Memorials of old Derbyshire

by Unknown

This suggestion is supported by another distinctive feature in the plan of stone circles, of which, also, no explanation has been offered. Nearly every circle has two entrances, or an entrance and exit, cut through the mound, and when a fosse is present it is broken at the causeways; but these entrances, although on opposite sides of the circle, and usually towards the north and south, are never directly opposite each other. If, therefore, the central cromlech was the dominant purpose, the roadway would pass alongside it, and not have to deviate around it, as it certainly would if it truly bisected the circle.

The three principal examples in the county are Arbor Low, the Bull Ring, and the Wet-Withens. Arbor Low is situate on the hillside, 1,200 feet above the sea, a mile to the east of Parsley Hay Station, eight miles south-east from Buxton. It has been termed the Stonehenge of the Midlands, and as a megalithic monument, the very grandeur of its loneliness appeals to memories of the days of old and the race that is gone. Its dimensions have already been given, but its general features are a circular plateau, averaging about one hundred and sixty feet in diameter, and surrounded by a broad fosse, enclosed, save at the two entrances, within a high vallum of earth. In the centre of the plateau are three limestone blocks, of which one is fourteen feet in length, and another, now broken, about twelve feet by eight feet six inches; these, before destruction, probably formed a dolmen, or trilithon, similar to those of Stonehenge. Arranged around the edge of the plateau, and seemingly in pairs, which also allows the possibility of a trilithic formation, are forty-six similar stones, all, with one exception, lying prone, and measuring from thirteen feet by six to comparatively small dimensions—the exception referred to, however, lies at a very low angle. They seem to have been selected from the surface limestone of the district, which explains the many weathered and holed stones amongst them; and it must be remembered that a holed stone has always claimed a superstitious veneration. It is present in the circle at Stennis, in our chambered barrows, and in the dolmens of France, Russia, and India. The trilithons of Stonehenge may be its elaboration, and in later times King Alfred caused the Danes to swear their treaty according to their most solemn custom upon the holy ring. Even in mediæval days the superstition connected with St. Wilfred’s Needle at Ripon may probably have been but a survival of this archaic tradition.

Although not shaped in the usual sense of the word, some of the stones at Arbor Low show indications of rough dressing, particularly at the base, which was, no doubt, for the purpose of stability when they were originally set upright. That once they were erect there can be no doubt, for it is essential to a stone circle that they should be so placed. As they lie, it will be noticed that, with very few exceptions, the top of every stone points to the centre of the plateau, whereas the natural fall of the stones would be towards the ditch, on the edge of which they were placed, for their foundations on that side would be the weaker. The obvious explanation must be that they were pulled down by ropes, and as the vallum would impede the process on the outside, it followed that the crowd of haulers necessarily required the full width of the plateau, and so caused the stones to fall inwards, like the radii of a circle. Similarly the central stones were hauled down in a straight line with the entrance to the circle, which thus gave the necessary leverage of length. When and by whom was this done? It is unlikely that the Romans would interfere with customs which in no way clashed with their own. When, however, the first waves of Christianity passed over the land, and Christian stone crosses were erected throughout our county, it is unlikely that the stone monuments of a pagan race would be tolerated amongst them; and in the seventh century an edict of the Church was passed in France exhorting the clergy to stamp out the idolatry of stone-worship. In Northumbria, which country then included the county of Derby, King Edwin, upon his conversion to Christianity in A.D. 627, authorised Paulinus to destroy “the altars and temples, with the enclosures that were about them,” at which he had previously worshipped.[31]

We may, therefore, assume that the great circle of Arbor Low was too prominent a monument to be allowed to remain, but the lesser circles, no longer frequented by the people, would pass unnoticed by the Reformers; yet the circle on Harthill Moor, only four miles away, was left standing, although some of its stones were nine or ten feet high, and nine stones still stood a century ago, but now only four remain, varying in height from about four feet to eight or nine feet. Perhaps the late interment, discovered by Mr. St. George Gray during the excavations at Arbor Low in 1902, may have dated from the time of its destruction, for its selection as a place of sepulture would naturally offend the tenets of a Christian people, and call attention to the superstitions still associated with this mysterious monument. It was not the first interment there, for built upon the vallum adjoining the southern entrance are the remains of a large tumulus, which yielded to Mr. Bateman, its excavator, urns of coarse clay and other evidence of cremation, with relics of flint and bone. Again, the summit of the great mound of its satellite, Gib Hill, had been selected for a similar interment in the days before the shadow of mystery was cast over Arbor Low.

