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GordonP G
GordonP May 6, 2009 22:10:55
Replying to Littlestone

Recent visits to churches in Essex once again reinforce the theme of a pre-Roman (Christianised site) with a least one large stone embedded in its foundations. The walls of Essex churches are generally constructed from small nodules of flint (occasionally with the addition of small or broken puddingstones) so the presence of a large sarsen-like stone in a wall is very striking indeed. Were such stones brought from afar and incorporated into (pre-Christian) stone circles because of their association with centres of ancient importance? At Alphamstone in Essex for example there is a local legend that the sarsen stones in and around the church were brought from Wiltshire.

How far would that be?

And how big are the stones?

If it were true it would make a nonsense of the glacial erratics theory for the movements of the sarsens to within 5 miles of Stonehenge to say nothing of the bluestones

L Littlestone
Littlestone May 6, 2009 23:02:31
Replying to GordonP

And how big are the stones?
The stones mentioned at the sites above, Gordon, are not that big; 3-4 foot long (originally high?) by a couple of foot wide as a general rule (please see http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/2065/ingatestone.html where the largest stones there are now used as buffers on the corners of Fryerning Lane. These stones could have quite easily been bunged into a wagon and moved to Essex from further afield. I'm not saying they were moved but that, even today, there is a tendency for us to pick up a stone, pebble, shell etc from one place and take it home (in Hawaii there's still a tradition that says anyone who removes even a small stone from any of the islands will be cursed).

Just another idea to play with - ie the idea that the removal of a sacred piece of stone/earth/land from one place to another (from Wiltshire to your own land [circle] at Alphamstone in Essex for example) or the transportation of a piece of your own (sacred) land in the form of a stone to Silbury for example, formed part of an act of pilgrimage - we're in the Neolithic after all, there's not a lot that's going to last other than stone.

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