The Tibblestone

Also known as:
Tibaldstone and Tibble Stone
Nearest town:
Tewkesbury (7km WSW)
OS reference:
SO963339
OS sheet:
150
Latitude:
52° 0' 10.95 N
Longitude:
2° 3' 14.06 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of The Tibblestone (Standing Stone / Menhir) by Rhiannon

It’s quite weird that this is so upright? If I wanted to bury a big stone I’d push it into a hole sideways, then you don’t have to dig such a deep hole. So maybe that’s interesting?

Image credit: Cheltenham Chronicle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jan 6, 2024
Image of The Tibblestone (Standing Stone / Menhir) by thesweetcheat

Showing the largest of the holes in the stone and trying to omit the modern surroundings.

Image credit: A. Brookes (17.1.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 17, 2010
Image of The Tibblestone (Standing Stone / Menhir) by thesweetcheat

Showing a variety of erosion, including two circular depressions on the top.

Image credit: A. Brookes (17.1.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 17, 2010
Image of The Tibblestone (Standing Stone / Menhir) by Kammer

Taken 4th August 2002: This photo was taken with the petrol station behind me, looking towards the Teddington Hands pub (in the background).

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Aug 16, 2002
Image of The Tibblestone (Standing Stone / Menhir) by Kammer

Taken on 4th August 2002 at the end of a day of visting sites in the Cotswolds. With two hours of driving ahead of us we temporarily lost the will to stick to the Esso boycott. Lou bought provisions from the petrol station while I took these photos (William was asleep in the car).

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Aug 16, 2002

Articles

The Tibblestone

C
CARL May 26, 2010

Whilst in the area (and needing petrol) there was only one place to go! After paying for said petrol it was a 30 second walk to the stone and a gentle pat on the old girl’s/boy’s head. No doubt it will still be here when the petrol station is long gone. (You do get some funny looks from other motorists though!!)

The Tibblestone

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 17, 2010

After a long and muddy walk from Northway via Woolstone, Oxenton and Teddington I finally arrived at the busy roundabout and garage which sadly comprise the “landscape” for the Tibblestone. This is not a great place to come on foot due to the very busy roads about and I imagine most TMA-ers will pass by on their way to somewhere else.

The stone itself is odd, quite short and very eroded – although the erosion appears to have occurred prior to the stone being erected I can only assume (unless it has been carved, which seems unlikely). It’s also odd for being so low-lying at about 30m above sea-level. Gloucestershire has precious few standing stones and many of them are considered to be remnants of chambered long-barrows. Neighbouring Worcestershire (less than a kilometre to the north) has none. So why is a possible prehistoric standing stone here at all? Not a clue! But it is here and, unlovely though the setting is, it’s worth popping by on your way to somewhere civilised.

The Tibblestone

Rebsie
Rebsie Apr 24, 2006

I feel very sorry for the Tibblestone. The petrol station was built in the late 1980s, and is not the most sensitive bit of planning. The stone is small and unassuming, so it’s been dwarfed into insignificance by its brash neighbour. It’s difficult to feel much of an atmosphere here now, especially if you’re being stared at by people refuelling their cars. The busy A435 doesn’t help.

It did have plenty of atmosphere when I visited it in 1988, before the petrol station. It was much more integrated with the surrounding landscape, standing very close to a five-way road junction known as Teddington Hands (which lends its name to the nearby pub).

It’s a quirky little stone though, and deserves a visit from any sympathetic person who’s passing.

The Tibblestone

ocifant
ocifant May 11, 2003

Esso is now Texaco.

This didn’t feel old. It seemed out of place, like those stones that are used as garden ornaments in council estates to give them some ‘character’. Lifeless and lost.

The Tibblestone

Kammer
Kammer Aug 16, 2002

We visited the Tibblestone on 4th August 2002, on our way back to Wales after a two week holiday. That day we had squeezed in visits to five other sites in the Cotswolds, despite having not started until lunchtime. Basically we were knackered, and there were still two hours of driving left before we could sleep (except for William who was already asleep).

When we found the Tibblestone I thought it looked a bit lost in it’s surroundings. It’s situated right next to an Esso petrol station with the access road to the petrol station running on the other side of it. In other words, it shares an island of grass with the big Esso sign that has the petrol prices on it.

Across the road is the Teddington Hands pub, so perhaps next time we’re in the area we’ll pay that a visit, and add something here under ‘facilities’.

Folklore

The Tibblestone
Standing Stone / Menhir
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jan 6, 2024

Local gardener finds ancient landmark.

Mystified by the appearance of a stone pillar protruding slightly through the earth as he was preparing a new layout for the lawn in front of the premises, Mr C.J. H. Lucy, of Teddington Cross Hands Garage, consulted an old ordnance map and realised he had made a discovery. When the earth around the column was removed to a depth of six feet – as yet it is not known how far the pillar is still further embedded – it was seen that the stone was 56 inches in circumference at the top and 70 inches lower down, and was deeply pitted with holes indicating that it may have borne projecting signs at an earlier date.

According to the map, it is named “Tibble Stone,” and Mr D.W. Herdman, curator of the Cheltenham Museum and Art Gallery, who has made a careful examination, states that local folklore records that a giant at the back of Dixton Hill is said to have thrown this huge stone towards the Severn at Tewkesbury. His foot slipped, says the legend, and the mark remains on the side of Dixton Hill, the stone falling at Teddington Cross Hands.

Mr Herdman told the “Chronicle”: “Mr Lucy is very anxious that the discovery should be dealt with sympathetically and I have suggested to him that the stone should be kept exactly in situ and raised so that it may stand prominently in the centre of what is to become the lawn in front of his garage.”

[...] On reference to Bryant’s Map of Gloucestershire, published in 1824, the theory [of the stone as boundary-stone] is confirmed as the stone is at the boundary of Tibaldstone Hundred.

From the Cheltenham Chronicle, 17th April 1948.

Why does this look much bigger than the existing stone (if it does?)?

Link

The Tibblestone
Standing Stone / Menhir
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 24, 2002
The Tibblestone

A giant picked up this stone to trash a rival’s house with. You can still see his fingermarks in it. On the way there he slipped and dropped it, and it lies where it fell.
This site tells you everything you could wish to know about the history and folklore of the Tibblestone at its 6-ways crossroads.

Sites within 20km of The Tibblestone

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