The Bull Ring almost adjoins the modern church at Dove Holes, three and a half miles north-north-west from Buxton. So far as the ground plan of the circle is concerned, it is identical with that of Arbor Low, save that the vallum is now, perhaps, not quite so high. No doubt it is the work of the same architects, and originally contained a similar arrangement of great stones. Unfortunately these were entirely removed nearly two centuries ago for building purposes, and its very existence is to-day threatened by approaching lime works. With the circle itself its similarity to Arbor Low ends, for instead of lying on a northern slope it faces south-east, hence as the natural conditions are varied, so are its adjuncts. Instead of a high mound a thousand feet away, its pointer is brought close to it, and, therefore, lower in height, although a mound of about the same circumference; but its direction is nearly the same, namely, to the south-west.

The Wet-Withens is on the northern slope of Eyam Moor, 1,002 feet above sea-level, and is the best example of the type in which the fosse is absent. To-day it is represented by a circular mound of earth, one hundred and twenty feet in diameter, and about ten feet broad by two feet six inches high, broken for the entrances in the usual positions, namely, due south and nearly north. Set in the inner margin of the mound remain ten stones of millstone grit, most of which are upright, and probably fifteen or sixteen originally completed the arrangement, and some may be hidden by the heather. They stand at nearly equal distances, but the largest only measures, as exposed above the turf, four feet three inches long, one foot nine inches broad, and nine inches deep. It has already been mentioned that a monolith once stood in the centre, and there is still a considerable depression in the ground whence it was excavated—for the hand of the quarryman has been ruthless amongst the prehistoric monuments of our county. Forty feet due north of the circle are the remains of a great cairn, or tumulus, with a base seventy feet by forty feet, composed entirely of stones averaging over a foot in length. This may have served the purpose of the pointer, or, like the tumulus on the vallum at Arbor Low, may merely have been a sepulchral mound, for it also yielded a half-baked urn containing cremated remains and a flint arrow-head. If Mr. Trustram’s theory be correct, the stone-marked avenue leads to the south-west, and thus conforms with the pointers of Arbor Low and the Bull Ring; also with the general direction of the avenue or causeway of the former.

The relative position of these three circles is certainly curious. They form an inverted isosceles triangle, of which the base line from the Wet-Withens to the Bull Ring is nearly due east and west; to be accurate, it is almost the true magnetic orientation, and the apex at Arbor Low is due south. The Ordnance map discloses the length of the base line to be nine miles, and that of each of the sides ten miles; in fact, the compasses pivoted in the centre of Arbor Low bisect both the circles of the Bull Ring and Wet-Withens. It is needless to remark that the megalithic builders had not the knowledge nor the appliances to measure distances otherwise than on the ground level; but as the valleys run north and south, and the line east to west is therefore much more broken and undulating, it is not impossible that there was a measured intention to construct these three circles as nearly as possible in the form of an equilateral triangle, of which the circle of Arbor Low was to be due south, according to the sun’s then apparent meridian. Indeed, it is an interesting question of fact whether, if measured on the ground level, these three circles would not prove to be equidistant one from another.

Reduce the compasses to the equivalent to eight miles, and a series of coincidences follows. They exactly span Arbor Low and Stadon; Arbor Low and an unmarked circle near Park Gate on East Moor; the latter and the double circle on Abney Moor, and, again, the same circle and two others on Brassington Moor; the Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor and the circle on Froggatt Edge; that on the Bar Brook and the most northern of the two on Bamford Moor; the southern circle on Bamford Moor and the double circle on the Ford estate near Chapel-en-le-Frith; the latter and the circle on Abney Moor, and so on, until it would seem to be worth one’s while to follow the eight miles radius from any given circle in search of its colleague. If there is any variation in the distances quoted above, it is so slight as to be scarcely perceptible on the one-inch scale Ordnance map. This is, at the least, tentative evidence of that careful system of mensuration which seems to pervade the mystery of these interesting memorials.

Arbor Low: General View of the Southern and Western Part.