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The Ancient Mark-Stones
of East Anglia
Their Origin and Folklore

THE abundant evidence from Europe and Northern Africa that stone circles, dolmens and monoliths of menhir and other types were erected at a time when the inhabitants of the countries in which they occur were in the Neolithic stage of culture justifies us in concluding that many of the similar stone monuments in Great Britain and Ireland were set up during the Later Stone Age. The dolmen, we know, is nothing more nor less than the remains of a megalithic burial chamber, from which the mound of earth originally covering it has been removed. The Uley Long Barrow, in Gloucestershire, is perhaps the best-known English example of this kind of chamber; but in 1924 a more imposing structure of like character was opened and explored on the island of Jersey,* and proved to date from the Neolithic period.

*Societe Jersiaise Bulletin Annuel, 1925, pp. 205–229.

The likeness of many menhirs or standing stones, to the huge blocks used in the construction of dolmens supports the view that the former were also erected in this country by a people with no knowledge of the use of metals. From this, of course, it does not follow that all such relics are of Neolithic date. Stonehenge, modern antiquaries generally agree, dates from the Bronze Age, and from that age down to the present, it may be said, groups and isolated examples of hewn and unhewn stones have been erected for commemorative, protective, boundary and other purposes.

{5} Further evidence of the Neolithic date of many standing stones may be found in their traditional association with rites and ceremonies which many students of early history and religions identify as being survivals of pre-Celtic forms of worship. These survivals may be due, not so much to Celtic adoption of earlier rites, as to the actual presence among the early Celts of Great Britain and Ireland of considerable numbers of the earlier Neolithic inhabitants of these islands, who persisted in the worship of their own gods. The finding of both “long” and “broad” skulls in Bronze Age barrows proves that in many parts of Britain Celts and an earlier race of people must have lived together on more or less amicable terms,* and modern investigators of the problems of Early Britain are becoming increasingly disposed to recognize, not only marked Celtic characteristics surviving among inhabitants of parts of the country from which the Celts were formerly believed to have been driven by Saxon invaders, but also pre-Celtic types as being not uncommon in many districts. On the whole we seem to be justified in concluding that there has never been any serious obstacle to the survival among us of beliefs, traditions and folk customs to which prehistoric origin may be credibly ascribed, This is a matter scientifically dealt with by Gomme in his Folklore as an Historical Science, also, more popularly, by Johnson in Folk Memory, and no one who reads these works with an open mind can be in much disagreement with the conclusions arrived at in them. The persistence with which folk memory has passed on from generation to generation much lore of undeniably ancient origin has only lately been recognized as capable, when scientifically treated, of elucidating early and often prehistoric problems; but since this has been recognized much light has been let into the darkness that surrounds life in Early Britain. It is now agreed that even the strange, and often apparently meaningless, stories attaching to an old boulder by the roadside may have an important significance when compared with like stories similarly {6} associated elsewhere. In view of this, an attempt may be made to show that even in East Anglia, where no example of any of the larger megalithic monuments occurs, there are smaller ones worthy of notice, and properties assigned to them deserving of investigation. In doing so it may prove difficult to resist the temptation to make short excursions down certain byways of the subject; but this is almost unavoidable owing to the interest of its side issues.

*The typical dolichocephalic skull figured by Taylor in his Origin of the Aryans was found in a long barrow at Rudstone, Yorkshire, a parish famous for its huge prehistoric monolith.

Norfolk and Suffolk Megaliths.

The fact that Norfolk and Suffolk, although abounding in prehistoric relics, possesses no imposing megalithic remains such as circles, dolmens and menhirs must not be taken as proof that the prehistoric inhabitants of this part of the country never participated in the particular religious rites with which many megaliths, and especially the standing stones, were originally associated. That the people who set up these stones in most parts of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland never occupied what is now known as East Anglia is incredible, and in the absence from it of such megalithic material as was elsewhere easily obtainable, we must seek for evidence of the use of such substitutes as were most readily accessible during the period or periods in question. Idols and symbols of wood, as well as stone, were worshipped at that time, or associated with rites of which vague knowledge has been preserved in folk memory and the survival of certain significant customs; but such wooden idols as may have survived the general adoption of Christianity would naturally ere long fall into decay and disappear.

