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Unless otherwise stated, this image is the copyright of the submitter. Contact them for permission to reproduce it. |  | | Posted Comments: Rochelle
(2004-01-03) | Was wondering about any info about this stone or haven't I looked far enough?? | Nigel
(2005-04-01) | I am wondering the same thing and haven't found anything YET!
Maybe not very photogenic, but are appearances not deceptive???! | KayK
(2005-10-17) | It would be interesting to be able to read the sign | Mick (Blyth)
(2006-01-04) | Does anyone know about the "standing stone" in the field opposite the current position of this stone? - The sign simply says that the stone was moved to this location and gives the date - it does not say where the stone came from or why it was moved! | Thorgrim
(2006-01-04) | I cannot find anything here listed by English Heritage. Such incredible smoothness suggest that the stone has been shaped and handled a great deal. Could be Roman, medieval or anything. | Hobson
(2006-01-04) | The Tyne and Wear CA told me the entry in her version of the county smr says that the standing (well, leaning) stone in the field opposite the pub, is a medeival boundary marker. However, she had reservations about this, as it is dissimilar to others in the area. Having said this, I'm not 100% convinced it's prehistoric. I've visited the thing umpten times over the years, and at present, I'm hedging my bets on it being a possible prehistoric stone, that may have been re-worked.
The 'Blue' Stone is in fact a Blew Stone, and was supposedy used as an oath stone during the dark ages, and allegedly the tradition lasted into the early 20thC, having mutated to accomodate some kind of trial of strength involving throwing the stone. I can't help but wonder at the apparent cup mark, which would be most unusual in igneous stone, perhaps sufficiently so for the stone to acheive significance in the minds of people in the past. It's definitely a fragment of what was once a larger stone.
Just to complicate matters a bit more, the folks who run the pub are adamant that the actual Blew Stone is not the thing with the cup-mark, but a fire-discoloured lump in the car-park behind the pub. The area abounds with unusual landscape features, and there is a possible causewayed enclosure a mile or so to the north, but the landscape has been re-worked almost continually since the early middle ages, and nowhere has been excavated, so it's all a bit of a mystery, and will probably remain so.
Hobson
Hope that helps, or at least gives a bit more substance to the ambiguity. | Thorgrim
(2006-01-04) | Many thanks for that very full account, Hobson. |
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