It was rather windy, and I didn’t have the bottle to climb right onto the top for a better pic.
Hob
Much easier to find in good weather.
Accessiblity note: Probably OK for those with sticks, though slightly uphill. Ground too uneven for any but the most rugged wheelchairs.
If you’re up here, find it. It’s strange, weathered boulder with a depression and notch eroded/carved? Right at the top of the northern peak of Rough Tor, just along from the war memorial plaque with the dragon on it.
MAGIC reckons it’s early medieval.
magic.gov.uk/rsm/29302.pdf
It is little, but well formed. The tallest of the stones (all of 0.8m) has fallen slightly. There are no visible signs of the alleged cist in the middle of the four-poster. The cup marks on the SE stone are very worn, and this and two others have definite grooves, how much of this is simply weathering, I couldn’t say. There are many large stones lying nearby, which could be who knows what. Numerous hut circles about 50m to the south and north. The Crag is covered in them. Though some may be quarry remains, there’s nothing to indicate this in any references I have found so far. The crag does look as if they have been quarried. Excellent views, even better from the nearby Ravensheugh Crag trig point.
Regarding access, The track is passable to vehicles and runs within 20m of the stones. Probably easily accessible to a bod walking with sticks, but would require a big rear wheelchair and someone to help navigate the uneven ground between the track and the circle. You’d need at least 15cm clearance on the wheels.
This is a very poorly monument. It’s been got at by Victorian robbers, it’s got rabbits and badgers and the plowing seems to be getting closer each year.
Some kerbstones are still there, yet some of them are being dragged into the plough soil. The badgers clean their straw fairly regularly, so the heaps of earth may contain artefacts.
It’s on land belonging to Crescent farm so best to ask there. If you don’t have a metal detector and no spades, they’re O.K. about interested visitors. They also have some intruigingly weathered stones in their drive.
You can see it from Ponteland Rd, if you can’t get across plowed fields. You can also get there via the number 21 bus from Newcastle if you don’t have a car.
There’s also a councils dump at Dewley House which has many many lovely “Did I used to be part of a site?” stones, lined up for inspection.
Had this been there before the rest? Was it moved there? Is it just a gate post?
Image credit: I Hobson
Sandstone, very weathered, probably due to effluvia from the nearby, but now defunct, Blyth power station.
The stone is on the NE edge of the caravan site. Nearby beach has many unusual lumps of rock, and the erosion of the coast may throw things out of the fields onto the beach.
In terms of disabled access, they don’t come more accessible than this, it’s tarmac all the way.
According to the Pub Barstaff, the bluestone directly in front of the Deleval Arms is not the original, but was placed as a decoy to prevent drunken locals damaging the original, which has been dumped in the beer garden at the back of the pub.
It’s also said that the correct spelling is ‘Blewstone’ and that this refers to the stone’s original status as the ‘ancient saxon oath stone’ that was previously in the centre of the now demolished village of Hartley.
The immediate area is dripping with macabre folklore regarding the Deleval family, who had a reputation for madness, wild parties and witch-burning.
According to ‘County Folklore Vol IV, Northumberland’, 1904, by MC Balfour, this stone was known as the witches obelisk. It had a variation of an old common theme which said that if you were to run round it seven times without stopping, ‘The Witch’ would appear.
Here’s the text on display in the Deleval Arms Hotel:
“The Blue whinstone at the Old Hartley, near the entrance to the Deleval Arms Hotel, once marked the centre of the village of Old Hartley. A number of these large stones can be seen at various places on the Northumberland coast.
It is generally supposed that they rolled down during the ice age when the ice moved from west to east at the time of the great thaw.
In the early English and Saxon periods, they were called ‘Moot Stones’ and were used as a meeting place by the ‘Wittan’, a council of Village elders who gathered to formulate the laws and dispense justice.
During Norman times these stones were used as markers for castles and boundaries.
“Ye large Blew Stone marked ye site of Warkworth Castle” and at Mokseaton, “Ye Boulder Stone was a large “Blew Stone” near ye burn”.
The Old Hartley Blue Stone marked the centre of the village and stood near the Blacksmith’s shop, it was here that the villagers would meet before setting out on a journey.
At the time of the black death in 1348 it was thought that if one touched the stone they would be immune from the plague.
Over the years the stone became a symbol of good fortune and it was said to become a citizen of Old Hartley you had first to kiss the Blue Stone.
The Story goes that William Carr, the Hartley Samson, who was born at the Hartley Old Engine, and who was in his prime was the strongest man in all England, used to demonstrate his strength by lifting the stone and carrying it under his arm.
When the old village was demolished in 1940, the stone was buried in the path leading from the Blacksmith’s shop to the PM chapel and when the new road was planned, Mr Wesley Dickinson removed the stone for safe keeping. When the roadworks were completed in 1973, the Whitley Bay Borough Council replaced the stone as near as possible to it’s original position.”
According to C.T. Trechmann in 1913, the area immediately to the east of the stone yielded evidence of prehistoric flintworking.
