Cup-Marked Stone (removed): OS Grid Reference – NZ 1480 6417
Archaeology & History
In a short piece read before Newcastle’s Society of Antiquaries in 1942, a Mr Cocks (don’t laugh!) told that when a friend of his was clearing out an old land drain in his garden, he found this fragmented cup-marked stone, “which had been made use of as a corner slab on the drain”! It was located “about 40 yards south-west of Tweedy’s Buildings,” on the west side of town. Broken from a larger piece of stone, the attached photo here shows the simple design of the basic cup-marks, measuring respectively 2½, 2 and 1⅝ inches across. Mr Cocks told that “there are also two finger-tip hollows on the stone tone which or may not be natural. A dark line running between the cups is a natural fissure.”
Last we heard, the stone was living in a box somewhere in the archives at the Great North Museum, Newcastle.
References:
- Cocks, W.A., “A Cup-Marked Stone at Ryton,” in Proceedings Society of Antiquaries Newcastle-upon-Tyne, volume X, no.2, January 1943.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
