Discover St Edmund's Suffolk: a guide to the county's less-known and ancient places
  • Search ...
SECRET SUFFOLK
  • NEWS
  • ESSAYS
  • ANCIENT PLACES
    • INTERACTIVE MAP
  • GET THE FREE BOOK
    • ABOUT EDMUND
  • GALLERY: FACES OF EDMUND
  • LINKS

THE HARTEST STONE

The Hartest Stone
0

Hartest is a small village south of Bury, located in a deep dale. At the north end of the village’s large green is a limestone boulder with an interesting past.

A roughly one metre cube, the Hartest Stone is said to have been dragged from a field on top of Somerton Hill on July 7th 1713, by twenty gentlemen and twenty farmers. The purpose of this was to celebrate the Peace of Utrecht and Marlborough’s victories in the War of the Spanish Succession. After its erection on the new site, allegedly an ‘erotic debauch’ took place amongst the people of the village.

Another version says that the stone was removed from a field ‘near Somerton Common’ in 1713 by 40 horses, with a trumpeter mounted on top of the stone. Yet another tale says it was taken from High Field, Somerton, on a sledge drawn by 45 horses, on August 1st 1714, when King George 1st took the throne.

These stories are contradicted by a further tale, which claims that the boulder was discovered in a clay pit on top of Hartest Hill, and was removed by the landowner. He had it relocated to its current place, set it on its point, and placed several small stones around it to keep it from rolling over. Local tradition says that the stone turns over when it hears the church clock strike midnight. Hartest Hill is the steepest in Suffolk, and it has been proposed that the location of a large (and rare) boulder on the hill’s summit could suggest ritual significance.

Others have speculated that the boulder once marked the centre of Bury’s terrestrial zodiac, in woodland at Long Grove, within Hawk’s Farm (although the zodiac may be centred on Francis Wood near Rede.) The zodiacal sign of Virgo is positioned such that her heart is over Hartest village.

FolkloreHartestTerrestrial Zodiac

Share

No comments

You can be the first one to leave a comment.

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Get the book for free!

Recent Posts

Blythburgh Holy Trinity

The A12’s bisection of Blythburgh could easily destroy any atmosphere this important village might retain. But walking down Church Road, a sense of expectation builds. Then the roar of traffic …

Suffolk’s hairy wild men

A wodewose (derived from the Old English wudu – wood or forest) is a ‘wild man’; a hairy forest-dwelling embodiment of nature, closely linked in its symbolism to the green …

Bramfield St Andrew’s

The flint round-towered churches of Suffolk are some of its most enigmatic and atmospheric. Sometimes remote and isolated, often hidden from view behind a screen of trees, these towers loom out …

Popular tags

Amazon Anglo-Saxon Apotropaic markings Axis Mundi Book Bury Abbey Bury St Edmunds daisy wheels Domesday Book Dommoc Dunwich Edmund: The Untold Story of the Martyr-King and his Kingdom Folklore Food green man Grundle Hartest Icknield Way Iken King Anna Mark Murphy Norman Tower Peddars Way Rendlesham River Deben River Lark Rougham Rædwald Sigeberht St Botolph St Edmund St Felix St Fursey Suffolk Suffolk church Sutton Hoo Terrestrial Maze Terrestrial Zodiac Thornham Parva Vikings Villa Regia West Stow Woden Woodbridge Wuffingas
  • Search ...
Copyright © 2021 SECRET SUFFOLK
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.