The Whetstones are, or were, a
stone circle beneath
Corndon Hill
Corndon Hill ( cy, Cornatyn) is a hill in Powys, Mid Wales, whose isolated summit rises to 1,683 ft above sea level.
It is surrounded on three sides by the English county of Shropshire and forms a prominent landmark in the Wales-England b ...
in the parish of
Church Stoke,
Montgomeryshire
, HQ= Montgomery
, Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996)
, Origin=
, Status=
, Start=
, End= ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
, near the border with
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. They lie immediately to the west of the village of
White Grit and close to
Priestweston.
[The Whetstones]
Megalithic Portal The site is also a short distance from the better-known
Hoarstones and
Mitchell's Fold
Mitchell's Fold (sometimes called Medgel's Fold or Madges Pinfold) is a Bronze Age stone circle in southwest Shropshire, located near the small village of White Grit on dry heathland at the southwest end of Stapeley Hill in the civil parish o ...
circles.
Context
While the transition from the
Early Neolithic to the Late Neolithic in the fourth and third millennia BCE saw much economic and technological continuity, there was a considerable change in the style of monuments erected, particularly in what is now southern and eastern England. By 3000 BCE, the
long barrow
Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repre ...
s,
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 ...
s, and
cursus
250px, Stonehenge Cursus, Wiltshire
250px, Dorset Cursus terminal on Thickthorn Down, Dorset
Cursuses are monumental Neolithic structures resembling ditches or trenches in the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. Relics found within them i ...
es which had predominated in the Early Neolithic were no longer built, and had been replaced by circular monuments of various kinds. These include earthen
henge
There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ...
s,
timber circles
In archaeology, timber circles are rings of upright wooden posts, built mainly by ancient peoples in the British Isles and North America. They survive only as gapped rings of post-holes, with no evidence they formed walls, making them distinct fr ...
, and stone circles. Stone circles are found in most areas of Britain where stone is available, with the exception of the island's south-eastern corner. They are most densely concentrated in south-western Britain and on the north-eastern horn of Scotland, near
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
. The tradition of their construction may have lasted for 2,400 years, from 3300 to 900 BCE, with the major phase of building taking place between 3000 and 1,300 BCE.
These stone circles typically show very little evidence of human visitation during the period immediately following their creation. This suggests that they were not sites used for rituals that left archaeologically visible evidence, but may have been deliberately left as "silent and empty monuments". The archaeologist
Mike Parker Pearson
Michael Parker Pearson, (born 26 June 1957) is an English archaeologist specialising in the study of the Neolithic British Isles, Madagascar and the archaeology of death and burial. A professor at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, he previousl ...
suggests that in Neolithic Britain, stone was associated with the dead, and wood with the living. Other archaeologists have suggested that the stone might not represent ancestors, but rather other supernatural entities, such as deities.
These Whestones were among five probable stone circles that are historically recorded as being within two miles of each other, largely in Shropshire but also stretching in neighbouring
Powys
Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain.
Geog ...
. Alongside the Whetstones are the
Hoarstones and
Mitchell's Fold
Mitchell's Fold (sometimes called Medgel's Fold or Madges Pinfold) is a Bronze Age stone circle in southwest Shropshire, located near the small village of White Grit on dry heathland at the southwest end of Stapeley Hill in the civil parish o ...
, both of which still survive and which are comparatively large. A fourth stone circle, the
Druid's Castle, as well as a fifth possible example, at Shelve, were smaller. Given the differences in size, the archaeologist
Aubrey Burl
Harry Aubrey Woodruff Burl HonFSA Scot (24 September 1926 – 8 April 2020) was a British archaeologist best known for his studies into megalithic monuments and the nature of prehistoric rituals associated with them. Before retirement he was P ...
suggested that the Druid's Castle was erected at a different time to the larger three rings.
Description
Burl estimated that Whetstones circle had had a major axis of 30 metres, in which case it would have been a large stone circle. Three stones were reported as being extant in 1841, the largest being 1.2 metres long.
No information on the shape of the circle survives.
History
The Reverend C. H. Hartshorne visited the site in 1841, commenting that three stones then remained, all leaning. He referred to these as being "mutilated fragments" of the ring's original appearance. He described the stones as "leaning, owing to the soft and boggy nature of the soil. They stand equidistant and assume a circular position
..The highest of these is four feet above the surface; one foot six inches in thickness, and three feet in width."
[Hartshorne, C. H. ''Salopia Antiqua'', London: J W Parker, 1841, p.33] In 1860, the
antiquarian Robert William Eyton
Robert William Eyton (21 December 1815 – 8 September 1881) was an English Church of England clergyman who was author of ''The Antiquities of Shropshire''.
Life and career
Robert William Eyton was born in 1815. He was the son of Reverend John Eyt ...
still referred to the Whetstones as a "remarkable monument",
[Eyton, R. W. ''Antiquities of Shropshire'', Volumes 11-12, J.R. Smith, 1860, p.159] but they were later stated to have been dug up, and the stones incorporated into a boundary wall, in about 1870.
["The History of Chirbury" in ''Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society'', 1906, 231]
Most of the stones in the circle were destroyed around 1860. The entire circle was then demolished in 1870.
Aubrey Burl
Harry Aubrey Woodruff Burl HonFSA Scot (24 September 1926 – 8 April 2020) was a British archaeologist best known for his studies into megalithic monuments and the nature of prehistoric rituals associated with them. Before retirement he was P ...
notes that "nearly all of its stones were blown up in the 1860s
..when the last stone was uprooted around 1870 charcoal and bones were seen".
[Burl, A. ''A guide to the stone circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany'', Yale University Press, 2005, p.175]
The remnants of the circle can still be observed from an adjacent field boundary, or from the northern summit of Corndon Hill.
Large stones are also visible now forming a boundary next to a footpath, which were probably also once incorporated in the circle.
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
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External links
Whetstonesat
The Megalithic Portal The Megalithic Portal is a web resource dedicated to prehistoric archaeology and closely related subjects. The Megalithic Portal's mission is to document, publicise and protect ancient sites and help to ensure their preservation for future generati ...
{{Stone Circles of Ireland, Britain, and Brittany
Bronze Age sites in Wales
Stone circles in Wales
Archaeological sites in Powys