Fragments of the Town's Past ... and of the North-East, too - with all profits from the sale of my books being donated to the Great North Children's Hospital.
Thursday 28 July 2022
Carliol House, According to Wills' Cigarettes!
Thursday 21 July 2022
Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Fragments of the Past, Vol.2
Friday 15 July 2022
Duddo Stone Circle
As has often been remarked, the ancient monument is one of Britain’s finest, and enjoys a spectacular setting. The Cheviot and Eildon Hills loom to the south-west and west, respectively, with the stones themselves enjoying a slightly elevated and isolated position to the north-west of the village after which they are named.
Until recently, no one knew quite how old the little stone circle is. It is a modest affair at around ten yards across with none of its components more than eight feet in height, and early speculation suggested a Druidical origin. In time, the locals assumed it to be a memorial laid down after a victory over the Scots in 1558 in which the Percies chased off a party of plundering invaders. Quite how this tradition arose no one knows, for the truth is that the landmark is, indeed, ancient, with investigations in 1890 revealing remnants of a cremation burial. In 2008, an archaeological dig unearthed charcoal remains which were radiocarbon dated to around 2000BC. Furthermore, faint traces of man-made cup-and-ring marks have been found carved on the large east-facing stone, which seem to confirm its Bronze Age origins. In actual fact, it seems to have been built on the cusp of the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, being erected, possibly, by the native Neolithic population as a sort of ‘plea to the gods’ in the face of the growing influx of immigrants known as the Beaker People (the bringers of the Bronze Age to Britain).
There were at least seven stones to begin with, six surviving into the nineteenth century. Two more seem to have disappeared or toppled over during the ensuing decades, after which they became known as the ‘Four Stones’. Then, in 1903, a fifth was re-erected to ‘improve the skyline’.
Duddo's 'standing stones' are certainly a curious lot. They have been known in the past as ‘The Ladies’ (due to their tapering shape) and ‘The Singing Stones’ (perhaps a reference to the wind whistling through their weathered grooves). And, once more, they can be easily and freely visited by the casual passer-by ... if, as in my case, you don't mind a lengthy car journey followed by a 20-minute hike across the fields.
[This post is taken from the text of my above-mentioned book. So, yes, it's a little teaser for you]