Upper White Horse Stone
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The White Horse Stone is a name given to two separate
sarsen Sarsen stones are silicification, silicified sandstone blocks found extensively across southern England on the Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset, an ...
megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging geographically f ...
s on the slopes of
Blue Bell Hill Blue Bell Hill is a chalk hill between Maidstone and Rochester in the English county of Kent. It overlooks the River Medway and is part of the North Downs. Settlements on the hill include the Walderslade suburb of Chatham and the villages o ...
, near the village of
Aylesford Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway in Kent, England, northwest of Maidstone. Originally a small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. Two pubs, a villa ...
in the
south-eastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...
county of
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. The Lower White Horse Stone was destroyed prior to 1834, at which time the surviving Upper White Horse Stone took on its name and folkloric associations. Various archaeologists have suggested—although not proven—that the stones were each part of
chambered long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...
s constructed in the fourth millennium BC, during Britain's
Early Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wi ...
period. If the White Horse Stones were originally components of chambered long barrows, then they would have been erected by pastoralist communities shortly after the introduction of
agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
to Britain from continental Europe. Long-barrow building was an architectural tradition widespread across Neolithic Europe although comprised various localised regional variants; one of these was in the vicinity of the
River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...
, examples of which are now known as the Medway Megaliths. The White Horse Stones lie on the eastern side of the river, along with the chambered long barrows of
Little Kit's Coty House Little Kit's Coty House, also known as Lower Kit's Coty House and the Countless Stones, is a chambered long barrow located near to the village of Aylesford, Kent, Aylesford in the southeastern English county of Kent. Constructed ''circa'' 4000 B ...
,
Kit's Coty House Kit's Coty House or Kit's Coty is a chambered long barrow near the village of Aylesford, Kent, Aylesford in the southeastern English county of Kent. Constructed ''circa'' 4000 BCE, during the Neolithic British Isles, Early Neolithic period of Br ...
, the (now destroyed) Smythe's Megalith, and the
Coffin Stone The Coffin Stone, also known as the Coffin and the Table Stone, is a large sarsen stone at the foot of Blue Bell Hill near Aylesford in the South East England, south-eastern English county of Kent. Now lying horizontally, the stone probably once ...
, which may be a part of a fourth. Three other examples, the
Coldrum Long Barrow The Coldrum Long Barrow, also known as the Coldrum Stones and the Adscombe Stones, is a chambered long barrow located near the village of Trottiscliffe in the south-eastern English county of Kent. Probably constructed in the fourth millenni ...
, Addington Long Barrow, and Chestnuts Long Barrow, remain on the western side of the river.
Excavation Excavation may refer to: * Archaeological excavation * Excavation (medicine) * ''Excavation'' (The Haxan Cloak album), 2013 * ''Excavation'' (Ben Monder album), 2000 * ''Excavation'' (novel), a 2000 novel by James Rollins * '' Excavation: A Mem ...
has revealed the existence of an Early Neolithic
longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from lumber, timber and ...
near to the stone. By the 19th century,
antiquarians An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic sit ...
were speculating that the Lower White Horse Stone may have taken its name from the White Horse of Kent, which they in turn believed was the flag of the legendary fifth-century
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
warriors
Hengest and Horsa Hengist (, ) and Horsa are legendary Germanic brothers who according to later English legends and ethnogenesis theories led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, the progenitor groups of modern English people, in their supposed invasion of Great Bri ...
. Subsequent historical research has not accepted this interpretation. After the stone was destroyed, the stories associated with it were transposed to a nearby sarsen boulder, which became known as the Upper White Horse Stone. Since at least the 1980s, the latter has been viewed as a
sacred site A sacred space, sacred ground, sacred place, sacred temple, holy ground, holy place or holy site is a location which is regarded to be sacred or hallowed. The sacredness of a natural feature may accrue through tradition or be granted through ...
by various Folkish Heathen groups, including the
Odinic Rite The Odinic Rite (OR) is a reconstructionist religious organisation named after the god Odin. It conceives itself as a " folkish" Heathen movement concerned with Germanic paganism, mythology, folklore, and runes. As a white supremacist organizati ...
, because of its folkloric associations with Hengest and Horsa and the
Anglo-Saxon Migration The settlement of Great Britain by Germanic peoples from continental Europe led to the development of an Anglo-Saxon cultural identity and a shared Germanic language—Old English—whose closest known relative is Old Frisian, spoken on the o ...
. As well as performing rituals there, they have opposed
vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The t ...
of the stone and campaigned to stop development in the vicinity.


