Re: Blue stone | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Old Hartley 1

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Blue stone

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PeterH Jan 6, 2006 05:05:24

Replying to Hob

I don't know, but I'm thinking that in some parts of Saxon England it was customary to blow a horn at certain times and places to announce changes - sort of early town crier thing. I can't find a reference, but I seem to recall something about horns being blown at boundary stones in Yorkshire. Spelling was incredibly dodgy right up to modern times and in the early medieval period, blue could well have been spelled "blew". Then again - the Blew Stone may well have been one or the boundary stones where you blew your horn.

StoneLifter Jan 6, 2006 07:20:52

Replying to PeterH

I've just been writing about Boundary Stones and the tradition was to blow a horn and to beat both the stone and young lads with sticks on an annual tour of the boundaries. The best known blowing stone is here - http://www.berkshirehistory.com/archaeology/blowing_stone.html - and the sound from it would have surpassed any contemporary ring tone.

In the photographs the bluestone looks blue - it seems the same material (in the picture) as that obtained from the S Wales mountains. (Glacial drift theories must always be vague). And the menhir - reset or originally placed - is set to topple. If its footings were dry it would be ok, but they're not. I wonder if the northernmost moonrise can be seen on the horizon from there ?