Harwood Standing Stone

Harwood Standing Stone is in Bolton

I’ve known about this stone for a few years and JRL visited a while back to confirm the location. It’s not an area I’m often in so I stopped off on route to somewhere else. The stone is conveniently close to the road but inconveniently in someone’s small paddock adjacent to the property. The stone is very close to a field gate on a public footpath and can be easily seen from there.

The first thing that came to mind when I saw this standing stone was that it resembles one of the old stone flags or “brick shithouse” capstones that where once common in the area. I assume this standing stone is a piece of the Old Lawrence Rock which is - according to BGS local and can be “rippled and flaggy”. In fact, there’s some of the old flagstones of the same rock used as a style where the footpath leaves Stitch-mi-lane which is a concern. Particularly as one of them looks like it’d be a good fit for where the top of the standing stone looks broken off. However, on examination the standing stone is much rougher and apart form it’s general shape, doesn’t look “finished” at all, in the way the flagstones are. I should like to see some Haslingden Flags in an outcrop to see just how rough they look when they come apart naturally.

The standing stone seems to have been in place from at least the 1840s and is convincingly close to a modern boundary that on the old maps has other associated stones along it’s route marked “boundary stone”. The boundary today follows a small stream about 40 metres from the stone. It’s not uncommon for old boundaries to be marked by stones or enduring natural features and it is for convenience in relatively modern times for boundaries to follow streams or hedges. Maybe there’s mention of this boundary in much older documents than the first editon OS map that could show the stone has been here longer.

There’s a noticeable pale patch around the middle of the stone with some flakes having broken off on one side. I imagine this is a scratching post for the horses that live in the field. They are some of the finest looking horses I’ve seen, although I don’t know much about horses. The stone is dead straight looking so there must be a substantial amount hidden in the ground, keeping it vertical.

The top of the stone is different from the other visible faces, it’s very smooth looking and this may indicate it was broken off rather than naturally cleaving off. There’s some lichen on top and they’re a good size, I’d imagine about 12cm in diameter. Lichen takes a very long time to grow and can be used for dating. I had a look online but it’s quite vague for the inexperienced, one source saying one species of lichen must be around 1800 years old for 12cm diameter; while another said 200 years old for 8-10cm diameter. I don’t know what species of lichen this is so the dating is exactly as vague as I wouldn’t like it to be. There is a pale outline on top of the stone where a lichen community must have grown, you can see the difference to the darker patina on other parts of the surface.

As I mentioned it does look like maybe the top of the stone is missing, like it should be a bit more “pointy”, although the present shape is a bit “Callanish”. There’s also a little notch near the top on one edge that looks like it happened much more recently. I should add it’s way too tall for a gatepost and doesn’t seem to have any holes or ornaments as one might expect for attaching a gate.

The Harwood Standing Stone has been an Ordnance Survey Revision Point for mapping since the 1950s.

It’s a bit disappointing at first sight but I liked it after a short while and I’d like to think it’s of ancient origin. Don’t go out of your way to visit unless you’re trying to bag all the local ancient monuments but if you’re passing nearby it’s only two minutes from the road along a public footpath.