Hautville’s Quoit

From ‘The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset’ – three completely huge tomes forming a major achievement written by the Reverend John Collinson in the 1780s, before he died (exhausted, no doubt) in his early 30s.

“In the road lies an immense stone called Hautville’s Coit (a name that has sustained for many ages) and is by tradition reported to have been thrown hither by that gigantick champion Sir John Hautville, from Mays-Knolle-Hill [Maes Knoll] upwards of a mile distant, the place of his abode. The tump on that hill is also affirmed to have been the cleanings of the same man’s spade, and so confident are the common people of the reality of the manoevre, that a farmhouse erected of late years near the coit was distinguished by the title of Hautville’s Coit Farm, which doubtless it will preserve until records are no more.

“This stone was formerly of a vast magnitude, being computed to have weighed upwards of 30 tons; but the waggon loads of fragments that have been broken from it at different times, for the purpose of mending the roads, have diminished its consequence as to bulk and appearance, though not as to antiquity or the design of its erection, for it was part of a very remarkable monument of antiquity, which has distinguished the parish for many ages and has diverted the steps of many a traveller... [ie, the circles at Stanton Drew].”

So, even the Reverend thought the stone ought to have been bigger, much bigger, at one point. Was it really ever 30 tons? Is it just a tall story (like the legend?) – or does its proximity to the road mean it was used for roadmending? Or is the fact that the story connects Stanton Drew with the prehistorically occupied Maes Knoll (a prominent hill from the circles) the most important thing?