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.
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.
(SP 46432474) Hoar Stone (NR) (Remains of) (1) 'A long barrow with some broken stones at its east end: these broken stones are probably the remains of a burial chamber'. (2) Listed under chambered tombs and described as a long mound (at least 50 ft), E/W, with a heap of smashed stone at the east. A 19th century reference speaks of 'two side-pieces and a lintel', possibly either a simple terminal chamber or a blind entrance. (The name Hoar Stone cannot be confirmed). (3)
'The Hoar Stone, formerly called Maiden's Bower, about which there were superstitions, so that it was deliberately broken up. Mr Hall, owner of Barton Abbey, had the pieces collected into a heap'. (4)
At SP 46422474 there is a low, nearly circular mound some 11.0m N-S by 9.5m E-W and 0.5m high. Its centre consists of a mass of broken sandstone, which is presumably the remains of the Hoar Stone or burial chamber. A vague, unsurveyable ground swelling stretches away to the NW, and may represent the site of the lond mound mentioned by Daniel (2) and Powell (3). Mr Hall (4) is no longer at Barton Abbey, the site is known locally as Hoar Stone, and the only feature hereabouts with a name resembling 'Maiden's Bower' is the wood centred at SP 461235 (a). Published survey (25') revised. (5)
Log in |
Register
0 discussions
Show map (inline Google Map)
Add an image 
Posted by baza
Posted by Rhiannon
Posted by Chance
Top of page