View source for Holed Stone at Claverton Down

==Query #11 - Holed Stone at Claverton Down==

'''01/07/1933'''

In the field called Bushey Norwood, on Claverton Down, is an upright stone with a hole in it. As this has been and may be again taken for a holed stone of prehistoric origin, such as the Cornish Menan-Tol and others of like nature, it may be well to know its origin. The hole in the stone is obviously due to the limestone weathering when the stone was recumbent on its bed. I have heard two accounts of its origin, firstly that it was erected to commemorate the fatal duel between Viscount du Barri and Count de Rice, and more prosately that it commemorates a favourite horse. Can anyone give accurate information on this point? —A. T. W., Monkton Combe.

==Replies==

'''29/07/1933'''

Some years ago I asked a friend the history of this stone, and was told that it was a rubbing post for horses or cattle. They were tethered to it—a rope being passed through hole in the stone, and that such stones were not uncommon. I do not know if this is correct. —M. A., Bath.

'''05/08/1933'''

Mr. Gerald Grey writes, "I know the stone of old. There were many like it when first I knew Bushey Norwood. They were lying on the surface. The late squire, Mr. Henry Duncan Skrine, had this particular stone raised upright to mark the spot where he had one or two favourite horses buried. The rest of the stones were used in the Bath Botanical Gardens and the Clifton Zoo for making rockeries. The site of the Du Barri duel was on the boundary of Claverton and Hampton Downs. A rough stone against the wall marks the spot where Du Barri lay all day before he was removed to Bathampton for the inquest and burial."—A. T. W ., Monkton Combe

'''05/08/1933'''

I was much interested in reading about the holed stone found on Claverton Down. There is a holed stone on one of the islands on the west coast Ireland; it is very ancient and is curiously incised with quaint figures and writing. It is held in great veneration by the peasantry, and articles of clothing of sick people are drawn through the hole in hope of their recovery.—C. B., Henrietta Street, Bath.

'''12/08/1933'''

So far, the response to the inquiry of A.T.W. for exact information concerning the holed stone Bushy Norwood, has been far from exact, and fails to touch the significance that really attaches to the stone. Its upright position is immaterial, and may have served some comparatively modern pastoral purpose; but it was so standing in the boyhood of old inhabitants of Claverton Down, and inquiries made by me some years ago failed to confirm the report that marked the grave of one of Mr. H. D. Skrine's favourite horses. Members of the Skrine family knew nothing about it.
 
The importance of the stone lies in the fact that is one of a great number that once formed a stone avenue to the summit of Hampton Down, before ever the " Camp " there existed. Everything that has been written by Prebendary Scarth about the stone circles and avenues on the North side of Hampton Camp, pointing to the existence of a Temple of the Sun there, centuries before the Roman occupation, applies to the vestiges which still remain in Bushy Norwood on the South. Numbers of the stones lie cast down, still sufficiently in situ to indicate an avenue, but most of them were removed at different periods to the grounds of Claverton Manor, where some of them may be seen as rock-work, and some set upright in the farm-drive to the back of the Manor probably marking the graves of favourite animals. 

There can be little doubt but that these stones were connected with the religious rites of Ancient Britons, and they were probably deliberately cast down either in military attack or to end, by forcible means, the religious practices of the Priests of the Sun. A likely period for this to have happened was in the time of Cunobelin, who is known to have taken steps against the practices of the Druids in Britain, and who celebrated by the issue of a coin inscribed Solidunum some feat against place of that name. Numismatists cannot place Solidunum elsewhere than at Bath.
 
From the early ages Bushy Norwood has never been under agricultural cultivation, and the numerous antiquities that are there were first discovered in 1887 by Mr. H. D. Skrine, who did much to explore the field and to clear the ground of brushwood, which he considered to be remains of the primeval forest that once encircled the Down. The name of the wood which borders the field is Hen, which means Ancient. Prebendary Scarth had apparently no knowledge of the antiquities hidden by the bushes of this field; but the stone avenue had been noticed by the Rev. John Skinner, of Camerton, and is mentioned in his MS. writings. There is still a rich field of exploration waiting there, unconfused by the golf bunkers, rifle butts and waterworks that mingle with the ancient earthworks on the North. The present hot weather should show dried circles in the field, which I have seen, denoting the presence of the foundations of ancient buildings. One, as I saw it, surrounded a very large stone that stands not far from the holed stone. 

