tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post249509303863044038..comments2024-03-25T15:10:13.792+00:00Comments on English Buildings: Great Rollright, OxfordshirePhilip Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-76072474578259157172009-10-05T16:51:10.117+01:002009-10-05T16:51:10.117+01:00Thank you for the pictures of the Rollright Stones...Thank you for the pictures of the Rollright Stones it brought back great memories of when i was between 5 and 9 years old when i used to try and count them, and always counting to a diffrent number. I grew up in rollright and have very happy child hood memories there.<br /><br />Tim ShawUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02127607790305479819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-55235185214192146112009-01-23T10:35:00.000+00:002009-01-23T10:35:00.000+00:00I meant to say that the Hook Norton Brewery post i...I meant to say that the Hook Norton Brewery post is <A HREF="http://englishbuildings.blogspot.com/2007/07/hook-norton-brewery-oxfordshire.html" REL="nofollow"> here</A>.Philip Wilkinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-29697023729830920872009-01-23T10:29:00.000+00:002009-01-23T10:29:00.000+00:00This comment has been removed by the author.Philip Wilkinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-37207618301438097662009-01-23T08:24:00.000+00:002009-01-23T08:24:00.000+00:00I wish I'd seen The Tempest there. Prospero among ...I wish I'd seen The Tempest there. Prospero among the stones would have been something. <BR/><BR/>One of the first posts on this blog was on the Hook Norton brewery. A wonderful place. Cheers.Philip Wilkinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-43035135703700769792009-01-22T22:25:00.000+00:002009-01-22T22:25:00.000+00:00The Rollright Stones were the location for one of ...The Rollright Stones were the location for one of the Tom Baker Doctor Who stories, in the Key to Time sequence - and it really was impossible to count the stones accurately then, because the BBC added a few!<BR/><BR/>There was a wonderful production of the Tempest put on there once, too, by Mark Rylance, who was about to go on to become the director of the Globe. Very atmospheric.<BR/><BR/>And there's a wonderful Victorian brewery just down the road at Hook Norton!Eigonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11368838188678418192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-28016947593129331362009-01-14T22:35:00.000+00:002009-01-14T22:35:00.000+00:00Interestingly, the Rollright Stones are divided by...Interestingly, the Rollright Stones are divided by a county boundary - the main circle (the King's Men) and the group of five large stones (the Whispering Knights) are in Oxfordshire, while the King Stone is in Warwickshire. Which prevented me noticing in Leslie Grinsell's book the detail that chips were particularly taken from the King Stone by soldiers going to war. I imagine this was not because they wanted to be turned to stone just at the moment they hoped to achieve victory, but because they believed in the legend that the petrification is only temporary, and that at some future moment the witch's spell will be broken, the king and his men will come alive again, and he will overcome his enemies and become, as he dreamed, king of England.Neilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18020242863144175965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-53422429315830615232009-01-14T21:17:00.000+00:002009-01-14T21:17:00.000+00:00Thanks for all the comments. Fascinating that some...Thanks for all the comments. Fascinating that some of you find the stones spooky. <BR/><BR/>The removal of chunks from the King Stone is perhaps why it's surrounded by rather ugly iron railings.<BR/><BR/>Some scientists went and did various measurements among and on the stones a few years ago – magnetism, radioactivity, and so on. They didn't pick anything much up out of the ordinary, I believe, although they did find abnormally high radioactivity along a 100-yard stretch of the adjacent road. Something in the hardcore, I expect...Philip Wilkinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-10258571179375725422009-01-14T12:34:00.000+00:002009-01-14T12:34:00.000+00:00The Grinsell quote above ends with "prehistoric si...The Grinsell quote above ends with "prehistoric site", all the rest is me!Neilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18020242863144175965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-66908928877105071772009-01-14T11:25:00.000+00:002009-01-14T11:25:00.000+00:00My late friend Leslie Grinsell writes in his Folkl...My late friend Leslie Grinsell writes in his Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain that the Rollright Stones "has associated with it one of the richest collections of folklore of any British prehistoric site. The essential legend of the witch, the king, and his men was in existence at least by the 17th century. One reason for the likeness of the stones to rotten teeth is natural weathering, but another is the practice of removing bits of stone for luck, which seems to have been common in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Notes and Queries noted in 1859 that the King Stone "is daily diminishing in size, because people from Wales kept chipping off bits to keep the Devil off". What the significance of the Welsh connection is, I don't know. I love stone circles, Avebury being in my view the very finest, but funnily enough I'm not very fond of the Rollrights, despite all this interesting folklore, and their appearance in books such as Katharine Briggs's Hobberdy Dick and Penelope Lively's The Whispering Knights. Something about them spooks me.Neilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18020242863144175965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-50828873885890719512009-01-13T13:21:00.000+00:002009-01-13T13:21:00.000+00:00i have no time for the fake hippy style druids tha...i have no time for the fake hippy style druids that haunt Stonehenge but I admire those that are quietly in tune with rhythms of our past.Thudhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18320037763190473684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-10410458041705579862009-01-13T09:36:00.000+00:002009-01-13T09:36:00.000+00:00Such atmospheric pics., thankyou. My first visit h...Such atmospheric pics., thankyou. My first visit here was on a winter's afternoon, with smoke curling up from the chimney of the little cottage in the trees they use as a pay kiosk / postcard shop. But whatever the weather I always get a slightly odd feeling when I stand inside the circle.Peter Ashleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00027878122724846472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-66028002712790408312009-01-13T01:58:00.000+00:002009-01-13T01:58:00.000+00:00I've only just started reading your blog, but just...I've only just started reading your blog, but just wanted to say I have enjoyed what I've seen. <BR/><BR/>Very interesting stuff!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com