Prehistoric standing stone 1,030m south west of triangulation point on High Neb

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. Consequently all undisturbed standing stones and those which represent the main range of types and locations would normally be considered to be of national importance.

The prehistoric standing stone 1,030m south west of the triangulation point on High Neb is particularly important through its association with a landscape rich in Bronze Age activity and notably with a stone circle located approximately 190m to the SSW. It also provides a social document for the early 20th century through its association with attempts to improve public access to moorlands.

Details

The monument includes a large prehistoric standing stone known as 'The Old Woman Stone' part of which is now recumbent and lying adjacent to its base. Until the 20th century the stone stood upright. It is likely to have been associated with one or more of the ceremonial monuments in the surrounding moorlands, dated to the Bronze Age. The monument comprises a large natural boulder of local gritstone which had been raised on end and made earthfast to form a focal point in the surrounding landscape. It stands in an area of the Bamford moors rich in evidence for Bronze Age settlement and ceremonial activity. The stone, together with the stump of its base, is approximately 2.4m long and sub-rectangular in section. It is about 1.2m wide and 0.5m deep with about 0.25m of its original base left above ground. There are deeply weathered grooves, especially on both wide faces, indicating that the stone had stood in its upright position for some considerable time. During the earlier part of the 20th century, the stone was deliberately felled to prevent ramblers using the monument as a route-marker in an attempt to discourage access to private moorlands. Conflict over public access to private moorlands such as evidenced by this event led to the `Mass Trespass' of the 1930s. Since this event the stone has lain adjacent to the stump of its base, a few centimetres away. The monument stands approximately 190m to the NNW of a small stone circle which is located close to evidence for Bronze Age settlement and agriculture in the form of cairnfields to the south and west. The position of the standing stone indicates that it was deliberately placed to provide a ceremonial function for ritual activities associated with the circle and/or with one or more of the Bronze Age funerary monuments nearby. Standing stones such as this example are also known to be associated with stone circles elsewhere, although their survival is relatively rare.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

31224

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Barnatt, J W, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal in Bronze Age Remains on the East Moors of the Peak District, Vol. 106, (1986), 21-29
Barnatt, J, Sheffield Arch. Monograph 1 in The Henges, Stone Circles and Ringcairns of the Peak District, (1990), 47

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