The Blowing Stone is a perforated sarsen at in

Kingston Lisle Kingston Lisle is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse, England, about west of Wantage and south-southeast of Faringdon. The parish includes the hamlet of Fawler, about west of Kingston Lisle village. The 2011 Census record ...

, which is in the traditional county of Berkshire, but is currently administered as part of Oxfordshire. The stone is in a garden at the foot of Blowingstone Hill just south of the Icknield Way (B4507), about west of

Wantage Wantage () is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire since 1974. T ...

and about east of

White Horse Hill Whitehorse Hill is a hill in the Berkshire Downs in Oxfordshire, England, west of Wantage. At , it is the highest point in Oxfordshire. Uffington Castle lies on the summit of the hill, and the Uffington White Horse is on the hill's northern s ...

. Blowingstone Hill is part of the

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...

of the

Berkshire Downs The Berkshire Downs are a range of chalk downland hills in South east England split between the counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. They are part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The western parts of the downs ...

, at the crest of which is

The Ridgeway The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countryside The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ...

Notability

The Blowing Stone blow hole, Kingston Lisle - geograph

The stone is capable of producing a booming sound if someone with the required skill blows into one of the holes the right way. According to legend it could be heard atop White Horse Hill, where 19th-century antiquarians thought King Alfred the Great's Saxon troops had camped, and that this was how Alfred summoned them for the

Battle of Ashdown The Battle of Ashdown, was a West Saxon victory over a Danish Viking army on about 8 January 871. The location of Ashdown is not known, but may be Kingstanding Hill in Berkshire. Other writers place the battle near Starveall, a short distance n ...

against the Danes in AD 871.

Literature

Thomas Hughes Thomas Hughes (20 October 182222 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. ...

' novel ''

Tom Brown's School Days ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (sometimes written ''Tom Brown's Schooldays'', also published under the titles ''Tom Brown at Rugby'', ''School Days at Rugby'', and ''Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby'') is an 1857 novel by Thomas Hughes. The stor ...

'' refers to it as the ''Blawing Stwun'' and calls the village ''Kingstone Lisle''. It is also one of the "sacred stones" mentioned in William Horwood's ''

Duncton Wood ''Duncton Wood'' is the first novel by English author William Horwood. It is the first of a six-volume fantasy series of the same name. Series overview ''Duncton Wood'' and its sequels have as its protagonists anthropomorphic moles living i ...

'', the first book in his fantasy fiction series about a group of moles.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Anglo-Saxon archaeology Archaeological sites in Oxfordshire History of Berkshire Stone Age sites in England Stones Tourist attractions in Oxfordshire Vale of White Horse