Robin Hood's Stone at the junction of Archerfield Road and Booker Avenue

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 standing stone known as Robin Hood's Stone is a good example of a stone known to have been connected to a landscape which also included the Calderstones. Although it has been moved approximately 60m from its original location it has a strong association with the past for the residents the streets which now surround it. The presence of cup marks on the base of the stone make for additional interest although such decorations are at present imperfectly understood.

Details

The monument includes the standing monolith known as Robin Hood's Stone.
The stone was formerly erected during the Bronze Age and was originally
part of the complex of stone monuments known as the Calderstones, which
lie approximately 150m to the north east. These have been protected as a
separate monument (NHLE 1008531). It is known that this stone was moved from a
site in a field called The Stone Hey, 60m to the north east of its present
location, in 1928.


An early photograph shows that the stone had been decorated with several
cup marks, similar to those recorded on the Calderstones. These marks are
now at the base of the stone, buried in the soil beneath the concrete
plinth. The standing stone is approximately 2.4m high, 0.9m wide and 0.4m
thick. It is set in an oval concrete plinth, 0.2m above the surrounding
pavement, which is 3.2m long and 2.6m wide. It is surrounded by iron
railings and braced by two iron bars, one on each side of the stone.


At the base of the stone is a bronze plaque which announces the recent
history of the monument: `THIS MONOLITH/ KNOWN AS ROBIN HOODS STONE
STOOD/IN A FIELD NAMED THE STONE HEY/AT A SPOT 198 FEET DISTANT AND IN A
/DIRECTION BEARING 7 DEGREES EAST OF TRUE/NORTH FROM ITS PRESENT POSITION
TO/ WHICH IT WAS MOVED IN AUGUST 1928/ THE ARROW INDICATES THE DIRECTION
OF THE ORIGINAL SITE'. Beneath this, in smaller capitals `THIS SIDE OF THE
STONE FORMERLY FACED SOUTH'.


The railings and the bracing struts are excluded from the scheduling
although the plinth and the ground beneath is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

33891

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
The Calderstones, (1988), 15

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