publishing Limited, (2005)
Join the Conversation