.. a very fine monolith, locally called the “Long Stone” [is] on the left hand side of the main road a short distance from Gatcombe Lodge entrance. It is 7 1/2 ft high above the ground, and is said to be as much below the surface.
It is a very fine block of the peculiar stratum of the great oolite formation, locally called holey stone, which underlies the surface soil to a thickness varying from 6” to 18”.
Report says that the superstitious mothers were in the habit of passing ricketty children through a hole in this stone with the idea that they would become strong.
A much smaller stone of a similar kind stands in a wall about 30 feet away, and a third is said to have been removed during the last century.
From ‘A history of the parishes of Minchinhampton and Avening’ by Arthur Twisden Playne (1915).