Whilst this proves nowt about the age of the stone, the concentration of flints opposite St Mary’s island was in direct contrast with the paucity of similar evidence between this area and the mouth of the Tyne.
‘Notes on Neolithic Chipping Sites in Northumberland and Durham’ (Transactions Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle, 2, IV pt. 1, p. 81)
20th July 2005
Still not fallen over.
Closer examination of the bluestone outside the pub is starting to convince me that it might be an artificial cup mark, but the stone is seriously igneous, so I’m not 100% convinced.
6th May 2004
May Day inspection of this thing showed it hasn’t fallen over yet.
This time I think I can state that despite the lack of professionally countenanced provenance, it’s not a medeival boundary marker.
It may have been used as such, and is still only a few yards away from the county border, but close inspection of the marks leads me to think that it has been pounded with stones, not with metal tools. It also has a shoulder, and is not regular all over. I suspect that these marks, and the rectangular cross section, may have led it to be discounted as a megalith by any surveying archaeologists.
There is another stone very similar to the bluestone (see the nearby pub), at the SE edge of the field. Like the bluestone,his igneous looking stone also shows signs of extreme heating, and has a shallow, 6” wide depression pecked into it. Curious, but not really proof of anything at all I guess
18th Sept 2003
The upright stone is clearly visible from the Blyth-Whitley Bay road. It’s about 2m high, easiest way into the field is to park in the Deleval Arms and use the gate in the NE corner.
Disabled Access poor as the gate is wired shut and ground is rough and uneven.
The blue stones are in front of the Pub and in the carpark behind it.
Some general waffle about the surrounding landscape:-
Anyone interested in the neuro-electromagnetic aspects of prehistoric sites should out the area, as this stone is rather close to a heavy-duty faultline which emerges into the sea at nearby Collywell bay, causing lines of lava intrusions that have warped the rocks into strange formations. (This bay may once have been held special due ti the crystals found in the cliff, digging of which has now resulted in the bay being visually marred by the protective concrete).
The nearby natural harbour would have long been recognised as a place of much worth to sea-faring folk, and there is a possible causewayed enclosure a mile or so to the north of the Hartley stone, and another closer circular(ish) earthwork of ancient, but unsecified purpose. The ridge upon which the former enclosure sits also has the particular silhouette view of the Simonside hills that is often associated with prehistoric sites in this end of Northumberland.
Add to this the island with St. Mary’s lighthouse, and the local landscape, though much ravaged by millenia of constant human activity, is still capabe of betraying the occasional hint of ancient activity.
The Keeper arrived and was mildly dissapproving. He didn’t know the site was there, which is not surprising as these stones are well hidden by the grass. None of them are upright. The nearby area towards the road is littered with industrial archaeology, making me wary of interpretations of the many other large stones in the 200m(ish) radius I explored.
Look for areas where the grass is thin, with more heather and moss hummocks, these seem to be the areas with the “arrays”. If you’re heading from the B-road, the site is on a slightly sloping flat area, just after the marshy bit. There’s a low, linear bank and ditch affair about 60m to the east.
There’s no walls to climb over, but the going would be difficult for wheelchair access.
From the Evening Chronicle.
Iron Age skull unearthed in a back garden in North Tyneside.
Lovely place.
Approach from the road to the east and scramble up through the undergrowth.
On top is a large cairn which has been tweaked at some point to include a rectilinear side space and a smashing cupola on top. Another smaller cairn a few yards to the north
It’s got a excellent view of both coastlines to north and south, across to the hurlers and cheesewring to the east and some overgrown industrial nastiness to the west.
One of the best things is that the cupola makes a brilliant place to sit out of the wind and enjoy the place. Nice way to get a feel for the moor and look for cropmarks etc.
There are also extensive bronze age settlements on the SW side of the tor.
Two good sized rows of stones. Tourist guff suggests “gateways to the land of the dead etc.”
Very close to the B road so convenient parking, but get there when there’s not traffic (i.e. early or late), lest the ambience be poor. Alignment is east-west (ish) so maybe sundown would be good as this might afford a nice view into the sunset.
Look out for the cracked burial cist in the middle of one of the rows.
It’s Not surprising that this site has a strange atmosphere. Iv’e talked to a few people who’ve visited and most of the seem to have has a fairly depressing time. (no objective statistics availble). Personally, Iv’e had a spectacular argument with my spouse there. Which we both afterwards put down to disruption of the local ambient E.M fields caused by the combined effects of the copper mines and the T>V mast screwing up out central nervous systems. If ever there was a site that can mess with your mind, this one rates highly.
Having said that the next time we went there, it was lovely. No wierdness at all, nice and peaceful.
Go late in the afternoon and see if the black and white sheep dog greets you and gives you the guided tour. It was very obliging when I was there with the family and went out of it’s way to point out the fogou, before retiring to a discreet distance, all the while keeping an eye out to make sure we didn’t cause trouble, then escorted us back to the car park.
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