Following on from one holey stone, Minchinhampton Longstone, we move to a whole group of them.
The Rollright Stones – technically in Oxfordshire but still the Cotswolds. This site comprises a stone circle, with standing stone and remains of a barrow standing slightly further off. The circle itself has been much ‘adjusted’ by well-meaning antiquarians – adding stones to the existing circle – however it still retains the reputation for being uncountable. Legend has it that it is impossible to count the King’s Men: the stone circle. It is said that the man will never live who shall count the stones three times and find the number the same each time but is also said that the same counting task will give the person their heart’s desire fulfilled. A baker swore he could count them and, to prove it, he baked a quantity of loaves and placed one on each of the stones. But each time he tried to collect them up some of the loaves were missing, spirited away either by the Devil or by fairies.
Other tales of the Rollright Stones include their use in fortune telling, some bad luck stories and various stones going down the hill to drink, as the Minchinhampton Longstone was said to. Most famously perhaps is the story of their origin. The Stones take their names from a legend about a king and his army who were marching over the Cotswolds when they met a witch who challenged the king by saying, “Seven long strides shalt thou take and if Long Compton thou canst see, King of England thou shalt be”. On his seventh stride a mound rose up obscuring the view, and the witch turned them all to stone: the king became the King Stone; his army the King’s Men; and his knights the Whispering Knights (plotting treachery). The witch became an elder tree, supposedly still in the hedge: if it is cut the spell is broken the Stones will come back to life. It is also said that as one tree dies another grows and in summer when the flowers blossom, if her bark is cut, she will bleed. On midsummers eve people would form a ring around the king stone whilst one man cut the elder witch and as she bled the king’s head would move his head.
Fairies were said to dance around the king stone. The king’s stone is a slightly eccentric shape because 19th century tourists would chip off bits for luck. This despite the legend that any passing carrier who chips bits off the King Stone will find the wheels of his cart become irrevocably locked! Girls would go up to the whispering knights pressing their ears to the stones in the hope of hearing their fate.
As with other stone monuments there are difficulties or dangers in trying to remove stones. A local farmer supposedly took one of the largest stones to make a bridge over a stream. It took 24 horses to drag the stone down the hill and a man was killed on the way. Eventually they got the stone across the stream, but by the morning it had flipped over onto the bank! This happened each time they replaced it; then the crops failed, so they decided to put the stone back. It only took one horse to drag it up the hill!
For more gems of local folklore seek out a copy of the excellent book ‘Folklore of the Cotswolds’ by Katharine Briggs.