The Stanton Drew Sarsen?

 Hautville’s Quoit

 

Hautville's Quoit – Historic England Photo - https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1002475

Abstract

Hautville’s Quoit, the recumbent megalith northeast of the Stanton Drew stone circles in Somerset, has traditionally been identified as a sarsen—a silica-cemented sandstone akin to those at Avebury and Stonehenge. Petrographic work by the Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society (Richards et al, BACAS, 2012) offers a more nuanced picture: while petrographic and macroscopic attributes broadly match sarsen lithology, the presence of small fossil impressions within the stone complicates this identification. The results suggest that the “Stanton Drew Sarsen” may represent a fossiliferous variant of silcrete derived from the same Paleogene strata that produced the Wiltshire sarsen field, rather than a local sandstone or glacial erratic.

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1. Introduction

The Stanton Drew complex, comprising three major circles, avenues, and outliers, ranks among Britain’s most significant Neolithic monuments. Its lithological variety—dolomitic conglomerates from the Harptree area and oolitic limestones from Dundry (Richards et al. 2012)—implies deliberate selection reflecting local landscape and ritual integration. Hautville’s Quoit, situated c. 400 m northeast of the Great Circle across the River Chew, stands apart: a pale brown-grey sandstone slab, recumbent but once upright, visually aligned with the circles in a processional axis (Mercer 1969).

Earlier commentators from Stukeley to Lloyd Morgan (1887) debated its identity, proposing origins from Wiltshire’s Marlborough Downs. Modern analytical work upholds a sarsen-like composition yet introduces a critical complication—its embedded bivalve-like fossils, previously undocumented in Wiltshire material.

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2. Lithological and Petrographic Characteristics

BACAS Field microscopy (×30) reveals a fine- to medium-grained (250–375 µm) quartz sandstone: well- to medium-sorted, subrounded to rounded grains of high sphericity, bound in siliceous (opal/chalcedony) cement yielding a shiny, translucent lustre (Richards et al. 2012). The matrix-supported fabric includes pock-marks (rootlet dissolution?), striations (polygenetic weathering), and lichen-scaled patches. Crucially, bedding planes expose small bivalve fossils (up to 10 mm × 6 mm)—clam-like, decalcified imprints—absent in local Triassic Mercia Mudstone or Jurassic equivalents. Dimensions (visible: 2.1 × 1.4 × 0.6 m) imply an original >30-ton block, reduced by 18th-century quarrying.

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3. Provenance and Comparative Analysis

BACAS (2012) conducted systematic geological comparison against regional lithologies. Candidate sources included:

• Mendip quartzitic sandstones and Carboniferous grits – angular grains and ferruginous cement inconsistent with the Quoit’s fabric;
• Upper Greensand cherts of the Blackdown Hills – fine-grained, fossiliferous but lacking the Quoit’s coarse quartz matrix;
• Coal Measure ganisters near Pensford – similar cement but unsuitable texture;
• Somerset silcretes (South Petherton, Chew Valley) – non-fossiliferous and visually distinct;
• Wiltshire sarsens (Fyfield Down, Marlborough Downs) – close petrographic and macroscopic match, with similar grain size, sorting, silica cement, and colour.

The Wiltshire correlation remains the strongest, and the authors favour this provenance, citing similarities in surface polish and weathering patterns to the West Kennet Avenue stones at Avebury (Mercer 1969; Richards et al. 2012).

The absence of glacial erratic indicators further supports deliberate transport. However, the fossil content remains problematic: Wiltshire sarsens generally lack biogenic traces due to total silicification. BACAS hypothesised that Hautville’s Quoit originated from a fossiliferous Paleogene lamina within the Reading or Lambeth Group—possibly an outlying or peripheral depositional pocket not represented in sampled silcrete cores.

Comparable yet non-identical stonework includes the Pool Farm cist slab at West Harptree, a Bronze Age fossiliferous sandstone exhibiting corbulid and nuculid voids (Grinsell & Taylor 1956; Coles et al. 2000). XRF data, however, preclude direct correlation.

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4. The Fossil Problem

A distinctive feature of Hautville’s Quoit is the reported presence of small bivalve-like fossil impressions. These were recognised during microscopic inspection but not taxonomically identified. Their occurrence is anomalous: true sarsen silcretes typically lack macrofossils because the silicification process obliterates organic material.

BACAS proposed that the fossils might represent relict shells incorporated into the original Paleogene sand beds prior to silicification, perhaps from a localized shelly lamina within the Reading or Lambeth Group. The lack of equivalent fossils in surveyed Wiltshire sarsens suggests either (a) the Quoit derived from a specific fossiliferous facies within the same formation, or (b) that it represents a silicified sandstone variant distinct from classic “grey wethers” of the Marlborough Downs.

 

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5. Archaeological and Symbolic Context

The likely long-distance transport of such a massive stone—from the Marlborough or Pewsey Downs, over 50 km as the crow flies—would underscore Stanton Drew’s participation in a shared monumental tradition with Wessex. However, if the stone proves to be a fossiliferous local sandstone, its procurement would represent a regional adaptation of that tradition using available materials.

Either outcome alters the narrative: the “Stanton Drew Sarsen” is no mere erratic, but a deliberately selected and possibly symbolically charged lithology, chosen for its visual or tactile qualities and placed in alignment with the circles across the river valley.

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6. Conclusion

Hautville’s Quoit remains one of the most enigmatic stones in the West Country. The BACAS study demonstrates that its lithology most closely resembles sarsen from the Marlborough Downs, yet its fossil content defies a simple classification. Whether a rare fossiliferous silcrete or an anomalous sandstone, the “Stanton Drew Sarsen” bridges geological and cultural frontiers, linking Somerset’s great circle to the wider Neolithic megalithic tradition of southern Britain.

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References

 Coles, J., Gestsdóttir, H., and Minnitt, S. 2000. A Bronze Age Decorated Cist from Pool Farm, West Harptree: New Analyses. Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. Volume 144

Linford, Neil & Linford, Paul & Payne, Andrew & Greaney, Susan. (2017). Stanton Drew Stone Circles and Avenues, Bath and North East Somerset, Report on Geophysical Surveys, July 2017. 10.13140/RG.2.2.33792.28165.

Lloyd-Morgan, C. 1887. The Stones of Stanton Drew: their source and origin, Part II. Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. Volume 33 

Mercer, R. 1969. Hautville’s Quoit Excavation Notes includes Clark, A.J. Geophysical Survey Report (Unpublished)

Richards, J., & Oswin, J. Geophysical Survey at Stanton Drew, July 2009.

Richards, J., Oswin, J., and Simmonds, V. 2012. Hautville’s Quoit and other investigations at Stanton Drew. Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society in collaboration with Bath & North East Somerset Council.

Richards, J. (2023) ‘Pool Farm cist-slab, Hautville’s Quoit, and Fyfield Down Sarsens’, Rambling On [blog], 19 September. Available at: https://ramblingon.mendipgeoarch.net/2023/09/19/pool-farm-cist-slab-hautvilles-quoit-and-fyfield-down-sarsens/ (Accessed: 26 October 2025).