Hangstone Davey

Also known as:
Hang Davy Stone, Hang Stone Davie and Martin Davy's Stone
Nearest town:
Haverfordwest (6km ENE)
OS reference:
SM89581465
OS sheets:
157, 158
Latitude:
51° 47' 25.28 N
Longitude:
5° 3' 5.37 W
Added to TMA by

Articles

Hangstone Davey

C
CARL Apr 16, 2014
comment 0 Comments

Visited 15.4.14

Directions:
From Haverfordwest take the B4341 west. After a couple of miles the stone can be found next to the road on the left. It is just before a house called Lamber Forge.

Although it being mid week and on a B road, the road was very busy and parking difficult. Karen parked outside the large wooden gate, opposite a house, and I carefully made my way back along the road towards the stone.

The stone is a little less than 1m high. It looks old. It is covered in moss and patches of white lichen. Ivy is starting to grow over the top of it.

I have doubts about the folklore regarding the ‘hanging by sheep’ as I have visited another stone in the Gloucestershire/Oxfordshire area (I can’t remember the name) with exactly the same story attached to it. Bit of a coincidence I think!

Worth a quick look if you happen to be in the area but take care with the speeding cars.

comment 0 Comments

Folklore

Hangstone Davey
Standing Stone / Menhir
Rhiannon
Rhiannon May 26, 2010
comment 0 Comments

From Archaeologia Cambrensis (1858):

Martin Davy’s Stone, near Haverfordwest.--

About half-way between Haverfordwest and Little Haven, on the southern side of the road where it crosses a common, is a small upright stone, not larger than a mile-stone. Tradition calls it Martin Davy’s Stone, and says that a man of this name, who had stolen a sheep one night, and was carrying it on his head, with its four feet tied together, sat down in front of this stone to rest himself, and let the animal lie on the top. The sheep, however, gave a convulsive movement; its legs slipped down in front of the man’s throat, and its body slipped down behind the stone. The thief could not, of course, raise the body up sufficiently high, and he was found throttled, and dead, in this position.

The text with Ceridwen’s photo on Geograph has the idea that the stone’s properly prehistoric. Coflein isn’t so sure. It’s on a boundary, about a metre high, and has two crosses carved on it.

comment 0 Comments

Sites within 20km of Hangstone Davey

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.