Flagstones is a late

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

interrupted ditch enclosure (similar to a

causewayed enclosure A causewayed enclosure is a type of large prehistoric earthwork common to the early Neolithic in Europe. It is an enclosure marked out by ditches and banks, with a number of causeways crossing the ditches. More than 100 examples are recorded i ...

) on the outskirts of Dorchester, Dorset, England. It derives its name from having been discovered beneath the site of the demolished Flagstones House.Flagstones Enclosure
at the Megalithic Portal, accessed 13 April 2015 Half of it was excavated in the 1980s when the Dorchester by-pass was built; the rest of it still exists under the grounds of

Max Gate Max Gate is the former home of Thomas Hardy and is located on the outskirts of Dorchester, Dorset, England. It was designed and built by Thomas Hardy for his own use in 1885 and he lived there until his death in 1928. In 1940 it was bequeathed ...

, Thomas Hardy's house.

The Druid Stone

In March 1891 workmen were digging under the lawn at Thomas Hardy's house at

when they discovered a large

sarsen stone Sarsen stones are silicified sandstone blocks found in quantity in Southern England on Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset, and Hampshire. Geology ...

underground. It took seven men with levers to raise the stone which had been lying flat. Around the stone was a quantity of ashes and half-charred bones. Hardy called it "The Druid Stone" and had it erected at the edge of the lawn where it still stands. Hardy would write about the stone in his poem "The Shadow on the Stone". It was only when the enclosure was discovered in the 1980s that it was realised that the sarsen stone came from a larger monument.

Excavations

Around half of the enclosure was excavated in 1987–8. The part of the enclosure in the grounds of Flagstones House was excavated by

Wessex Archaeology Wessex Archaeology is a British company that provides archaeological and heritage services, as well as being an educational charity. Apart from advice and consultancy, it also does fieldwork and publishes research on the sites it surveys. The comp ...

, and then the grounds were totally removed to make a deep cutting for the Dorchester by-pass road. The other half still exists under the grounds of Max Gate. The enclosure comprised a circular ring of unevenly spaced pits constructed in the late 4th millennium BC. The chalk walls of some of the pit/ditch segments featured engraved designs, probably cut with flint. An adult cremation and two child inhumations were found at the bottom of ditch sections, each beneath a slab of sandstone or sarsen. A young man had been buried in a later

Early Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

tumulus in the centre of the enclosure. Carbon dating of the remains put the building of the enclosure at around 3486–2886 BC with the central burial dating to around a thousand years later. The central mound seems to have subsequently acted as a focus for much flint-knapping. A large henge enclosure known as Mount Pleasant henge lies around 500 metres to the east, whereas

Maumbury Rings Maumbury Rings is a Neolithic henge in the south of Dorchester town in Dorset, England (). It is a large circular earthwork, 85 metres in diameter, with a single bank and an entrance to the north east. It was modified during the Roman period wh ...

lie about 1500 metres to the west.

The Druid Stone

Excavations

References

Further reading