Reasons for Designation
Standing stones are prehistoric ritual or ceremonial monuments with dates ranging from the Late Neolithic to the end of the Bronze Age for the few excavated examples. They comprise single or paired upright orthostatic slabs, ranging from under lm to over 6m high where still erect. They are often conspicuously sited and close to other contemporary monument classes. They can be accompanied by various features: many occur in or on the edge of round barrows, and where excavated, associated subsurface features have included stone cists, stone settings, and various pits and hollows filled in with earth containing human bone, cremations, charcoal, flints, pots and pot sherds. Similar deposits have been found in excavated sockets for standing stones, which range considerably in depth. Several standing stones also bear cup and ring marks. Standing stones may have functioned as markers for routeways, territories, graves, or meeting points, but their accompanying features show they also bore a ritual function and that they form one of several ritual monument classes of their period that often contain a deposit of cremation and domestic debris as an integral component. No national survey of standing stones has been undertaken, and estimates range from 50 to 250 extant examples, widely distributed throughout England but with concentrations in Cornwall, the North Yorkshire Moors, Cumbria, Derbyshire and the Cotswolds. Standing stones are important as nationally rare monuments, with a high longevity and demonstrating the diversity of ritual practices in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. Despite the fact that one of the stones has fallen, the two standing stones on Crousa Common, 890m WSW of Chywoone survive comparatively well and are a rare type of monument with great antiquity. The lack of recorded antiquarian activity suggests they will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to their erection, use, ritual and social significance, longevity and overall landscape context.
Details
The monument includes two standing stones situated on a prominent ridge known as Crousa Common. The standing stones survive as a single upright earthfast stone and one recumbent stone. The upright stone is to the north east and measures 0.5m square in section and up to 1.6m high. There is an Ordnance Survey trigger stone at the base. The recumbent stone is also of square section of up to 0.6m and is 2.9m long. Low mounds surround the stones which measure up to 0.3m high.
Other archaeological remains in the vicinity are scheduled separately.
Sources: HER:-
PastScape Monument No:-427231
