Standing Stone Gate

[DeborahJRushworth]

Its great to be able to tap into all this local knowledge and apologies for all the questions but I'd be grateful for help with one more: I have never known where the standing stone of Standing Stone Gate/Lane is? There is a stone built into the wall near Lark Hill Farm but I thought that road was called something else and and Standing Stone Lane was the one that runs towards the Cross Gaits past the riding stables? My Dad thought it was in a field behind a wall, perhaps near the farm on the junction but couldn't remember. I remember we used to ask for Standing Stone Gate on the bus but can't remember where that dropped you off? I am grateful for all the information. Thank you

[Stanley]

Ask as many questions as you like! Your dad was right (bugger!) The area round the modern Standing Stone Farm is confusing because in 1840 when the canal company built Whitemoor reservoir they re-aligned the roads. (The farmhouse itself was rebuilt as well I think, there are ruins in the bed of the reservoir) If you go down the lane opposite the junction and go behind Stanistone bungalow into the field you'll find the remains of the old road and this stone. There are two actually, a stump and the larger one. They mark the boundary of the shire and it's anyone's guess how old they are. Well worth going to have a look because one of these days they'll get tidied up and will vanish.

[DeborahJRushworth]

That's wonderful! Thank you. We did wander about but didn't think to look behind the bungalow. I will go and get my own photo before it disappears as you say.

[DeborahJRushworth]

I was misled re the standing stone by this link:http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=28412


It didn't seem right to me. All around our area, big stones were built into the walls - as who would want to move them. I'm pleased to have you confirm it was on the original Standing Stone Lane. Thanks again.

[Stanley]

Deborah, I've looked at the megalith site. Not convinced, far more likely to be a glacial erratic found when the dam for the reservoir was made and incorporated where it lay in 1840 when the wall was built and the road re-aligned. How do you tell the difference between a glacial erratic and a megalith? When John and I were looking at the Whitemoor map he found a very large erratic at Pasture Head which we decided was the boundary marker mentioned on the map. When they were originally perambulating the country to describe the boundary a notable stone like this would be a ready made marker and incorporated into the boundary line. This doesn't make it a megalith!

[DeborahJRushworth]

I agree. If you walk above Foulridge there are many such stones incorporated into walling. I don't know anything about the megalith website but I guess they are looking for any likely stones to attach significance to and this one happens to have ended up being by the roadside so easily spotted. The location of the stone in your photo is a much more likely candidate. I was browsing the Lancashire Witches book a while ago and they talk about perambulating the boundaries (around Roughlee I think). I ran out of patience with the book, but I think one of the charges against Mrs Nutter was that she had moved such large stones to increase the boundary of her own land. They decided that the only way they could have been moved was by witchcraft and of course it all came to a sad end.

[Tizer]

How do you tell the difference between a glacial erratic and a megalith?

Glacial erratics are carried long distances before they are finally deposited and, by definition, they are made of a different rock from the ground on which they now stand. The name megalith simply means, of course, big stone but the term is used more often to denote a big stone used in some form of ancient construction, or a construction made from such big stones. Thanks to Stonehenge and Time Team we are most familiar with `big stones' transported large distances by humans but I imagine this activity was only justified for mystical and religious reasons - if you wanted a big stone just to hold up your wall you would probably choose the nearest one you could find or, even better, design your wall to go from one big stone to another (our ancestors weren't daft!) This is what they did in Penwith (far western Cornwall) thousands of years ago, a sort of `join up the dots' wall building design to cope with the very large boulders that litter the landscape there. The distribution of fields, walls and boundaries owes more there to geomorphology than to human design.