Mick Davis writes: In the adjoining garden to the left from Bath Rd (21 Leystone Close) there is a third stone once recumbent but now re erected. Mr Stringer, the current owner, purchased the land that included the stone from a Mr. Scott, owner of “Ormonde” a property facing on to the Bath Rd with a large garden stretching the length of the old field boundary/driveway leading to Leystones. The householders backing on to this garden clubbed together and bought the land to extend their gardens in 1978.
Mr. Stringer had the stone re-erected in December 1999 by some workmen who were pruning his trees when their chain saw broke. To fill in the time he asked them to re-erect it which they did packing around the base with bricks & small stones. He estimates that it now stands “within a metre of where it lay originally” and that it is set in the ground to a depth of about 60cm, he also thinks that there are other stones buried in his garden but this was not born out by the geophysical survey
of 2015. Mr Stringer informed English Heritage of what he had done and they amended their records accordingly:-
Standing stone, previously recumbent and sited on land which was part of the garden of “Ormonde”. Now 21 Bath Rd. Described on the Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division record card as “prostrate stone measuring 6' x 2' x 1.25”
This stone differs from the other two in having distinct metal tool marks on the side facing Leystones and a mottled face.
After the excavation of the barrow in 1965 the situation became very confused and the stones became thought of as marking the site of the barrow and were scheduled as SO 292. There had been a stone marking the site of the barrow but this was more circular in shape, probably having formed a cap stone to one of the burial chambers and was removed during the excavation then presumably destroyed by the builder of nos 14/16 Leystone Close which now occupies its site.
Somehow the two sites 100 metres apart became confused.This mistake was realised in 1989 and they were re-described as having been dragged from the barrow when it was first discovered in 1819 and given the HER reference 25560.(Somerset Record Office/ DOE. 3-11-1986 previously listed as 20625. SOM 292).
This activity would seem extremely unlikely as the stones are not of a shape normally associated with long barrow construction, one of them at least shows the marks of metal tooling and the plots of land were under different ownership at that time. The stones were finally descheduled in January 1997 and remain so today.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road