The Shebbear Erratic Sarsen

During Storm Darragh, 7/12/2024, I had the pleasure of driving through Shebbear in Devon.

I examined the erratic on the village green, that is turned over every year to keep the devil at bay.

The photos are below, click to embiggen them.

This year's top surface is a typical sarsen, a tight silica bound sandstone with some iron staining, the lower half is not so well silicified, a thumbnail can dislodge grains. The sand component is coarser and includes small rounded gravel. The relative fragility of it indicates it has never been transported by ice.

It is, without doubt, an outlier of the sarsens found else where in Devon, how far it has been moved by humans to its present prominent position is unknown but the presence of another similar stone in the parish suggests maybe not far.