Follow up article: The Heygate Stone by Anonymous on Tuesday, 21 November 2006

Thanks for submitting the articles on the public display of 'The Heygate Stone' in Baildon, West Yorkshire. Unfortunately, the press story and releases from the Bradford Museum Service concerning the discovery, location and donation of this beautifully carved rock are totally misleading and confusing, so I thought I would provide an accurate account to readers of The Megalithic Portal. The story that 'The Heygate Stone' had disappeared for several years and that it 'was returning home to Baildon Moor where it was found' is a total nonsense. The stone was discovered on 25 Sep 2001 at NGR SE 1594 4018 close to the village of Baildon, Shipley West Yorkshire in a field of glacial clay soils, once known as the Near Hey Gate field. The landowner (Moorside Equestrian Centre) was digging out the base of the ruined field wall for use elsewhere and, at the same time, decided to dig out a rock from the field close to the field wall, which he had first noticed poking through the grass 50 years previously. When the rock was dug out and turned over, he noticed 'patterns' on the buried surface and took it back to the equestrian centre, believing he had possibly found a fossil of some sort. The landowner is a friend and I happened to pass an hour later and was astonished to see this superb carved rock. I was very excited, knowing this to be very first carved rock with double rings to have be found in the Baildon Moor, Shipley Glen and Baildon area (though there are many spectacular examples to the North on Rombalds/Ilkley Moors. When I advised the landowner of what it was, he immediately agreed to my proposal to have the find reported and, since the location of the find could not possibly have been the original location of the carved rock, to have it relocated in a place of safety on public display. An immediate report was made to West Yorkshire Joint Services by telephone. I took initial photographs, produced an initial report with description and delivered it the next day to the Archaeologist at Ilkley Museum. Nothing at all happened and it seemed no one was interested! Two years later, in November 2003, I was told that Keith Boughey, who lives in Baildon, together with E A Vickerman were publishing their 'Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding: Cup-and-Ring-marked Rocks of the Valleys of the Aire, Wharfe, Washburn and Nidd' Yorkshire Archaeology 9, ISBN 1 870453 32 8. (An excellent book for those interested). I contacted Keith who immediately came out to see the find and arranged for it to be properly photographed, drawn and described. Unfortuately, his book was already at the printers and it was too late to have 'The Heygate Stone' included. But Keith got things moving and Bradford agreed funding for its public display. The landowner and I insisted that it be displayed in the Shipley Glen Countryside Centre on the edge of Baildon Moor and not in the Ilkley Museum so that people could see it as close as possible to where it was found. The carving on the Heygate Stone appear to have almost certainly formed part of a much larger carving. The edges of the stone appear to have been dressed to two faces like much of the stones that were in the field wall (now completely removed). It is likely that the stone was moved to the find location when the field was originally enclosed. Overshadowing the Moorside Equestrian Centre to the North (NGR SE 156 403) are quarries that were worked into the 20th Century. Much nearer to the location of the find, about 50 metres from it at SE15868 40262, is a small old quarry, now completely covered to a depth of several metres by decayed farm manure. The most likely source of the Hey Gate Stone is the surface of that old quarry. Extensive field walking by me has failed to turn up any further piece of the sone and it seems probale that it was lost when it was quarried. (So please do not visit the site of the find - there is nothing to see!) There are old records suggesting that there were once very large numbers of carved rocks on nearby Baildon Moor - one early author suggests a line of carved rocks stretching across the moor. Most were removed and broken up for building and walling in the 18th and 19th Centuries and carted off. (There are still many small examples to be seen and one very fine and complex one now against the wall of the Dobrudden Caravan Park at NGR SE 13718 40092). It is highly unlikely that stones would have been carted from Baildon Moor to the Heygate fields, when there was a plentiful supply of native stone between fifty and a hundred metres away! The 'Heygate Stone' is carved on local gritstone. It is roughly tabular, the lower surface about 60 X 45cm, the carved upper surface about 45cm X 40cm. The design is complex. There are clear cup and ring designs in two parallel rows in an alternating pattern. The first row is a cup and ring -the cup joined to the ring by a groove- and two further grooves radiating from the ring; a cup and double ring with a further cup to the left of it; a cup and ring. The second row has a cup and double ring with a groove joing the cup to the inner ring with a further cup and ring touching the right edge; a cup and ring with grooves linking to both the cups with double rings; a cup with an incomplete ring. There are further possible grooves. It really is quite special! I've known the area since I was a small child and have always wanted to find a new 'Cup-and-Ring Stone'. I didn't find it, but I did identify it, reported it (twice!), named it and got it displayed (eventually) - so that is nearly as good! The display is excellent, the stone looks absolutely beautiful - and I am very proud that it is now available for all to see. Mike Short

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