The Long Stone - Pt. Two of a 'Stones' series

Despite the grey skies and misty air, I decided I would show you The Long Stone, at Hampton Fields, near the hamlet of Crackstone, Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire. It has probably been here for 4500 years from the time when it was believed to be the closing slab of a burial chamber, or a portal dolmen. A smaller stone can be seen in the nearby field wall approx. 10m away, which has been built over and around it. It may also have come from the same chambered tomb, or it may even still be where it was originally sited.

It is 2.4 metres high, composed of rough oolitic limestone, and pierced by 2 large holes and several smaller ones, all formed by weathering. It has the appearance, shape and presence of similar pre-historic monument stones in the Avebury stone circle. Together with a smaller stone, which is now set in a wall less than 10 metres away, it was probably part of a burial chamber destroyed in the 19th century.

According to legend, when the local church bells strike midnight, the Long Stone and its neighbour, the Tingle Stone (about 500 metres away), will run around their respective fields. It is also said to make the journey to Minchinhampton to drink from the spring there. The stone may also be associated with fertility rites, and some evidence that couples would hold hands through the stone and betroth themselves to each other.

Another legend suggests it has healing properties. People would pass their limbs through the holes to cure themselves of illness. Mothers would even pass their children through the hole to cure them of, or prevent them from getting, rickets, smallpox, whooping cough and 'other infantile diseases'. One eyewitness source recounts that this ritual has been performed within the last thirty years.

Today the 'modern' stone boundary walls of the fields are falling down, although they are probably only a couple of centuries old. At the gate to the field is a For Sale by Private Treaty sign, listing 35 acres of agricultural/paddock land in 4 plots. The nearest landowner is the daughter of the Queen, who owns a house and estate, whose rear tradesman entrance is only 100 metres away. Half a mile in the other direction is a group of hoses and a farm at Woefuldane Bottom.

In 1086, all this land became the property of Mathilde, the sister of the new King of England, William the Conqueror, formerly of Normandy. This stone was already a seasoned veteran by then. Now it seems that it has no value at all, except for the grass on which sheep and horses can graze. Somehow to my mind, that doesn't seem a very sensible valuation. I will be intrigued to see how much this sells for. (NB I have just found it advertised as Plot 3 of 4,45 hectares at £130,000)