Until the 1750s, it seems that the stone stood upright? Westwood and Simpson (’Lore of the Land’ 2005) quote from the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1813:
Some old persons in the neighbourhood, still living, remember when it stood a very considerable height, perhaps 8 or 10 feet, in an artificial fosse or hllow. About fifty or sixty years ago the upper parts of the stone were broken off, and the fosse levelled, that a plough might pass over it; but, according to the then frequent remark of the villagers, the owner of the land who did this deed never prospered afterwards. He certainly was reduced [..] to absolute poverty, and died about 6 years ago in the parish workhouse.
Still, it sounds like he lived to a ripe old age. Unless he actually died six years later.