Context

The Early Neolithic was a revolutionary period of British history. Between 4500 and 3800 BC, it saw a widespread change in lifestyle as the communities living in the
British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...
adopted
agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
as their primary form of subsistence, abandoning the
hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
lifestyle that had characterised the preceding
Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...
period. This came about through contact with
continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...
an societies, although it is unclear to what extent this can be attributed to an influx of migrants or to indigenous Mesolithic Britons adopting agricultural technologies from the continent. The region of modern Kent would have been key for the arrival of continental settlers and visitors, because of its position on the estuary of the
River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
and its proximity to the continent. Britain was then largely forested; widespread forest clearance did not occur in Kent until the
Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
(c.1000 to 700 BC). Environmental data from the vicinity of the White Horse Stone supports the idea that the area was still largely forested in the Early Neolithic, covered by a woodland of
oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...
,
ash Ash is the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash is the ...
,
hazel Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K ...
/
alder Alders are trees of the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species ex ...
and
Amygdaloideae Amygdaloideae is a subfamily within the flowering plant family Rosaceae. It was formerly considered by some authors to be separate from Rosaceae, and the family names Prunaceae and Amygdalaceae have been used. Reanalysis from 2007 has shown that ...
. Throughout most of Britain, there is little evidence of cereal or permanent dwellings from this period, leading archaeologists to believe that the island's Early Neolithic economy was largely
pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...
, relying on herding cattle, with people living a nomadic or semi-nomadic life.