The stones given by Mr. H. D. Skrine for the Bath Botanical Gardens did not come from Bushy Norwood, but from the northern slope of Hampton Down, whereby the Druidical remains noticed by Prebendary Scarth were wrecked. These had, however, been charted for him on a huge map of Hampton Camp, which still exists in the office of Mr. Keith W. Calvert. 

About the stones taken to the Clifton Zoo I know nothing; but years ago a great circle of stones in Bushy Norwood were uncovered for a visit of the British Association from Bristol, and were subsequently removed —only the holes remaining. Perhaps it was to Clifton that they went, for they were not taken into the grounds of Claverton Manor.
 
In connection with the holed stone it is interesting to find that a pierced stone (thyrllan stan) is one of the Saxon boundary marks of Hampton, given in the Abbey Cartulary (vol. 7, S.R.S., p. 21), coming between the boundary brook from the Avon and the Camp nose (headland) and dyke. 

The stones referred to are all great slabs of the layer of rock that lies above the oolite formation, and holes in them are frequently found caused by the action of water or of tree roots as the rock was forming. The Druids would have found them to hand in abundance for their temples and avenues. According to Wood, the elder, Ralph Allen's roads were made of the smashed atoms of a Druid's Temple that was destroyed in the building Prior Park mansion. 

I write with some reluctance, away from means of giving exact references, but may mention that the Bath Literary Institution, in Queen Square, possesses a valuable MS. volume by the Rev. John Skinner that contains unique information; and also has an unbound number of Vol. XIII., Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 1857, which contains an important account of Hampton Camp Preb. Scarth. K.E.S., Exmouth.

'''19/08/1933'''

The reply of K.E.S. raises a number of points outside my original query. My query was an endeavour to find out when and why the stone was raised. That it was raised at no distant date is, I believe, proved by the relatively small amount of weathering on what was the underside. It may or may not have been raised in memory of a horse. It is in fact improbable that a horse was buried at the stone itself because there is practically no soil covering the rock at that point. 

The second point is the statement that this stone was one of an avenue of stones leading to Bathampton Down. In support of this it is said that the stone avenue had been noticed by the Rev. John Skinner, of Camerton. I have a very considerable acquaintance with Mr. Skinner's Journals (Brit. Mus. Add MSS 33633-33728, A.D. 1788-1839). He paid many visits to Bathampton Down, either exploring it for antiquities, or acting as guide to those antiquities for the instruction of relatives and visitors, or digging into the barrows and mounds. In spite of his habit of continually repeating the same information in different contexts, I cannot recall any reference to this avenue. I think that if there had been an avenue of stones here, so near to Bath, a city which attracted so many people of curiosity and intelligence, whether as temporary or permanent residents, it would not have escaped notice all these years. 

The next point is the significance of the stones that used to be visible on the north slope of Bathampton Down. I have seen the large scale plan in Mr. Calvert's office. It is, I believe, the original of the plan in Mr. Skrine's pamphlet, to which reference was made in the "Chronicle and Herald" year or so ago, and a copy of which is now in the Municipal Reference Library. No coherent plan could be detected in the stones as depicted. Had they formed a prehistoric monument of importance, it is most unlikely that they would have been missed by the indefatigable Stukeley, the 18th century, or by the careful antiquary, Aubrey, who noted other remains the Bath district a century earlier. 

One of the most interesting features of prehistoric Bath is the fine state of preservation of the Celtic field banks on some the Downs. An air photograph of those on Bathampton Down is given in "Wessex from the Air" (Crawford and Keiller). It is to be hoped the Golf Club will spare them. In even better preservation are those on Charmy Down, some of which are on land in the ownership of the City Council. The stones on the north slope of Bathampton Down were, I believe, incorporated in these field banks. John Wood in his "Particular Description of Bath," mentioned "the infinite footsteps of stone walls." (I quote from, memory). He was writing of Charmy Down or Bathampton Down. The description probably applies to both. Skinner also mentions the stones occasionally, and on one occasion drew a rough sketch of some of them. He considered that they were connected with the paths and field banks of the "Belgic" settlement. 

In addition to the "thyrllan stan," or holed stone in the Saxon bounds of Hampton, mentioned by K.E.S., a "Thyrla Stan" is, given in the bounds of Priston in the 1932 volume of the Proceedings of the Somerset A. and N. H. Society, and there was "Le Thurlestone" in the Perambulation of Mendip Forest, A.D. 1298, also called "petra perforata" in the bounds of the Witham lands at Charterhouse, A.D. 1180. These holed stones are particularly likely to occur in limestone districts and to this day, as I have had evidence, the country folk take a primitive interest in them.— A. T. W., Monkton Combe.

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