|
 Log in |
Register
|
|
 Head To Head The Modern Antiquarian London Forum | Start a topic | Search |
20 messages | Select a forum: |
| I’ve mentioned this before on a recent thread about ‘London Stones’ and slackboy has just mentioned it on the site as well. So this seems a good time to get some help on this one boys and girls. There is a sarsen that has been erected in Lampton Park, Hounslow (TQ133762) right next to where I work. I haven't added it to TMA because it was a sarsen that was found and then erected in a park (and presumably erected very badly as it is being held up by an ugly bracing made of red bricks!). The stone is set in concrete and is about 1.5m tall and 1.2m wide. It has some strange grooves and holes in it. A plaque reads “The sarsen was unearthed in the course of excavating gravel at a point 265 yards north-west of here where it was found resting on the London Clay at approximately 25ft below ground level. It weighs 2 ½ tonnes. The stone is a hardened remnant of a bed of sand laid down under a sea that covered the area some 50 million year ago. This bed has now vanished having been removed by denudation. Half a million years ago perhaps, the stone may have reached the position by some natural means that can only be conjectured. This geological note, arranged in collaboration with the Nature Conservancy, is based on information supplied by courtesy of the Geological Survey and the London Natural history Society. The stone was set in its present position by the Borough Council in the year 1951.” I know very little about geology, nor sarsens. Can we assume that this is just a natural stone that has no human significance? As it was found at a depth of 25 ft does that mean it would never have been at surface level? Help me in my ignorance here – is there some possibility this meant something to people in years gone by or is it just a sarsen that was dug up and stuck vaguely upright by come geologists in a rather shabby park? NB – Whilst spending time on the fantastic ‘Hampshire Treasures’ resource, I’ve noticed that lots and lots of single sarsen stones are listed individually as ‘treasures’ under a ‘natural features’ category. Are sarsens so special?? Reply | with quote |  3rd July 2003ce 00:33 |
Top of page