If you do not come too close

River Petterill
(part 16)

When I was researching the various bridges over the Petterill, just north of Penrith, I found a few references to a standing stone that I knew nothing about. It is not marked on the OS map, but is apparently listed by Historic England as ‘prehistoric’. So I went to find it. And, just a short distance away from the Kitchenhill Bridge, there it was. There are reports of some people having climbed gates and negotiated barbed wire in order to get to it. I decided seeing it was enough for now!

It is right by the railway. In fact, as someone said, there was just enough room between the road (next to the railway on the other side) and the stone to squeeze in a railway track, so they did. The river is down the slope to the right of the picture.

The stone is huge – recorded as being 1.5m by 1.3m and 3m high and has a number of packing stones at the base. It appears to be on the side of a mound and it is thought very likely that it was part of a stone circle. So someone thousands of years ago went to a great deal of effort to place this stone and we can only imagine why they did so.

Just what I am fascinated by – times past alongside times present. Two endeavours of man alongside each other, bridging the gap of time. People were here, we don’t know who or why, but they were here at this spot. And as the trains hurtle past the stone stands as a reminder.

And on National Poetry Day, how could I not quote from T S Eliot:
 
                                                                         In that open field
If you do not come too close, if you do not come too close,
On a summer midnight, you can hear music
Of the weak pipe and the little drum
And see them dancing around the bonfire . . .

                                       . . . Round and round the fire
Leaping through the flames, or joined in circles,
Rustically solemn or in rustic laughter
Lifting heavy feet in clumsy shoes,
Earth feet, loam feet, lifted in country mirth
Mirth of those long since under the earth
Nourishing the corn.

(Four Quartets: East Coker)

I have tried to find something out about the name Kitchen Hill, but have come up with very little. One theory is that the name comes from the Celtic Cruchen or Wizard, so the hill of the wizard. Or it could indicate a place where food was once prepared. I don’t think either is correct, but they certainly fit in with the standing stone.