Medway Megaliths

Across Western Europe, the Early Neolithic marks the first period in which humans built monumental structures in the landscape. These constructs include
chambered long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...
s, rectangular or oval earthen
tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...
which had a chamber built into one end. Some of these chambers were constructed from timber, although others were built using large stones, now known as "
megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging geographically f ...
s". The long barrows often served as tombs, housing the physical remains of the dead within their chamber. Individuals were rarely buried alone in the Early Neolithic, instead being interred in collective burials with other members of their community. These chambered tombs were built all along the Western European seaboard during the Early Neolithic, from southeastern Spain up to southern Sweden, taking in most of the British Isles; the architectural tradition was introduced to Britain from continental Europe in the first half of the fourth millennium BC. Although there are stone buildings—like
Göbekli Tepe Göbekli Tepe (, ; Kurdish: or , 'Wish Hill') is a Neolithic archaeological site in Upper Mesopotamia (''al-Jazira'') in modern-day Turkey. The settlement was inhabited from around to at least , during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. It is famou ...
in modern Turkey—that predate them, the chambered long barrows constitute humanity's first widespread tradition of construction using stone. Although now all ruined and not retaining their original appearance, at the time of construction the Medway Megaliths would have been some of the largest and most visually imposing Early Neolithic funerary monuments in Britain. Grouped along the
River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...
as it cuts through the
North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Be ...
, they constitute the most southeasterly group of megalithic monuments in the British Isles, and the only megalithic group in eastern England. The archaeologists Brian Philp and Mike Dutto deemed the Medway Megaliths to be "some of the most interesting and well known" archaeological sites in Kent, while the archaeologist Paul Ashbee described them as "the most grandiose and impressive structures of their kind in southern England". The megaliths can be divided into two separate clusters: one to the west of the River Medway and the other on Blue Bell Hill to the east, with a distance between the two clusters of between . The western group includes
Coldrum Long Barrow The Coldrum Long Barrow, also known as the Coldrum Stones and the Adscombe Stones, is a chambered long barrow located near the village of Trottiscliffe in the south-eastern English county of Kent. Probably constructed in the fourth millenni ...
, Addington Long Barrow, and the Chestnuts Long Barrow. The eastern group consists of Smythe's Megalith,
Kit's Coty House Kit's Coty House or Kit's Coty is a chambered long barrow near the village of Aylesford, Kent, Aylesford in the southeastern English county of Kent. Constructed ''circa'' 4000 BCE, during the Neolithic British Isles, Early Neolithic period of Br ...
, and
Little Kit's Coty House Little Kit's Coty House, also known as Lower Kit's Coty House and the Countless Stones, is a chambered long barrow located near to the village of Aylesford, Kent, Aylesford in the southeastern English county of Kent. Constructed ''circa'' 4000 B ...
, while various stones on the eastern side of the river, most notably the
Coffin Stone The Coffin Stone, also known as the Coffin and the Table Stone, is a large sarsen stone at the foot of Blue Bell Hill near Aylesford in the South East England, south-eastern English county of Kent. Now lying horizontally, the stone probably once ...
and White Horse Stone, may also have been parts of such structures. It is not known if they were all built at the same time, or whether they were constructed in succession, while similarly it is not known if they each served the same function or whether there was a hierarchy in their usage. The Medway long barrows all conformed to the same general design plan, and are all aligned on an east to west axis. Each had a stone chamber at the eastern end of the mound, and they each probably had a stone facade flanking the entrance. They had internal heights of up to , making them taller than most other chambered long barrows in Britain. The chambers were constructed from
sarsen Sarsen stones are silicification, silicified sandstone blocks found extensively across southern England on the Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset, an ...
, a dense, hard, and durable stone that occurs naturally throughout Kent, having formed out of sand from the
Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...
epoch. Early Neolithic builders would have selected blocks from the local area, and then transported them to the site of the monument to be erected. These common architectural features among the Medway Megaliths indicate a strong regional cohesion with no direct parallels elsewhere in the British Isles. Nevertheless, as with other regional groupings of Early Neolithic long barrows—such as the Cotswold-Severn group in south-western Britain—there are also various idiosyncrasies in the different monuments, such as Coldrum's rectilinear shape, the Chestnut Long Barrow's facade, and the long, thin mounds at Addington and Kit's Coty. These variations might have been caused by the tombs being altered and adapted over the course of their use; in this scenario, the monuments would be composite structures. The builders were probably influenced by pre-existing tomb-shrines. Whether those people had grown up locally, or moved into the Medway area from elsewhere, is not known. Based on a stylistic analysis of their architectural designs, the archaeologist
Stuart Piggott Stuart Ernest Piggott, (28 May 1910 – 23 September 1996) was a British archaeologist, best known for his work on prehistoric Wessex. Early life Piggott was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, the son of G. H. O. Piggott, and was educated ...
thought that the plan behind the Medway Megaliths had originated in the area around the
Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...
; conversely,
Glyn Daniel Glyn Edmund Daniel (23 April 1914 – 13 December 1986) was a Welsh scientist and archaeologist who taught at Cambridge University, where he specialised in the European Neolithic period. He was appointed Disney Professor of Archaeology in ...
thought their design derived from Scandinavia, John H. Evans thought Germany, and Ronald F. Jessup suggested an influence from the Cotswold-Severn group. Ashbee noted that their close clustering in the same area was reminiscent of the megalithic tomb-shrine traditions of continental Northern Europe, and emphasised that the megaliths were a regional manifestation of a tradition widespread across Early Neolithic Europe. He nevertheless stressed that a precise place of origin was "impossible to indicate" with the available evidence.


Features


Lower White Horse Stone

The Lower White Horse Stone once stood about west of Upper White Horse Stone. It was located to the north-west of where the
Pilgrims' Way A pilgrims' way or pilgrim way is a standard route that pilgrims take when they go on a pilgrimage in order to reach their destination – usually a holy site or place of worship. These sites may be towns or cities of special significance such a ...
bisected the Rochester-to-
Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...
road, with the latter now being the
A229 The A229 is a major road running north–south through Kent from Rochester to Hawkhurst via Maidstone. It is a former Roman road that ran from Rochester to Hastings. The road is well known for Blue Bell Hill, which connects Rochester to Ma ...
dual carriageway. Philp and Dutto thought that the site of the Lower White Horse Stone was probably under the A229. Evans called this the "Original White Horse Stone", but noted that it was sometimes known as "The Kentish Standard Stone". Apparently also made from sarsen, the stone was broken up prior to 1834. It is possible that the Lower White Horse Stone was part of a former chambered long barrow, although Philp and Dutto noted that any such link was "uncertain".


