The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

     

Bush Bank

Standing Stone / Menhir

<b>Bush Bank</b>Posted by thesweetcheatImage © A. Brookes (13.2.2010)
This site is of disputed antiquity. If you have any information that could help clarify this site's authenticity, please post below or leave a post in the forum.
Nearest Town:Leominster (9km NNE)
OS Ref (GB):   SO449515 / Sheets: 148, 149
Latitude:52° 9' 30.79" N
Longitude:   2° 48' 19.97" W

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<b>Bush Bank</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Bush Bank</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Bush Bank</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Bush Bank</b>Posted by thesweetcheat

Fieldnotes

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Visited 27.6.10.
Very easy to find. Take the left hand turn off from the A4110 at Bush Bank (pub on the corner of turning). About 60 yards down the lane the stone is clearly visible in the verge on your left opposite the drive to Merriedown House. It is about 3ft high, next to a telegrath pole. Whilst I was looking at the stone a chap came along who said he was a local archaeologist. He said that he kept the grass cut around the stone (top man!) and that there were quite a few people who came to visit. He then showed me what he thought was a ridge cut into the stone (about a third of the way from the top) and that he had a theory that it was possibly once the bottom part of a stone cross. He also stated the the stone had been removed from a local field and placed in its current position in the 1930's.
Worth a look if you happen to be in the area.
Posted by CARL
9th July 2010ce

Fieldnotes from Bush Bank and slightly beyond (13.2.2010). The 501 bus stops within 100 yards of the stone, so not much effort required to get to this one. A small upright stone of (I guess) sandstone, very shaggy with moss on its eastern face. It has apparently been re-erected and did not originally stand in this position, which is on the embanked verge of a minor road, not far from the Roman road (A4110) making its way to Kenchester (Magnis) a few miles to the south. Local ley-hunter Alfred Watkins assigned it as the remains of a wayside cross but is has been considered as a Bronze Age standing stone elsewhere (see Miscellaneous post).

There's not much to give away its origins, but it's worth a quick visit as it is so easily accessible and because Herefordshire is hardly overburdened with megaliths (of which more shortly). From here I set off for Canon Pyon round barrow, via Kings Pyon village. The church in Kings Pyon is very odd! It's built on top of huge mound, on the top of which is what appears to be bank and ditch (ditch on the inside, like a henge). No idea if this is in any way significant. It could be a Christianised prehistoric site, but equally a medieval construction or modern landscaping. Inside the church (nice medieval beamed roof - sorry I'm rather out of TMA remit here), was an extraordinary single-sided leaflet:

"This church stands on a site sacred to our ancestors for at least 5,000 years. At Midsummer, they would look towards the Stone at Bush Bank at the sun rising over the Stone Circle atop Westhope Hill and onwards to stones where now stand Stoke Prior, Pudlestone and Bockleton churches; at the Midwinter sun rising over stones preceding churches at Wellington, Marden, Withington, Stock Edith, Little Marcle and Donnington. The Circles fell into disuse and now our Churches are threatened from all sides."

So I'm apparently in the middle of a megalithic complex and ritual landscape to rival Wiltshire. Apart from the fact that there is nothing but an over-active imagination and complete conjecture to support any of this, what a surreal thing to find in a village church!

From here it's onwards past the (to my now fevered brain) proto-Silbury of Pyon Hill to the round barrow, with visions of a hitherto undiscovered world of Herefordshire stone circles, henges and monoliths in mind.
thesweetcheat Posted by thesweetcheat
14th February 2010ce

Miscellaneous

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Bit of a "disputed antiquity" one this:

In "Prehistoric Sites of Herefordshire" (1994 Logaston Press), George Children and George Nash claim this as a Bronze Age standing stone, possibly associated with the nearby Canon Pyon round barrow.

However, Jonathan Sant ("Stone Spotting in Herefordshire" 2000 Moondial) believes it to be the remains of a wayside cross. The stone/cross was re-erected in its current position in 1933.

It could of course be a standing stone re-used as a christian cross. The OS 1:25000 shows it as "Stone" in gothic script.
thesweetcheat Posted by thesweetcheat
18th February 2009ce
Edited 18th February 2009ce