The two Hoar stones at Steeple Barton, Oxon, are recorded as far back as 1210CE, referring to them as Nordlanglawe, Langlaue and Succelaue, which mean respectively, 'valley of the long barrow', 'the Northern long barrow' and 'the grave of the goblin'. Later 13th century references call one of them Stanlow or 'burial stone', Demnesweye or 'goblin's pathway or track' and Wyrstaneslawe which means either 'Wyrstons' tomb' or 'the Wyr stone at the long barrow', but the reference doesn't distinguish which stone it belongs to.
On the eastern side of Steeple Barton, approx 1/2 mile apart, there are the remains of two chambered tombs. Rather confusingly, they are both called The Hoar Stone!
Near Steeple Barton is another ruined cromlech, also called the "Hoar Stone," which is now only a confused heap of small stones, having been broken up by an ignorant farmer. Some fifty years ago it was much more perfect, and two of the side stones were standing about four feet out of the ground. "They used to say that whenever they tried to drag them two pebbles away with horses, they would roll back of their own accord. Them two pebbles growed out of little uns: at least that's my way of thinking." (From George Nevill, of Yarnton, aged 74, March, 1901.)}
From:Stray Notes on Oxfordshire Folklore, by Percy Manning, in Folklore, Vol. 13, No. 3. (Sep. 29, 1902), pp. 288-295.
When I visited, two years ago I had only the OS map and my intuition to find this one.
As baza says, it's in a copse, which requires you to trespass. I went in winter when the undergrowth had died back and after frightening a least half a dozen pheasants as I paced up and down, I found a monumental stone, now sadly down, and pretty much ready to be reclaimed by the earth. It was undoubtedly the Hoar stone. All mossy and uneven and covered in leaf-mulch and fruits of the forest floor, it's over 10 feet in length. This one is crying out to be re-erected before it becomes lost to us forever, as it surely will be if it is left in it's current condition.
Grinsell (in 'Folklore of Prehistoric Sites of Britain') notes a familiar motif connected with this stubborn stone - that if ever anyone tries to drag the stone away, it will roll back again.
To reach this Hoar Stone, I parked on the A4260 next to a private road leading to Barton Lodge, then walked along the public footpath which follows the private road. Where the footpath turns north, I struck off in a WNWesterly direction through a plantation of young trees. After about 100yds I came across a small mound, only one yard high and about twelve yards in diameter. In a hollow in the middle of the mound lay the 11ft long Hoar Stone.
This site is no longer marked on the OS Landranger map. I reached it by scrambling over the barbed wired hedge running beside the A4260.
When I found it, I was a little confused....it looks like a cairn at the end of a ploughed-out long barrow. Most of the stones don`t look as if they`ve been lying there for thousands of years.
Back home, I did a little research. It seems that in 1843ad a tenant farmer broke up the Hoar Stone. When the landowner found out, he stopped him from doing any further damage.
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