Page 23 - September 2022 Magazine - Bumper Edition

constructed in roughly 1,500 BC.
Geographically, by boundaries, the ‘Whispering Knights’ and then the ‘Kings Men’ are in Oxfordshire, whilst the ‘King Stone’ is in Warwickshire.
All of the monuments were constructed of the easily accessible local Jurassic limestone.
If you’ve been fortunate enough to have visited the Cotswolds, you will be familiar with the pale honey coloured stone that has been used extensively to build villages, walls, and even churches in the area.
‘The Whispering Knights’ now consists of just five stones and is thought to have been an ancient burial site.
They are just over a thousand feet from ‘The Kings Men’ which is a circle of seventy-seven stones, which form a circle that is roughly 108 feet in diameter.
At the time of construction, the monument would have been much closer to a perfect circle than it is today. Oddly, during excavations in the 1980s, magnetic anomalies were discovered in the centre of the circle. The precise reason has yet to (if ever it will) be discovered.
Just under 250 feet away is the King Stone. It’s a single and very weathered monolith, at just under 8 feet high and roughly 5 feet wide.
There is no real consensus on just what the purpose of the stone originally was. Theories ranging from a marker point to the Kings Men and an astronomical pointer in conjunction with ceremonies conducted at the Kings Men are amongst the many but none have been able to be proven.
There are many folklore tales that relate to the origins of the stones, but the most often related is that of a king riding through with his men who encountered a witch. But not just any witch. This was Mother Shipton. She dared the King to take seven paces and if within doing so he could see the village of Long Compton he would become the King of England. Should he fail, he and his knights would be turned to stone and she an Elder tree.
His knights gathered in a circle to ponder on the challenge, but the King boldly decided to go for it.
No matter in which direction he took the 7 steps he did not have a view of the village.
He had been set for an impossible challenge. He
The Flickering Cauldron® Magazine - The Rollright Stones | 23