Local historian: Sidmouth's prehistoric stone henge

By Graham Symington

9th Nov 2023 | Local News

An artist's impression, showing the stones at dusk (Graham Symington)
An artist's impression, showing the stones at dusk (Graham Symington)

Some people are unaware that Sidmouth had its very own prehistoric stone henge up on Mutters Moor.

It's thought that this 3000-year-old monument consisted of six standing stones, surrounding one central stone (Seven Stones).

Unfortunately, the then-owner of the land, Lord Rolle, decided that he wanted them for his Japanese rock garden and in around 1830, had them dug up and carted off to his Bicton estate.

We know where the stone circle originally stood on the moor, and we also know where they stand today, surrounding the Shell House at Bicton, so wouldn't it be nice to have them returned and put back where they belong?

A location plan (Graham Symington)

More by Graham Symington:

  1. The history of the now-demolished Blackmore Hall
  2. The history of Sidmouth's Connaught Gardens
  3. A dancing bear, girls of bad character and smuggling: The history of Sidmouth's The Old Ship Inn
  4. Sidmouth, Jane Austen and ITV's Sanditon
  5. The history of The Byes, in pictures
  6. Tar Barrels... in Sidmouth?
  7. Remembering Pike's Cottages
  8. Sidmouth's old toll houses
  9. Policing in Victorian and Edwardian Sidmouth
  10. The history of The Ham
  11. Early Sidmouth houses
  12. Fishing in Sidmouth, in pictures
  13. Catching smugglers in 19th-century Sidmouth
  14. A Sidmouth motorcycle tragedy

     

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