The Rollright Stones

SP 29630 30878

Illustrations

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1. Harvest Field

2. Harvest Field

3. Visitors

4. King's Stone

5. Long Compton

6) Knight's Circle

7) Knight's Circle

8) Knight's Circle

9) Whispering Knight's

10) Whispering Knight's

11) Strange Sign

If anybody was to ask what month I dislike most it has to be August, the normally quietish countryside crawls with people doing 'the sights' of whichever shire you happen to enter. If anyone was to ask what season I hate most I would, without hesitation reply - Summer, for the same reason as above. But having said that, what I do love about Summer and August are the hints that winter and the quiet times is on its way. The hedgerows become laden with ripening berries and the farmers are harvesting the fields, both signs that winter foods are ready to feed man and beast through the cold months. There are now many of the old harvest sights confined to the shadows of times gone by such as the burning straw fields, ricks, and small bales to name but a few. These have been replaced by new signs that the harvest has been gathered, the convoys of huge lorries carrying loads of large straw bales from the corn counties to the livestock regions are now a common sight on most motorways. The fields are now full of large cylindrical straw bales which I must admit can be quite picturesque - see ill. 1. Thankfully we still have the sight of the ploughman cutting his straight furrows accompanied by ravenous flocks of screaming gulls and croaking rooks - see ill.2.

To digress a tad, I remember once riding in a lorry with a load of straw down the M5 motorway. After a few miles the driver suddenly swerved from the inside to the middle lane admist a tirade of abuse. When asked what the problem was I was told that the driver infront had tossed a cigarette out of their window, yeah, so what? The driver then related how in the past few years he had lost two loads of straw because a cigarette that had been carelessly flicked out of the window had been sucked by the slipstream into the tons of straw on the lorry bed. I went very, very quiet as I have been know to toss the odd butt or two out of the window and never given that particular hazard a second thought. For the rest of that journey what started out as a harmless load of straw suddenly took on the unnerving classification of a 'hazardous load' and every time I saw a butt go flying I was nearly climbing on the cab to see if it had lodged in the straw.

Anyway, yes, August, busy roads, and the Cotswolds, not a good combination when one wants some photographs of one of the most famous stone circles in the area. Here I must explain my idea of a photograph, basically there is only one rule - no humans anywhere in sight! I know this is a very selfish outlook but that's the way it has to be. Even Zeb the dog will get 12 laceholes up his backside if he dare wander into the 'shot'. I remember several years ago writing to the National Trust with some lame excuse which gave me a special pass into Stonehenge before it opened for the day's business, why? - a photograph with no people! There is nothing worse than walking or driving miles to photograph some Neolithic stone or circle than to eventually arrive and find some 'stone hugger' draped around the subject in the midst of what looks like an 'erotic moment'. Sorry, piss off, let me get my 'human free' photo and then get back to your 'hugging' - yes, as I said it's very selfish. Right, having explained that, you can imagine my 'joy' when I arrived at the Rollright Stones at exactly the same time as five car loads of Morris Dancers. How did I know they were Morris Dancers - ill. 3? They all had embroidered shirts stating the fact, oh, and one or two had bells tied to their bags - bang goes a trouble-free photo shoot.

Ok, the Rollright Stones, there are numerous legends about them but I will give you the version I grew up with. Yes, I was born and bred a few miles away and as a boy would often cycle to the stones for a picnic. In those days there was no admission fee, fence or visitors and certainly no 'huggers'.

In the days or yore a King and his army were marching along when they met an old woman. The King got talking to the old woman who said she could foretell the future which got the king's interest. For a long time the King had been struggling to become the King of the Realm and his resolve was beginning to waiver. So he challenged the old woman to reveal his destiny, she took him to one side and said:

"If Long Compton - see ill. 5, ye can'st see, then King of England ye shall be".

No matter how hard the king peered into the distance he couldn't spot the village of Long Compton. The old woman then cackled and pointed a bony finger at him and shrieked:

"Long Compton , thou can'st see, so King of England thou shan't be".

