This is such a special spot. The polissoir is one of only two in England, and it's apparently by far the better one*. It's a sarsen stone worn smooth / into six gashes by people sharpening stone axes and arrows. We sat there for ages. It's amazing to think you are sitting in exactly the same spot as those people thousands of years ago, and it's amazing to run your hand over the marks in the stone. It's not easy to find, for which I'm not sorry. If some people don't mind daubing paint all over Avebury or Glastonbury tor or breaking the stones at Stoney Littleton (ooh it makes me SO MAD thinking about that even now) well I don't want them anywhere near this, or I would be forced to practice sharpening their faces on it. Basically you walk along the Ridgeway from the Sanctuary, turn right and hunt for it amongst the 'Grey Wethers'. Helpful eh. But half the point is to find it yourself.
*sheer hearsay, from George Osborn's 'Ancient Wiltshire' (1982). I have no idea where the 'other' he talks of is. And besides, people were polishing their axes somewhere weren't they. Maybe he means this is only one of two really obvious 'multi channelled' polishing stones. Who knows.
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Posted by Rhiannon
8th April 2002ce
Edited 23rd July 2008ce
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