No. 13.
No. 14.
The extreme north-west angle of the Mellor division has an outline drawing, here reproduced, lettered “The two standing stones,” which are elsewhere called “the Maiden Stones” (14). This pair of stones, still to be seen, stand at an important boundary point, about 1,200 feet high, where the townships of Ludworth, Chisworth, Mellor, and Rowarth meet. At the angle of Ludworth Moor, where these remarkable stones are to be found, there is no road near, but merely an almost disused track. For more than a century at least these stones have been known by the name of “Robin Hood Picking Rods”; but such a name was obviously unknown in the seventeenth century, as it occurs in none of these old surveys. The title “Maidenstones” is one of peculiar interest to any antiquary who has given attention to early earthworks, but it is too intricate a subject to be here discussed. On a 1695 survey, a boundary mark called “The Whyte Maiden” is marked a short distance from the Standing Stones. These two circular pillar stones stand in round socket holes, 12 in. apart, in a great stone about 80 in. long by 49 in. broad. The taller of the two stands 45 in. above the base, and has a girth at the bottom of 59½ in.; the shorter one stands only 30 in. high, but has a girth of 67 in. They have been pulled out of their sockets more than once in the past century, and are both mutilated. Part of the top of the shorter one (27 in. long) is built into an adjacent wall (15). Judging from the analogy of the two Bow Stones, five miles off to the north just across the Cheshire border, they originally had filleted heads of Saxon workmanship. They may be compared with a small filleted Saxon pillar in the porch of Bakewell Church, and another taller one at Clulow, and more especially with the Saxon shaft in the grounds of a private house at Fernilee which now supports a sundial.
No. 15.
Various more or less wild theories have been enunciated with regard to closely adjacent twin pillar stones of this character, of which several examples survive; they have sometimes been pronounced to be of Roman origin, whilst others have claimed them as pertaining to Phœnician art and of Phallic design. It must here suffice to ask our readers, who may not have given particular attention to the subject, to believe that they are beyond doubt of Saxon construction and date. When the sites of all such twin-stones have been carefully investigated, it will probably be established that they have some particular connection with intricate boundaries, and possibly with the junction of two separate ecclesiastical jurisdictions.
There are two other sites in the Peak district marked on these early plans where a pair of stones, each surmounted by a cross, is figured, neither of which have yet been identified. One of these is also on the northern edge of the Mellor Commons, the Birgwurd cross, the outline of which is here given.
Following the track from these Standing Stones due east for exactly a mile, at the precise spot where the old track crosses the boundary between Rowarth and Charlesworth townships, is the large fragment of the base of an old cross which has at a later date been used as a direction stone. Pursuing the same boundary line for half a mile further in a south-easterly direction, the stone long known as the Abbot’s Chair, and thus marked on the ordnance maps, is reached. Though a wrong and fanciful name, it has been thus described for more than two and a half centuries. On the 1640 survey it is styled “Abots Chere” (16). This stone measures 37 in. by 24 in., and stands 24 in. high; it is hollowed out to a width of about 17 in., with three of the sides raised 5 in., so as to form a kind of rough chair with a low back and sides. Closer examination shows that the hollow is really an old socket, presumably for a large cross, one side of which has been split off by the action of frost or human violence. The road that passes near it from the north to Hayfield is called Monks Road. It was in this division (Longdendale) of the Peak Forest that the Abbot of Basingwork had considerable rights and a large grange, and possibly this stone may have been thus mutilated and obtained its present name in pre-Reformation days. It is significant that the “chair” stands on the exact spot where the boundary is suddenly deflected at a right angle; and at a distance of 200 feet from the chair-stone, on the other side of the Monks Road, on the spot where the boundary resumes a south-easterly direction, is the perfect stump of another cross. This is a well-cut base, and obviously mediæval or after the Norman Conquest