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Standing Stone / Menhir
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The Wimblestone / Wimble Stone stands in a field at Pylle Well, to the NW of the Star Inn. It's 5'6" high, 6'2" broad and 18" thick.
Legend has it that it can move (wimble means giddy or lively - though it's also the name of a stonecutter's tool for boring holes, and the stone does have a hole). On nights when there's a full moon or on Midsummer's eve (especially both) it goes dancing round its field. Underneath it is said to be a pot full of gold.
One day a farmer decided to move the stone, so he chained it to two of his horses. They struggled all day but had to give up, exhausted. That evening the stone leapt up and roamed across the Mendips to the nearby Water Stone near Wrington to tell it all about how stupid the farmer was. The Water Stone always contains water in the hollow of the capstone, and the Wimble Stone had a good drink before returning to its own field.
[I imagine I read this in Grinsell's collected 'Folklore of Prehistoric sites']
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Posted by Rhiannon
26th April 2002ce
Edited 16th May 2016ce
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