Hoar Stone, Enstone, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, South-Central England, British Isles [Map]

Archaeologia Volume 37 On the Forest of Wychwood. The Hoar Stone [Map], near Enstone. This interesting monument, which gives the name to two villages in its neighbourhood, is a ruined cromlech. It stands near the three-mile stone north of the town of Charlbury, and is now protected by a stone fence from further injury. The antiquary will require no proofs of its remote age, of which the designation Hoar Stone is the best voucher. The frequent mention of hoar stones in land-limits prior to the Norman Conquest shows that our Saxon ancestors respected these monuments and adopted them as land-marks;^b and it favours the supposition that they found these ancient sepulchres already desecrated and ruined on their arrival in this country.

Note b. Vide Codex Dipl. JEvi Saxon, passim.

Archaeologia Volume 25 Section 2. Oxfordshire. The War-stone at Enstone [Map]. This conspicuous object is said, by the country-people, to have been set up at a French wedding; and in that tradition may, perhaps, be found some vestiges of truth; for the Saxons called the Norman settlers by the name of Franks or French , the Francigenae of Domesday Book, and a wedding would be a likely cause for a division of property, either in frank-marriage or dower. A view and description of this stone are given in the Gentleman’s Magazine for Feb. 1824, by Edward Rudge, Esq. who judiciously deems it to have been originally a Cromlech, supported after the manner of Kit’s Coity-house, upon three stones of smaller dimensions, which are still remaining close to it. The tradition ascribing its erection to a French Wedding seems to point out the Norman era, for its appropriation as a terminus; when, forgotten in its primary character, though well known as a fixed and permanent block, it assumed its new office of marking the limits of some patrimonial acres. The stones at Stanton Drew, co. Somerset, are popularly called the Wedding, from a tradition that a bride going to be married was here turned into stone, with all her company; and it is far from improbable (which is all that can be urged on such an obscure subject) that some real event, of a marriage portion including the site of the stones, or being bounded by them, might give rise to the marvellous legend. There are Bride Stones in several parts of the kingdom, those at Biddulph, co. Stafford, consist of eight upright stones, two of which stand within a semicircle formed by the other six. May not all these erections be indebted, for their secondary character , at least, to bridal dower, or other divisions of property e Before the use of deeds in writing, such stones were “ the vouched signature and proof” n of some solemn covenant and agreement made on the spot.

The History of Banbury by Alfred Beesley. At Enstone, six miles and a half S.E. from Rollrich, is another Druidical remain, a ruined Cromlech, popularly called the "Hoarstone [Map]."¹⁸ The principal stone stands upright, and measures nine feet five inches in height, six feet seven inches in breadth, and three feet five inches in thickness. Two stones of inferior height, on the north side, incline towards the principal stone, leaving an opening of three feet five inches towards the east, in which direction, at six feet distance, a large stone lies imbedded. On the side N.E. from the three standing stones, lies a huge flat stone, measuring eight feet five inches by eight feet one inch, which was probably the table stone of the Cromlech. There is a tradition that a city once existed near this spot, and remains of wells have been found in the neighbouring fields.¹⁹ An ancient trackway, marked in some old maps as the "London Road" (comnunicating with the country about Worcester and Hereford), runs westward from the Hoar stone, passing near several Tumuli which will be mentioned hereafter. Nearly a mile south from this trackway, and two miles and a half westward from the Hoarstone, is a large single stone, seven . feet five inches high, called the "Hawkstone."

Note 18. The name Hoarstone implies a horckr or boundary stone. Such appear to have been erected from the earliest times. See Josh. xv. 6.—" And the border went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben." A stone on the borders of Warwickshire having the same name of Horestone is mentioned hereafter.

Note 19. Information from the Rev. E. Marshall of Enstone.

Our Ancient Monuments by Charles Kains-Jackson. The Danes came from Northamptonshire, and they are reputed to have been told that should they come to see Hoarstone [Map] (seven miles S.S.E. of Rollrich) they would be lords of England. Hooknorton, the entrenched position of the Saxons, was stormed by the Danes. Hooknorton lies about midway between Rollrich and Bunbury. The Saxon defeat was very severe, but the battle seems to have checked the Danish advance. There is no proof that their army ever went to Rollrich. Why they should drag the bodies of the slain of Hooknorton five miles from the battle-field is difficult to say. One word more on Professor Fergusson, and we have done. The little legend of the Danes’ wish to reach the mystic dolmen of Hoar, the Hoar-stone, is well known to local tradition. It bears the imprint of truth, itis too simple and unpretentious for invention. It embodies a most common idea of early warfare and invasion. It may fairly be admitted, and if admitted it shows a stone close to and precisely similar to those of Rollrich, to have been already old to tradition at the time when the Danes first penetrated into Oxfordshire.

Folklore 13 1902 Pages 288-295. Near Enstone is a ruined cromlech known as the "Hoar Stone [Map]" The villagers say that "it was put up in memory of a certain general named Hoar, who was slain in the Civil War. It was put there, as that was a piece of land no one owned."¹

Note 1. A letter signed Zwn in the Oxford Times of March 29, 1902, mentions this story, and adds that "there was a battle over there, Lidstone way." Lidstone being a hamlet of Enstone, about one and a half miles to the northwest. Mr. W. Harper in "Observations on Hoar-Stones," printed in Archaeologia (1832), xxv., 54, speaks of the "War Stone at Enstone. This conspicuous object is said by the country people to have been set up 'at a French wedding.'" There is evidently here a confused version of some legend such as that belonging to the stones at Stanton Drew, Somerset, which were "vulgarly called the Weddings, and they say 'tis a company that assisted at a nuptial ceremony thus petrify'd." Stukeley's Abury, quoted by Evans, Folk-Lore, vi., 31.