The Legend of “The Quelm Stone”, on Larks Hill.
By Robin Seward, Voluntary Ranger, Open Space & Countryside Service, B.F.B.C.
This Stone can be found by crossing the Car Park, walking due west along the footpath; “The Quelm Stone” is about 50m on your right.
First, some facts about The Stone:-
It is located at 51 degrees, 25’, 43”, North & 000 degrees, 45’, 01”, West or; at National Grid Reference SU 8697 7087. This Stone lies about 56m above sea level. Sized about 1460mm long, 995mm wide and 260mm thick and is estimated to weigh 1,158kg.
From a geological viewpoint, such a stone is known as a “Heath Stone” and is make up of a dark brown conglomerate formed in the Bagshot Beds, a mixture of sand and pebbles, by a natural cementing process, due to the presence of iron oxides. Larks Hill is part of the Wick Hill complex. This is to the south, towards Bracknell. This hill is made up of a complex interaction of layers of London Clay, about 100m thick, and the Bagshot Beds, on an underlay of Chalk. The Quelm Stone would have been brought to its current position, over 115,000 years ago, by a vast glassier in the Devensian Ice Age, and deposited on the ground when the glassier retreated north, about 14,000 years ago.
Such, broken up (by Man) stones, were used in the middle ages, to build parts of nearby churches – Warfield, Binfield, Winkfield and Wokingham churches have walls still showing examples of its use. Like stones were also taken from the Bagshot area to build Windsor Castle. The Quelm Stone is also similar in nature to the erect Sarsen Stones, to be found on the Berkshire Downs. Many were used as “Parish Boundary Stones” The Quelm Stone marked the old Warfield/Binfield Parish boundary, it lay alongside the old Quelm Lane.
Why did this stone survive in tact? And, what’s its history and, what history has it seen? The narrative below is an account of The Quelm Stone’s past – part fact - part mythology.
The Legend of “The Quelm Stone”:-
It was a Boxing Day - the 26th of December - the day following Christmas Day. Boxing Day, which is also St. Stephen’s Day; the day on which it was, formally in the Middle Ages, the custom to stone a Wren to death, in order to commemorate his martyrdom.
The Man happened to walk past “The Quelm Stone”. He thought he heard a tiny voice call out, “Please don’t kill me - I am only seeking sanctuary on my special stone”.
Startled -The Man looked round to see a tiny bird, a Wren, standing on the Stone.
“Wrens just don’t talk!” - The Man thought.
“This one does!” said the Wren, “and, I can even understand what you are thinking! My name is Trog, I come from the tribe of Troglodytes, and I am, THE WARFIELD WREN”. (The Saxon for a “Wren” was, a “War” – thus WARFIELD or Wrens’ Field)
The Man sat on the Quelm Stone, and Trog, who was now sitting on the man’s shoulder, told him how The Ice Tyrant, Niven had brought the stone to this place, and how Niven had had a battle with The Sun God, Titan. (see above)
That Niven was forced to retire to his arctic home, and, how he vowed that, should the stone be moved, then, “A gift of communication would exist between a Bird, whose tail was shaped like the stone, and Man, should they meet at the stone on a special day”.
Trog told how this prophesy had come to pass, in about 750BC, when a group of Iron Age men stood The Stone on its end, to tell them the longest day of the year had arrived (the summer solstice, the 21st June).
(An Iron Age Farm was located just north-east of the Warfield Roundabout. The Stone lines up (from the entrance to their communal living hut, which was 11m in diameter), with the setting sun on this date, and, also with a further Iron Age settlement, which was situated on Cabbage Hill, to the north west).
How, Iron Age Man cleared the area of trees, which later was called Priests Wood Common, to graze their cattle, and how they dug ditches, and banks, to keep out the cattle from the fields they used to grow crops. (You can still see the remains of one such bank, which runs north-south across the “dog walking area” of Larks Hill – it was used as a raised, earthen track in the 19/20C when it was part of Fairclothes Farm and used for horticultural. You can still see an old Irrigation Well on Larks Hill, near the Orchard. Newell Green = New Wells Green!
Trog explained that a cart track passed The Stone. How this stone marked the spot where The Quelm stood – the place of torture and hanging – Quelm Lane lead to, and past, this spot (it was moved further west by the Enclosure Act of 1814 – the 30’ wide banks of this Lane indicate it is “An Enclosure Bylane”). The Sisters of Marcy from their Retreat Priory, in nearby Priory Lane would have prayed for their souls. The 1881 Census shows 3 “Sisters” still living there. The Sisters “Home Priory” was (and still is) near Hyde Park Corner in London (Tyburn). The Quelm faced west, towards the setting sun (not Christen resurrection east) – thus the expression “Gone west” – meaning something is dead, useless! Trog also explained that Watersplash Lane was called Luckman’s Hill – you were a lucky man to walk down it!
Trog also explained that Quelm Lane was a “ north-south link route” between two important toll roads. (The Toll Road maps of 1745 clearly these) The one to the north, which is now Warfield Street, the other, to the south, The London Road and Bracknell High Street. Both these were the main toll roads linking London, (via Egham) with Reading.
Trog told of how he had seen the Priests expelled from Warfield Church pass this spot at the time of The Reformation (1530’s) – how Warfield Church had been a winter retreat from Hurley Priory, on the River Thames – a daughter church of the Benedictine, Westminster Abbey. The RC Priests lived in “Priests Wood” (now known as Piggy Wood – just north of The Quelm Stone) – thus, “Priests Wood Common”. Trog told how the Warfield Parish Council had therefore named the roads in Quelm Park, built on part of the old common, after past Vicars of Warfield – these are ê “Bye Bye, must go”, said Trog, who flew away…….
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road