Upper White Horse Stone

The Upper White Horse Stone () is in length, in height, and about thick. It is sarsen. The White Horse Stone is situated in "a narrow strip of woodland", known as Westfield Wood, which is adjacent to the
Pilgrim's Way A pilgrims' way or pilgrim way is a standard route that pilgrims take when they go on a pilgrimage in order to reach their destination – usually a holy site or place of worship. These sites may be towns or cities of special significance such ...
. The megalith lies to the east of the A229 dual carriageway, and can be reached by going behind the nearby petrol garage and following the Pilgrim's Way. The Upper White Horse Stone took its name from the destroyed Lower White Horse Stone; that it had taken on this name was first noted in print in 1927. Reflecting this, Evans called it the "Successor White Horse Stone". He believed that at one end it had the "crude outline of a face caused by the natural configuration of the rock". It is scheduled under the
Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 (c. 46) or AMAAA was a law passed by the UK government, the latest in a series of Ancient Monument Acts legislating to protect the archaeological heritage of England and Wales, and Scotlan ...
. It is possible that the Upper White Horse Stone was once part of a chambered long barrow that has otherwise been destroyed. Philp and Dutto, however, noted that its identification as part of a long barrow was "uncertain". In supporting this possibility, Evans noted that upright stone resembled a "chamber wallstone" akin to those at Coldrum and Kit's Coty House. However, there is no visual trace of any earthen mound having existed next to the monolith. Nine smaller stones extend westward from the White Horse Stone for about ten metres. It is possible that these stones were not placed there in the Early Neolithic but were moved there at a later date by local farmers who found them in their fields.


Nearby Neolithic features

The White Horse Stone is located near to where another chambered long barrow, Smythe's Megalith, was found in 1822. This chamber was found to contain broken pieces of human bone, among them parts of a skull, ribs, thigh, leg, and arm bones. After being discovered buried in a field by farm labourers, the chamber of this long barrow was destroyed, meaning that nothing of this monument can now be seen. Various sarsen stones have been found in the vicinity of both Smythe's Megalith and the White Horse Stone, perhaps reflecting the remnants of since-destroyed long barrows. To the south of the White Horse Stone was a building—termed "Structure 4806" by its excavators in the 2000s—that was constructed in the Early Neolithic period.
Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...
from the site suggests a usage date of between 4110-3820 and 3780-3530
calibrated In measurement technology and metrology, calibration is the comparison of measurement values delivered by a device under test with those of a calibration standard of known accuracy. Such a standard could be another measurement device of known ...
BC. long and wide, it was a
longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from lumber, timber and ...
of a type known from across various parts of Europe. If it had been a domestic residence, its size would mean that it was only "occupied by a small number of occupants, probably no more than a small family group". A smaller, circular building approximately in diameter was present just to the south-east of the longhouse; there was little dating evidence for this, but what existed suggested a Late Neolithic origin. The archaeologist Timothy Champion noted that the presence of these structures does "not fit well" with the broader evidence for Early Neolithic life being "still partly mobile" but that this would be explained if the buildings were not residential. He suggested that the longhouse "had a role that was more communal and ceremonial than purely residential and domestic, though such a stark division may not have made sense in the Neolithic". The archaeologists who excavated these buildings suggested that they might have been "houses of the living" that were intervisible with the "houses of the dead", including Smythe's Megalith. Alternately, they suggested that the longhouse could have been "part of the funerary tradition", used in preparing "the remains of the dead or for communal activities such as feasting".


Later history

Around away from the Neolithic houses, a settlement was established on a spur of higher ground during the Late Bronze Age and
Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
. This included several round houses and deep pits cut into the underlying chalk. These pits were perhaps originally used for corn storage, although were later infilled with ceramics, iron objects, animal bone, and two human burials. The archaeologists who investigated the site believed that this material was not just domestic refuse but had been deposited with greater meaning as part of a
ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...
act.


