'The Landscape Around the Old Fence Wall, Behind Rope walk, near to St Mary's Church'
1852 Map Detail
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The Great Blue Stone,
I wrote an article for the Scarborough Review a few years ago about The Great Blue Stone, Scarborough’s ancient market stone. Mentioned by Thomas Hinderwell in his book The History of Scarborough and its Vicinities, writing of the old Market place, “...it is still to be seen in the fence there, and is said to have continued for many ages to have been the place where public bargains where ratified and discharged as being the custom in those days...” The Stone is not really mentioned again and I have yet to find a photo of it in situ but his glancing comments really captured my imagination. A few people wrote to me offering interesting information about the stone and others like it around Europe.
Scarborough’s ancient market stone laid by the approach to the Castle on what is now the car park of the Phoenix Hotel. It appears on different maps and books as 'The Great Blue Stone', the 'Bargaining Stone', 'Ancient Market Stone' and 'The Old Blue Stone'. From The Great Blue Stone you would have had an elevated view of the surrounding landscape over an undeveloped town and its vicinities. During the development of Castle Road in the mid 1800's The Great Blue Stone was moved and placed in the care of the Scarborough museum where it sat in the museum gardens. At some point it has been damaged and one end has been smashed off. The other end of the Stone has been polished to a smooth shine and carved with the words 'Ancient Market Stone' along with a mention of the antiquarian Thomas Hinderwell who described it in his book. Menhirs and Standing Stones all over the world are 'Christianised' but the one at Scarborough has been 'antiquarian-ised'; were the name of the antiquarian, the name of his book and his name for the stone have been carved into its base.
Bluestone is a word to describe a foreign stone not intrinsic to the area. An interesting correspondent from Denmark, who had researched blues stones for forty years, suggested to me that Scarborough’s ancient market stone was likely to be a blueish cult stone, of which there are many examples in Britain and Northern Europe. He informed me that blue stones served as judicial stones and originally used as oath stones, mentioned in the most ancient laws of the Low Countries from the 6th century. Bluestones commonly known as the Stone of the King were used in the same tradition as The Stone Of Scone (The Stone Of Destiny), kept with the Crown Jewels in Edinburgh Castle. Scarborough’s bluestone isn’t so regal, but this stone was a focal point in old Scarborough and as Hinderwell stated, it was the customary place for public speakers and public bargaining; giving rise to its other name ‘the bargain stone’ its title as it appears on the 1852 map of the town.
It was also suggested to me that the stone may have originally been a glacial erratic, randomly dropped in its place by a glacier at the end of the last ice age. It could be, were it not for its very considered location. Being in an elevated viewing position, from this specific location the movement of the sun and moon is measured out by the ancient features in the surrounding landscape. The word erratic is from the Latin ‘errare’ which means to wander, making an erratic a ‘wandering stone’. Some erratics where moved by glaciers or by melt water, others are moved by greater forces such as Scarborough Borough Council. Scarborough’s bluestone was moved from the fence wall on Market Gate, now Castle Road, to the grounds of Scarborough Museum, and then again into storage while the museum was undergoing repairs. Bluestones do get about a bit.
Bluestones in the Netherlands are quarried in the Ardennes. The bluestones of Stonehenge were quarried from the Preseli Hills. I personally think the Scarborough’s blue stone was originally brought to the town by people rather than a glacier. I think it was quarried from Whinstone Ridge on the North York Moors.
From its former location on Castle Rd, the Great Blue Stone’s elevated position the horizon line is filled with interesting details. The horizon north-west makes a curious shallow bowl shape from the features of Suffield Moor, Burn Howe Moor, Nettlehead and Standingstones Rigg. They make an interesting measuring tool using the horizon line, and on different summer nights the sun moves from one side of the bowl to the other, setting at different points northwards as it reaches the summer solstice. Setting at Swarth Howe and along Burn Howe Moor. 'Swarth' might have come from 'Svarti' meaning 'black' (charred) and 'Burn' Howe on Burn Moor may denote ritual fires set during this time of the year.
The sun reaches its furthest setting point at the tumulus at Thirley Beck Farm on the summer solstice. As the stone is a large impressive piece of basalt rock, I think it’s worth remembering that the nearest source for basalt is The Cleveland Dyke, the last section of which is known as Winstone ridge where the sun has been setting over for most of the summer. Sunrise on the Winter Solstice occurs over Flamborough Head. Sunrise on Mayday appears in the left hand corner of the headland, on the North Bay for the first time.
