The Hitching Stone is a

gritstone Gritstone or grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for pa ...

erratic block on

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west of Bi ...

Moor,

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, near

Earl Crag Earl Crag is a gritstone crag and climbing area in Craven, North Yorkshire, England. It is home to Lund's Tower, Wainman's Pinnacle, and The Hitching Stone, all of which are near Cowling A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's ...

and the village of

Cowling A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings are a cove ...

. It is very close to the border between North Yorkshire and

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

and the border between

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

and

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. It is said to be the largest

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

in Yorkshire at long, wide and high. It is also said to weigh a lot more than 1000 tonnes.

Geography

The Hitching Stone is from the town of Keighley and is at an elevation of .

History

The Hitching Stone and all the other erratic boulders on Keighley Moor were put in place thousands to possibly millions of

year A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hou ...

s ago during the

Pleistocene Epoch The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

. The Hitching Stone most likely originally came from Earl Crag during this time. As a result of the fact that The Hitching Stone lies at the borders of historic counties, ancient

council A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...

s and

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

s met at the stone and markets,

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

s, and other gatherings were also held at the stone, with the last fair being held in 1870.

Gallery

File:The Hitching Stone, Keighley Moor - geograph.org.uk - 127023.jpg, The Hitching Stone File:The Hitching Stone with people around it.jpg, People visiting the Hitching Stone File:Hitching Stone (south side) - geograph.org.uk - 427679.jpg, The south side of the Hitching Stone File:The Hitching Stone from the east - geograph.org.uk - 1662102.jpg, The Hitching Stone from the east File:Hitching Stone (pool) - geograph.org.uk - 427687.jpg, The pool of water in the Hitching Stone

Geography

History

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading