Andy Maxted, a Brighton Museums volunteer writes: A three metre high stone, known as the ‘Goldstone’, stands today in Hove Park surrounded by a circle of smaller sandstone blocks. This appears to be the product of early 20th century landscaping – but is the story more complicated than this?
The central stone once stood upright in what is now the area near the southern entrance of Hove Park. It attracted so much interest during the 1830s that the landowner buried it to avoid sightseers trampling his crops. It was later located, excavated and eventually moved to its existing location in 1906.
However, there is no real evidence this stone was part of any prehistoric monument.
What appear more interesting are the smaller stones, which currently surround the ‘Goldstone’. These stones originally occupied a site in the northern part of present day Hove Park and from a sketch made in c1828 by H.G. Hine it would appear they were carefully arranged next to each other in a circular formation, similar to other surviving prehistoric stone circles.
Although the present arrangement of the stones is a modern construction, it is possible that at least some of the stones once formed part of a prehistoric monument; which may have been used to celebrate the solstice. At the very least they act as reminders of Brighton and Hove’s fascinating prehistoric past.
Read more, with archive photos at the Brighton Museums blog
https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2011/06/21/reflections-on-the-solstice/
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road