Glacial Boulders.

The best local substitute for the rock material elsewhere utilized for standing stones would be found in some of the large ice-borne boulders that waning glacial conditions left scattered widespread over the surface of the land, and embedded in the boulder day deposited during the glacial period. Such boulders are often brought to light in brickyards and other places where considerable excavations are made, and in prehistoric times many similar ones must have {7} been lying about the plains and valley slopes which had been subjected to the scouring effect of floods, due to the melting of glacial ice. The removal of such a boulder to a selected site would be a simple task for people capable of erecting such huge monoliths as the Rudstone and the Devil’s Arrows, and the demand for an idol or symbol would be met in the manner characteristic of the period and people. Possibly, in some instances, a boulder might be found so favourably situated as to serve its purpose without removal.

Nearly all of us, at some time, have had our attention attracted by one or another of the large boulders that often appear to have been designedly placed in certain positions by the roadside, or elsewhere, for some purpose not often at first obvious. Some of them are known by names suggesting a long occupation of the sites which ancient records, such as those of boundaries, often confirms, while old folk tales and curious customs associated with them convey some suggestion of their origin and purpose. In the cases of many of them, however, as in those of the better known menhirs of other parts of the country, nothing more definite is known about them than that they have occupied their present positions from time immemorial, and could only have been placed there for some puipose of sufficient importance to make those who did so willing to undertake or possibly enforce, considerable labour.

In almost every part of the British Isles such intentionally placed large stones or boulders occur in considerable numbers, and interesting and remarkable stories are told about many of them, the stories, as a rule, endowing them with magical properties of a kind which help us to form some idea of their original or early significance. In East Ang1ia, for the reason already given, they are nothing like so plentiful as in many counties; but even in Norfolk and Suffolk they are probably more numerous than most of us imagine, and anyone who cares to make a few inquiries in almost any part of these counties, except in marsh and fen districts, will probably soon learn of the existence of more of them than he suspected.

{8} In view of what we know or can conjecture concerning these ancient stones, the preservation of so many of them, probably in or near their original positions, is not surprising. The early sacredness of some of them, the mysterious qualities attributed to others, and the curses anciently invoked upon removers of boundary marks, combining to endow them with importance or uncanniness, would, in the rural districts where most of them are found, tend to perpetuate belief in the “unluckiness” of removing them. Besides, not a few of them, like many of the barrows of prehistoric man, were at an early period adopted as boundary marks, still serve that purpose, and until recent times were regularly visited by parish officers in the course of bounds-beating ceremonies. The natural difficulty experienced in removing a heavy boulder any considerable distance is also, in most instances, sufficient reason why it should remain where it is unless circumstances compel its removal. Even then it is probably moved only just far enough to be out of the way of traffic or building operations. An instance of this was observed in the parish of Carlton Colville a year or so ago when, during the rounding off of an awkward road corner, a boulder marking the junction with the road of an ancient trackway across Bloodmoor was moved only a few yards and embedded in the new roadside bank.

Classification.

As no attempt to classify these stones according to their obvious, probable or possible significance can be made without first ascertaining the various purposes for which similar stones are known to have been set up or placed in position, it will be as well if, at the outset, a list is given of these purposes so far as they are known to us. This, together with some knowledge of local conditions and archaeology, may often enable us to form a likely idea of the heading under which a boulder seen or described comes, although such an identification may not preclude the possibility, and often likelihood, of its having served different purposes at different periods of its occupation of a site.

Standing stones, rock fragments, glacial boulders and other large stones set up or placed on selected {9} sites in the British Isles are known to have served several distinct and definite purposes. They have been

Possibly we have among our standing stones and boulders some which were originally such tribal totems as exist in many parts of the world, and it has been suggested by Mr. C. G. Chambers that some of the boulders found at cross-ways originally, or at some time, served as blacksmiths’ anvils. In Scotland, and perhaps in Yorkshire, rough moor stones seem to have been used as Roman milestones, but there appears to be no reason for supposing that glacial boulders were ever employed for the purpose in East Anglia.