Single bluestones around Europe were often sited at the city gates, the reason is attributed to the bible, were it is said that wisdom is to be found at the gate. Scarborough’s bluestone was sited on the road halfway between the Auborough Gate at the top of Auborough Street and the Castle Gate. Close to the old borough boundary, that ran in a line from around the top of Auborough (Awld Borough) Street to the bottom of Blands Cliff. The area were the blue stone sat is still used as a ward boundary.
In the Low Countries the Franks issued pagan and noble laws involving bluestones as an oath stone, a custom that dates from the time when paganism met Christianity. Bluestones marked the centre of towns at the intersection of the town wards, often at a crossing of land and waterway.
I thought, what if in Scarborough’s past, as the town developed, the bluestone had been moved about like a podium or a stage set and put in a central places by a waterway or by the town gates, as was the custom in Europe? Scarborough’s blue stone could have been sited by the Rede Cross; one of Scarborough’s old town crosses that was close to the centre of the old town. The Rede Cross stood on Longwestgate on the corner with Springfield, near to the Damyot stream; that important Scarborough waterway. Or the bluestone could have even been in the grounds of the Church of St Thomas the Martyr by the Newborough Gate, placed near to the area where the Damyot steam enters the town. This could have been prior to its location to Castle Road?
Bluestones and town crosses where customs of the Vikings but not exclusive to them. Many tribes in North Europe settled in Britain and we shared the same customs. There are bluestones in Scandinavia used in almost identical circumstances as Scarborough’s bluestone. Is this a nod, though not a conclusive nod of evidence of the ever illusive Viking presence in Scarborough?
To me Scarborough’s bluestone is a great curiosity, countless traders and towns people must have come into contact with it to agree prices for goods and for making bargains. Perhaps not just Scarborians but also those visiting the town from Europe at the time of the great Scarborough Fayres. The fayres attracted visitors from as far away as Ghent, Ypres and the Baltic, but the Great Jabbler's Fayre was one of the big events of the year.
Maybe the bluestone should be kept under the Mayors Seat or with her chains of office?
DavWhiteArt.com
I wrote an article for the Scarborough Review a few years ago about The Great Blue Stone, Scarborough’s ancient market stone. Mentioned by Thomas Hinderwell in his book The History of Scarborough and its Vicinities, writing of the old Market place, “...it is still to be seen in the fence there, and is said to have continued for many ages to have been the place where public bargains where ratified and discharged as being the custom in those days...” The Stone is not really mentioned again and I have yet to find a photo of it in situ but his glancing comments really captured my imagination. A few people wrote to me offering interesting information about the stone and others like it around Europe.
Scarborough’s ancient market stone laid by the approach to the Castle on what is now the car park of the Phoenix Hotel. It appears on different maps and books as 'The Great Blue Stone', the 'Bargaining Stone', 'Ancient Market Stone' and 'The Old Blue Stone'. From The Great Blue Stone you would have had an elevated view of the surrounding landscape over an undeveloped town and its vicinities. During the development of Castle Road in the mid 1800's The Great Blue Stone was moved and placed in the care of the Scarborough museum where it sat in the museum gardens. At some point it has been damaged and one end has been smashed off. The other end of the Stone has been polished to a smooth shine and carved with the words 'Ancient Market Stone' along with a mention of the antiquarian Thomas Hinderwell who described it in his book. Menhirs and Standing Stones all over the world are 'Christianised' but the one at Scarborough has been 'antiquarian-ised'; were the name of the antiquarian, the name of his book and his name for the stone have been carved into its base.
Bluestone is a word to describe a foreign stone not intrinsic to the area. An interesting correspondent from Denmark, who had researched blues stones for forty years, suggested to me that Scarborough’s ancient market stone was likely to be a blueish cult stone, of which there are many examples in Britain and Northern Europe. He informed me that blue stones served as judicial stones and originally used as oath stones, mentioned in the most ancient laws of the Low Countries from the 6th century. Bluestones commonly known as the Stone of the King were used in the same tradition as The Stone Of Scone (The Stone Of Destiny), kept with the Crown Jewels in Edinburgh Castle. Scarborough’s bluestone isn’t so regal, but this stone was a focal point in old Scarborough and as Hinderwell stated, it was the customary place for public speakers and public bargaining; giving rise to its other name ‘the bargain stone’ its title as it appears on the 1852 map of the town.
It was also suggested to me that the stone may have originally been a glacial erratic, randomly dropped in its place by a glacier at the end of the last ice age. It could be, were it not for its very considered location. Being in an elevated viewing position, from this specific location the movement of the sun and moon is measured out by the ancient features in the surrounding landscape. The word erratic is from the Latin ‘errare’ which means to wander, making an erratic a ‘wandering stone’. Some erratics where moved by glaciers or by melt water, others are moved by greater forces such as Scarborough Borough Council. Scarborough’s bluestone was moved from the fence wall on Market Gate, now Castle Road, to the grounds of Scarborough Museum, and then again into storage while the museum was undergoing repairs. Bluestones do get about a bit.
