Legend has it that Merlin the greatest Magician Britain has ever known, wandered through the Wessex Downland and in a moment of madness turned a flock of sheep to stone......these are now seen as the sarsen field below Kingstone Down.
stoer
There is a tale that behind St Mary’s Church stood a stone circle and some of the stones are still to be found scattered on the field boundary. Another tale suggests the stone circle encircled the old village much like the stones at Avebury.
Incidentally there is a lovely sunken holloway (funeral path?) that runs from the bottom of Ashbury Hill (SU26708498) westwards around the back of St Mary’s Church (and over the old stone circle?).
The “Dragon”, or “Michael” Line passes through the earthen banks and on through Ashbury House. There is a tale that the house was deliberately built on the energy line for the “good masculine energies”.