Queries. 27 – Stones on Charmy Down.
Various references are made in local histories to “Druidical” stones in the field north-west of Charmy Down Farm. The earliest I have seen is in Tunstall’s “Rambles, 3rd ed. 1851. The most authoritative is in a reminiscence addressed to Mr. R.E.M. Peach, and incorporated by him in his “Annals of Swainswick,” 1890. From internal evidence it may have been written by a Fellow of Oriel about 1877. He says: “In the field on the north of the farm may still be seen some Druidical stones, but they were much more conspicuous in my childhood.”There is a single low weathered stone still standing at what I have been told is the site. In 1927 I met an old man who knew the Down well, and he remembered more stones and their arrangement. I think there must still be men living who can remember these stones, and I should be glad to hear how many these were and how they were arranged. For purposes of record I give the following data for the site of the existing stone: Lat. 51 deg., 25min. 12 sec. Long. 2deg. 20min. 17 1/2sec.
A.T.W., Monkton Combe.
From the Bath Chronicle of 22nd July 1933. The coordinates seem to be at the south end of the down, across from Solsbury Hill. Who knows if they were prehistoric, but it’s fun to think they might have been. There were certainly barrows up here.