Antiquarianism and folklore

In his 1834 book ''A Brief Historical and Descriptive Account of Maidstone and its Environs'', the antiquarian S. C. Lampreys noted that the "White Horse Stone"—meaning the Lower White Horse Stone—had been "broken into pieces and thrown into the road". Lampreys also described the site where the stone "lay", with Ashbee suggesting that this indicated it had lain prone prior to being destroyed. Lampreys noted that it was a "tradition" that after the legendary fifth-century invaders
Hengest and Horsa Hengist (, ) and Horsa are legendary Germanic brothers who according to later English legends and ethnogenesis theories led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, the progenitor groups of modern English people, in their supposed invasion of Great Bri ...
battled
Vortimer Vortimer (Old Welsh Guorthemir, ), also known as Saint Vortimer (,  "Vortimer the Blessed"), is a figure in Matter of Britain, British tradition, a son of the 5th-century Britons (historical), Britonnic ruler Vortigern. He is remembered for ...
and
Catigern Catigern () is a figure of Welsh tradition, said to be a son of Vortigern, the tyrannical King of the Britons, and the brother of Vortimer. A figure of this name also appears in the Welsh genealogies, though he is given different parentage. Catig ...
, their battle standard—which featured a white horse—was found at the stone. Lampreys did not express a view as to whether this tale was "true or false". Lampreys was the first to include the link between the stone and Hengest and Horsa in published form, with Ashbee later noting that "its continuance stems from this source". Ashbee suggested that the story could have been linked to the stone as a result of the antiquarian
William Lambarde William Lambarde (18 October 1536 – 19 August 1601) was an English antiquarian, writer on legal subjects, and politician. He is particularly remembered as the author of ''A Perambulation of Kent'' (1576), the first English county history; ''Ei ...
's 16th century enthusiasm for the Anglo-Saxon past, but ultimately considered this unlikely given that—as argued by Ronald Jessup—the motif of the white horse of Kent only arose later, in the 17th century. Jessup was openly critical of the link, stating that "stories of the god-like White Horse of Kent attached to
he stone He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...
are quite without foundation", going on to describe such connections as "nonsense". In 1842, Douglas Allport included a woodcut of the Lower White Horse Stone in his book on the nearby town of Maidstone. In the mid-1840s, the antiquarian Beale Post discussed the White Horse Stone among other antiquities in the local area in an unpublished manuscript. He provided four possible explanations of the name's derivation: that after the Battle of Aylesford, the White Horse banner of the Saxons fell upon the stone; that when the sun hits in a certain direction it casts a shadow which looks like a horse; that the Iron Age
druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no wr ...
s sacrificed a white horse on it; and that someone riding a white horse was killed near it. In that same manuscript, Post provided a sketch of the Lower White Horse Stone. In his 1924 publication dealing with Kent, the archaeologist
O. G. S. Crawford Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford (28 October 1886 – 28 November 1957) was a British archaeologist who specialised in the archaeology of prehistoric Britain and Sudan. A keen proponent of aerial archaeology, he spent most of his career as t ...
, then working as the archaeological officer for the
Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...
, listed the Upper White Horse Stone alongside the other Medway Megaliths.
William Coles Finch William Coles Finch (23 October 1864 – 6 June 1944) was a British historian and author of a number of books on Kent-related topics. He is best known for writing ''Watermills and Windmills'', published in 1933 and reprinted in 1976, which is ...
then discussed the site in his 1927 work, ''In Kentish Pilgrimland, its Ancient Roads and Shrines'', including a photograph of it; at this point it was in the open air rather than being found in a patch of woodland. In 1970, the archaeologist R. F. Jessup published an account of the stone alongside another photo, indicating that by this time trees had grown up around it. The folklorists Fran and Geoff Doel suggested that the White Horse Stone might have been the feature referred to as a "Druid Stone" in a nineteenth-century account of a
ghost dog ''Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai'' is a 1999 crime drama film produced, written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Forest Whitaker as the title character, a hitman for the mafia who adheres to the ancient warrior code of the samurai, as ou ...
. This account was produced by a vicar who stated that while he and a friend were returning to
Burham Burham is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,251, decreasing to 1,195 at the 2011 Census. The village is near the Medway towns. The histor ...
from a visit to Boxley Church, they found themselves being pursued by "a lean grey dog with upstanding ears whichappeared as big as a calf." The vicar related that the creature then pursued them to the "Druid Stone".