With that there was a crack of thunder and the King turned into a pillar of stone - see ill 4, and his men who were stood behind him also turned to a circle of petrified stones - see ill. 6/7/8. Whilst the King was with the old woman a group of knights had walked away from the main army and were plotting his downfall in a conspiratorial huddle. They too were turned to stone and since then have been known as the 'Whispering Knights' - see ill. 9/10. The old woman, who legend has it, was an old witch from Long Compton and she turned herself into an elder tree. It is also told that when the country is in a time of need the spell will be broken and the King and his army will come to the rescue, which I think should be any day now.

I can remember an Auntie of mine who knew an old witch that lived in the nearby hamlet of Little Rollright and she always swore that as a young girl she called the old woman a name or two and as a result was cursed. It appears that the curse brought her excessive bad luck for the rest of her life.

There is another tradition with the stones and that is no matter how many times you count them you will never come up with the same number twice. Again, I must have spent hours trudging slowly around the circle and I can never recall coming to the same total, it helped no end with my counting skills. We were always told the story of a local baker who once baked a cart load of loaves and took them to the stones. He then placed one on each stone and counted them, when he repeated the process he too arrived at a different number.

My uncle, who used to farm at nearby Salford, told of a local farmer who for some reason decided he wanted the 'lid stone' which once sat on the Whispering Knights. So he took his workers and several teams of horses to cart the stone back to his farm. In the end he had to harness up 40 horses in order to drag the stone down the hill to his farm. Over the next few days two of his men died and every night he heard strange groaning noises coming from the yard where the stone lay. Eventually enough was enough and the farmer decided to return the stone, the lidstone was dragged back up the hill by a single horse.

We were also told that on All Hallows Eve the king and his knights come back to life and dance around the hilltop and then go down to an old spring at Little Rollright for a drink. When I was about 10, a couple of mates and myself decided to put this to the test. So as soon as it got dark we started off to the stones, we then spotted a fire burning on the hilltop where the stones stood. A quick conference was held and it was decided to wait for the King by the road to Little Rollright. We didn't have to wait long, a loud scraping and rumbling noise could be heard coming down the hill. This was shortly followed by a low wailing sound scampering up the opposite hill, that was us scuttling off home. In the morning, armed with catapults, bows, arrows, and a bible we returned to the scene where in the road we saw a trail of deep scratches and scuff marks which looked as if they had been made by huge stones - or a large metal field roller towed behind a tractor!

Underneath the King Stone is said to be a labyrinth of caves in which a tribe of Piskies live and who, on the nights of a full moon come out to dance around the stone circle. Again we went up to investigate on several such nights but only ever saw a rabbit or two, although once we did find an old tramp asleep in the little copse by the circle - if you were that tramp, we are sorry for throwing the rocks.

As long as I can remember the stones have been associated with witchcraft with stories of covens meeting at the circle. In recent years the stones have suffered several acts of vandalism, a few of which have made the national headlines, the first occurrence was in April of 2004 when the stones were daubed with yellow paint. This mindless act cost an estimated £50,000 clean and restore the circle to something like its original state. The problem with these and all ancient stone monuments is that they are home to various lichens that have established themselves over the years. In the case of the Rollright Stones it is suggested that 59 different species of lichen growing on the circle, any damage to the stones not only harms the monument but also kills the lichens. The latest act of vandalism occurred in September 2007 when information signs were smashed, money stolen from the collection box and a tyre placed around one of the stones and set alight. There is now a debate as to whether or not CCTV cameras should be installed to prevent future attacks

If you do an advance search on Google and put in - "Rollright Stones", you will get a choice of 52,000 results to peruse. Therefore I am not going to go into any further detail but a good starting point for anybody wishing to learn further is to go to the Rollright Trust website. I will just say that in reality the King Stone is a Bronze Age standing stone, the Whispering Knights are the remains of a portal dolmen of the same period and the Knight's Circle is obviously a stone circle.