A hidden gem in Oxfordshire and the county’s answer to Stonehenge.
"This complex of megalithic monuments lies on the boundary between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, on the edge of the Cotswold hills. They span nearly 2000 years of Neolithic and Bronze age development and each site dates from a different period.
The oldest, the Whispering Knights dolmen, is early Neolithic, circa 3,800-3,500 BC, the King's Men stone circle is late Neolithic, circa 2,500 BC; and the King Stone is early to middle Bronze Age, circa 1,500 BC.
The Stones are made of natural boulders of Jurassic oolitic limestone which forms the bulk of the Cotswold hills. This stone has been used extensively in the region for building everything from churches and houses to stone walls. The boulders used to construct the Rollright Stones were probably collected from within 500m of the site.
The origins of the name -
The origin of the name ‘Rollright’ is somewhat uncertain. One interpretation is that it is derived from the Old English ‘Hrolla’+ ‘landriht’, the land-right or property of Hrolla. Old English is the earliest historical form of the English language brought to England by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century.
Another theory is that it is derived from an even older Celtic language ‘rod’ + ‘land’ + ‘ricc’ meaning the ‘ricc’ (groove, gorge or steep valley) by the ‘rodland’ (wheel arena) – i.e. the stone circle.
Earliest Mentions of Rollright and the Stones -
Little Rollright, the parish in which the Stones are located, is first mentioned in the Domesday Book (AD 1086) when it was valued at £5 and was held by Columba the Monk under the tenancy-in-chief of the Bishop of Lincoln. At that time there were 12 villagers, 3 smallholders and 2 slaves. There was land for 6 ploughs and 25 acres of meadow.
The Rollright Stones themselves are first referred to in a late 12th century account of the Wonders of Britain, which says “In the region of Oxfordshire there are great stones disposed as if by the hand of man. But at what time, or by what people, or for what memorial or significance this was done is not known. However that place is called Rollendrich by the local people."
Medieval and Later History -
Later in the middle ages Little Rollright became one of the farming estates of Eynsham Abbey, which relied on it for income. In common with many Cotswold landowners in the late 15th century, the Abbey saw sheep farming as the way to make money. In the decade 1496 to 1505 400 acres of arable were enclosed and converted to pasture with the loss of five village landholdings and the eviction of 36 people. In effect the village was all but deserted and it never recovered as a settlement.
The boom in the wool trade did not last, and by the 17th century (the date of the first detailed map of the estate) a balance had been restored between arable on the well-drained hillside, pasture on the lower slopes below the spring-line and meadow on the valley floor.
Other important features of the manorial economy were a series of triangular fishponds, a water mill and a windmill which stood close to the Stones. This was a post mill and is shown on late 16th century tapestry maps of the surrounding counties, commissioned by Ralph Sheldon, which is also the earliest depiction of the stones. It is also shown in the first published drawing of the Stones in William Camden’s Britannia (1607). But by the time of the first estate map in the later 17th century the windmill had been moved and the field by the Stones is called ‘Old Windmill Hill.’
The very big fields created by Eynsham Abbey were subdivided in the 18th and 19th century, and the open common land of Long Compton on the other side of the road was enclosed for the first time. Together these changes created the structure of the fields and hedges that we see today, only the Stones themselves remaining unchanged.
In the mid 19th century a group of larches was planted within the King's Men stone circle which lasted till the second world war. They were replaced by the two copses either side of the stone circle that survive today."
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"The King's Men -
This ceremonial stone circle was erected around 2,500BC. At present there are seventy-odd stones of heavily weathered local oolitic limestone (see Geology) set in a rather irregular ring about 31m across. They were poetically described by William Stukeley as being “corroded like worm eaten wood, by the harsh Jaws of Time”; they were said to make “a very noble, rustic, sight, and strike an odd terror upon the spectators, and admiration at the design of ‘em”. More recently, Aubrey Burl called them “seventy-seven stones, stumps and lumps of leprous limestone”.
The number of stones has changed over the years. Legends refer to stones having been taken away (to make bridges and the like), and it is likely that this created most of the gaps now visible. The stones are famously uncountable, but originally may have numbered about 105 standing shoulder to shoulder. At the time the Stones were first protected as an ancient monument (1883) the owner was reported to have “replaced all the fallen stones in their original foundation.” In fact the restoration was far from exact: most of the stones that are known to have been standing in their present positions since the 17th century show that it was originally built as an accurate circle.
The form of the stones
Two stones immediately outside the ring (one fallen) mark the portalled entrance to the circle opposite the tallest stone. The Stones stand in a very low bank with a wide gap on the same side as the entrance, possibly resulting from the interior being levelled.
This form of design with close-set stones, a portalled entrance and levelled interior is very characteristic of stone circles in the Lake District – such as Long Meg and her Daughters near Penrith, and, even more similar, Castlerigg near Keswick, and Swinside north of Ulverston. There are also a few in eastern Ireland. It is therefore likely that the people who built the King's Men came from one of those areas. When they felt the need to build a stone circle for ceremonial gatherings, they designed it to be in the architectural form that was most familiar to them."
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