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October 6, 2024

October 5, 2024

Folklore

Bull Stone
Standing Stone / Menhir

An interesting standing stone is to be seen on the southern slope of the Chevin above the town of Guiseley in the valley of the Aire (...). This stone is well-known to the small number of people who live near at hand. A similar stone is said to have stood at the head of Occupation Lane on the western end of the Chevin, and to have been broken up when the cottage was erected at that place. It is always called the "Bull Stone" and is said to be "lucky."
Editorial Notes in the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, volume 34 (1938).

Also, I read in 'The English Dialect Dictionary' (Joseph Wright, 1898) that a bullstone is a West Yorkshire word for a whetstone – which makes sense maybe as an explanation for (or even genuine use of) the grooves?

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Bull Stone

Be warned that whilst some descriptions of how to get to the Bull Stone talk about taking the footpath out of the beer garden/car park of The Royalty pub, this is the path less traveled, and as such can be pretty overgrown with raspberry brambles. And if you are of a nervous disposition, note that you might not enjoy the neighboring Yorkgate Clay Pigeon Shooting Club when they are in full flow (specifically at the weekends). Finally, the passage of time has meant that such descriptions as this – "once into the second field, head diagonally down to the far-left corner. From here, look over the wall — you can’t really miss it!" (https://www.thenorthernantiquarian.org/2009/12/22/bull-stone-guiseley/) – are no longer relevant, since a huge bush and pile of brambly waste now sits in the corner of the field, obscuring the view. You have to clamber a fence to the east and go round before you can get a clear view of the stone.

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Folklore

Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant
Standing Stone / Menhir

Another gravestone of interest [in the churchyard at Llansantffraid-Yn-Mechain] is the one on moulded pillars at the east end of the church, and was pointed out to us as being the stone marking the resting-place of the body of "David Maurice, the Suicide." Tradition is a little at fault, as this is not the grave; but, for all that, Maurice or Morris may have been buried here in preference (under the circumstance) to the family vault at Llansilin. (...) The story touching David Maurice's grave is that the entombed committed suicide in the river Tannatt, near to his father's house, Penybont or Glan Cynlleth. The pool till lately was called "Llyn Dafydd Morris."

Tradition asserts that D. Maurice, of Penybont, caused the "Carreg y big," or "stone of contention," to be removed from the centre of Llanrhaiadr village, in consequence of the great fighting caused by the assumption of the prize-fighter of the neighbourhood of the title of "Captain," by leaping on the stone and proclaiming himself "Captain Carreg y big." This was carried to such a pitch that the vicar of Llanrhaiadr begged David Maurice to remove the stone, which he did with a team of oxen, and placed it in his farm-yard; when, lo! and behold! the cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs, like maddened creatures, danced and pranced about the stone, and ending their joust with horning, biting, and eventually killing each other at the shrine of the "stone of contention."

David Maurice, thinking the place haunted because of the stone, caused it to be rolled into the river near at hand, thinking the "charm would be thereby broken," but, sad to relate, one morning he himself was found drowned in the pool which was called until lately "Llyn Dafydd Morris."

The country people look at the death of David Maurice as a just retribution because he had removed the "Carreg y big," which was said to be a boundary stone, and should not have been disturbed. This story received general credence.

In 'A History of the Parish of Llansantffraid-Yn-Mechain' by Thomas Griffiths Jones, in 'Collections, historical and archaeological, relating to Montgomeryshire' (1868).

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Folklore

Soldier’s Mount
Hillfort

The Foel Camp is situated on the summit of a commanding eminence, of a conoid form, close in the rear of the village. The internal area covers nearly two acres; its shape following, as most ancient camps do, the conformation of the ground. It has all the marks of a British post. The lines of defence around it partake more of the character of terraces than ditches, (but there are traces in two places of parts having been sunken), and make up one spiral road of access to the great arena.

The sides of the hill, excepting one, are very steep, and this steepness would be a great defence. The entrance is at the east end, where the sides are more approachable. There are no historical records concerning this, but tradition relates that there have been terrible combats about the foot of the mountain.

The spot on top of the Foel is called by the people "Soldiers' Mount," and it is said that the soldiers shot at each other from the Ffridd, (an opposite hill to the west), to the Foel, and from the Foel to the Ffridd, with bows and arrows.

It is of a spiral form, and has three ditches winding spirally one above the other. Some say that it was Caradog (Caractacus) ab Bran Fendigaid who encamped his left wing here while defending his country against the invasion of the Romans under Publius Ostorius, about the year of our Lord 51, his centre being on the Brewer. But all is conjectural.

Sul y Pys, or Pea Sunday (the Fourth* Sunday in Lent).

A custom prevailed among the old inhabitants of this parish of roasting peas or wheat grains, and then taking them to the top of the Foel, there to be eaten with very great ceremony, and drinking water out of the well on the Foel. This was done near the spot where the church was to have been built.

It is probable also that our forefathers sent presents to each other on this day, for it was an old saying with our mothers when asked for a gift, "You shall have it on Pea Sunday."

The custom of eating peas was part of the Lent fasting, and the old people believed that they would be choked if they ate peas before Lent!

*Actually the fifth Sunday? This pea-eating event is known as Carlin Sunday in the north of England.

The Church stands on a piece of ground above the village, from which a fine view may be had of the vale below. Our ancestors delighted in building their temples on slightly elevated ground, that they might worship their God according to the fashion of their forefathers, the Druids, "in the face of the sun and the eye of light," and this feeling was so strong in them that they had determined (so tradition relates), to build their temple on the Foel, on the opposite side of the hill facing the village; but neither peace nor prosperity attended the work, for all done during the day was removed in the night to the spot where the church now stands; therefore the church was built on its present site, because it was believed to be the spot where God desired to be worshipped.

Formerly the rejected site on the Foel was distinguished by a yew tree which grew there. This yew tree was accidentally burnt at the roasting of a kid on celebrating the jubilee of George the Third's accession, and it is worth mentioning that the kid was taken out of a herd of goats that were depasturing on the side of the Ffridd.

In 'A History of the Parish of Llansantffraid-Yn-Mechain' by Thomas Griffiths Jones, in 'Collections, historical and archaeological, relating to Montgomeryshire' (1868).

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Image of Sling (Burial Chamber) by GLADMAN

Sling

Burial Chamber

Suffice to say, the location of this heavily overgrown monument is not exactly advertised on the ground. My third time of asking... (the first unsuccessful through my ignorance; the second curtailed by a young, hostile 'farmer-type' trying – and failing comically – to berate me for straying from the path... while farcically having no clue whatsoever as to any 'burial chamber' on 'his' land)... this was actually well worth the perseverance over the years. In retrospect, an audience is easy enough: approach from the east, not via Sling (i.e. the Chwarel-goch road, where a former 'phone is annotated upon the map), head through the metal gate and look to enter the field to your left as SOON as possible... then follow the line of 'telegraph posts' uphill into the trees.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

October 4, 2024