Standing Stone (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SE 024 244
Archaeology & History
Also known as the Field House Standing Stone, this monolith seems to have gone. It was first described in local Minister’s Accounts of 1403, and then again in the Wakefield court-rolls of 1515. By the time John Watson (1775) wrote about the place there had been several other references describing this old “standyngstone”. It was still upright in 1852, but Ordnance Survey showed it as “Site of – ” at the beginning of the 20th century, and the stone had been moved a short distance away, further down from its original position to a spot at the side of the old trackway — but all trace of it has since vanished.
Folklore
This is thought to have been the standing stone which Robin Hood threw here, from the appropriately called Robin Hood’s Penny Stone at Wainstalls. The tale tells how he dug it out of the ground with a spade and threw it three-and-half miles across the valley until it landed here. Ooh, what a strong boy!
References:
- Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
- Smith, A.H., The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, volume 3, Cambridge University Press 1961.
- Watson, John, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax, T. Lowndes: London 1775.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
Hi this area really intrigues me as a Mytholmroyd local and having walked about this area quite a lot.
The position of the stone on the old OS maps is very vague as you might expect of a disappeared stone. It was marked as; “site of” even on the 1850s map?
But its on the edge of a wedge of land called “Bull Green”?
The lane up to it is called Ringstone Hill Lane??
There is a Stannery End farm not far away, a probably natural feature called “Slack Stones” nearby, there’s the large disused Nab End quarry up the lane also?
I have also noticed a pile of large stones (old stoops?) in the garden of a renovated house on Ringstone Hill, so altogether possibly interesting stuff. Annoyingly however there is no free Lidar for this wedge of land from Sowerby to Mytholmroyd… frustrating.