Modern Paganism

The White Horse Stone has come to be seen as a
sacred site A sacred space, sacred ground, sacred place, sacred temple, holy ground, holy place or holy site is a location which is regarded to be sacred or hallowed. The sacredness of a natural feature may accrue through tradition or be granted through ...
by folkish Heathens that place a focus on an essentialist understanding of race. One folkish Heathen group, the
Odinic Rite The Odinic Rite (OR) is a reconstructionist religious organisation named after the god Odin. It conceives itself as a " folkish" Heathen movement concerned with Germanic paganism, mythology, folklore, and runes. As a white supremacist organizati ...
, was founded in 1973; its co-founder John Yeowell adopted the White Horse Stone as "the birth place of England" and held a
blót (Old Norse and Old English) or (Old English) are religious ceremonies in Germanic paganism that centred on the killing and offering of an animal to a particular being, typically followed by the communal cooking and eating of its meat. Old Nors ...
ceremony there to "reclaim and make holy" the megalith. The group emphasise the idea of English
ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...
at the site, regarding it as "the symbolic birthplace of the English nation", and a "symbolic site for the remembrance of Hengest and Horsa and the coming to these lands of our faith". Unlike other Pagans who perform rituals at the Medway Megaliths, such as a modern
Druidic A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no wr ...
group, these folkish Heathens understand "ancestors" not as people who inhabited the same landscape in the past, but as people to whom they are related by blood. Some members of the Odinic Rite share the view of other modern Pagans that the White Horse Stone and other Medway Megaliths are connected to " earth energies" that pre-modern peoples were more "in tune with" than their contemporary counterparts. Since 1987, the Odinic Rite has performed rituals at the site, usually on a monthly basis, although also for
rites of passage A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of ''rite ...
like
handfasting Handfasting is a traditional practice that, depending on the term's usage, may define an unofficiated wedding (in which a couple marries without an officiant, usually with the intent of later undergoing a second wedding with an officiant), a ...
weddings, commitments to the group, and funerary ceremonies. In accordance with his wishes, in 2010 Yeowell had his cremated ashes scattered at the stone following a funeral at the
West London Crematorium Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Par ...
in
Kensal Green Kensal Green, also known as Kensal Rise, is an area in north-west London, and along with Kensal Town, it forms part of the northern section of North Kensington, London, North Kensington. It lies north of the canal in the London Borough of Brent ...
. In 1987, members of the Odinic Rite formed the Guardians of the White Horse Stone, a group devoted to protecting the site; they installed timber steps from the Pilgrim's Way enabling visitors better access to it. In the 1990s, they unsuccessfully campaigned to stop the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link High Speed 1 (HS1), officially the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of the line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Euro ...
from being tunnelled close to the Stone. The Guardians group fell dormant, although was revived in 2004 to deal with a new situation; in 2003, the telecommunications company
Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...
sought
planning permission Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to buil ...
to build a radio tower within a few metres of the stone. The Odinic Rite, in tandem with another folkish Heathen group called
Woden's Folk Heathenry in the United Kingdom consists of a variety of modern pagan movements attempting to revive pre-Christian Germanic religiosities, such as that practised in the British Isles by Anglo-Saxon and Nordic peoples prior to Christianisation. R ...
, successfully petitioned Tonbridge and Malling Council to reject the proposal. In 2006, Orange revived their application, although this time proposed to move the tower further from the White Horse Stone. The Guardians again campaigned against this. The White Horse Stone has also been vandalised on various occasions, with visitors having drawn and painted on it. Members of the Odinic Rite have endeavoured to remove this graffiti using methods they believe are not harmful to the stone.


See also

*
List of scheduled monuments in Maidstone There are 27 scheduled monuments in Maidstone, Kent, England. In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is an archaeological site or historic building of "national importance" that has been given protection against unauthorised change by being ...
* Coronation Stone, Kingston upon Thames


References


Notes


Footnotes


Bibliography

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External links


The White Horse Stone
at The Megalithic Portal
The White Horse Stone
at
The Modern Antiquarian ''The Modern Antiquarian: A Pre-Millennial Odyssey Through Megalithic Britain'' is a guide book written by Julian Cope, published in 1998. It is written as a travelogue of British megalithic sites, including Stonehenge and Avebury. Types of art ...

Website of the Guardians of the White Horse Stone

Footage of an Odinic Rite ceremony at the White Horse Stone
at
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
{{Long Barrows in Britain Archaeological sites in Kent Kent folklore Religious buildings and structures in Kent Scheduled monuments in Kent Tonbridge and Malling Megalithic monuments in England