Bluestones in the Netherlands are quarried in the Ardennes. The bluestones of Stonehenge were quarried from the Preseli Hills. I personally think the Scarborough’s blue stone was originally brought to the town by people rather than a glacier. I think it was quarried from Whinstone Ridge on the North York Moors.
From its former location on Castle Rd, the Great Blue Stone’s elevated position the horizon line is filled with interesting details. The horizon north-west makes a curious shallow bowl shape from the features of Suffield Moor, Burn Howe Moor, Nettlehead and Standingstones Rigg. They make an interesting measuring tool using the horizon line, and on different summer nights the sun moves from one side of the bowl to the other, setting at different points northwards as it reaches the summer solstice. Setting at Swarth Howe and along Burn Howe Moor. 'Swarth' might have come from 'Svarti' meaning 'black' (charred) and 'Burn' Howe on Burn Moor may denote ritual fires set during this time of the year.
The sun reaches its furthest setting point at the tumulus at Thirley Beck Farm on the summer solstice. As the stone is a large impressive piece of basalt rock, I think it’s worth remembering that the nearest source for basalt is The Cleveland Dyke, the last section of which is known as Winstone ridge where the sun has been setting over for most of the summer. Sunrise on the Winter Solstice occurs over Flamborough Head. Sunrise on Mayday appears in the left hand corner of the headland, on the North Bay for the first time.
Single bluestones around Europe were often sited at the city gates, the reason is attributed to the bible, were it is said that wisdom is to be found at the gate. Scarborough’s bluestone was sited on the road halfway between the Auborough Gate at the top of Auborough Street and the Castle Gate. Close to the old borough boundary, that ran in a line from around the top of Auborough (Awld Borough) Street to the bottom of Blands Cliff. The area were the blue stone sat is still used as a ward boundary.
In the Low Countries the Franks issued pagan and noble laws involving bluestones as an oath stone, a custom that dates from the time when paganism met Christianity. Bluestones marked the centre of towns at the intersection of the town wards, often at a crossing of land and waterway.
I thought, what if in Scarborough’s past, as the town developed, the bluestone had been moved about like a podium or a stage set and put in a central places by a waterway or by the town gates, as was the custom in Europe? Scarborough’s blue stone could have been sited by the Rede Cross; one of Scarborough’s old town crosses that was close to the centre of the old town. The Rede Cross stood on Longwestgate on the corner with Springfield, near to the Damyot stream; that important Scarborough waterway. Or the bluestone could have even been in the grounds of the Church of St Thomas the Martyr by the Newborough Gate, placed near to the area where the Damyot steam enters the town. This could have been prior to its location to Castle Road?
Bluestones and town crosses where customs of the Vikings but not exclusive to them. Many tribes in North Europe settled in Britain and we shared the same customs. There are bluestones in Scandinavia used in almost identical circumstances as Scarborough’s bluestone. Is this a nod, though not a conclusive nod of evidence of the ever illusive Viking presence in Scarborough?
To me Scarborough’s bluestone is a great curiosity, countless traders and towns people must have come into contact with it to agree prices for goods and for making bargains. Perhaps not just Scarborians but also those visiting the town from Europe at the time of the great Scarborough Fayres. The fayres attracted visitors from as far away as Ghent, Ypres and the Baltic, but the Great Jabbler's Fayre was one of the big events of the year.
Maybe the bluestone should be kept under the Mayors Seat or with her chains of office?
DavWhiteArt.com
The Great Blue Stone marking the divison of the Northstead and Castle Wards
Sunrise up Eastborough, Newborough and Westborough marking the start of the Jabbler's Fayre? (photo includes a superimposed Old Newborough Bar)
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All images taken with kind permission of Scarborough Museum Trust.
Many 'menhirs' and standing stones across Europe have been
'Christianised', where crosses or parts of the bible have been carved into the stone. This is the only standing stone I know of where the stone has been 'Antiquarian-ised', where the author's name and book title has been carved into the base.
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'Christianised' Menhir
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As seen from The Great Blue Stone
As seen from The Great Blue Stone
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As seen from The Great Blue Stone
As seen from The Great Blue Stone
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(Winter Solstice) As seen from The Great Blue Stone. Rising at 'Flame'borough Head and Setting at the 'Camp' (part of the ancient town boundary)
Winter Solstice Sunrise and Sunset from The Great Blue Stone.
Flamborough Head and The 'Camp'