Record Details

NHER Number:10568
Type of record:Monument
Name:The 'Stone Circle', Gorleston on Sea

Summary

A supposed prehistoric stone circle in Stone Close. There is no trace of the stones today, and it may very well be that they were apocryphal in the first place.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:TG 525 033
Map Sheet:TG50SW
Parish:GREAT YARMOUTH, GREAT YARMOUTH, NORFOLK

Full description

(S1) refers to 'the destruction of so called Druidical remains' and quotes (S2).

This reference describes a stone circle standing in Stone Close, and three menhirs ten feet high in the next field (reference checked). The 1920 Ordnance Survey map marks Stone Close around the railway station. On NCM record map R. R. Clarke (NCM) and O. G. S. Crawford note 'See letter from [1] 22 July 1925. Stones formerly on site of railway station or nearby (O.G.S.C.). The evidence is very flimsy and there is suspicion of forgery (R.R.C.)'.
This letter could not be traced in NCM Archaeology Department or in the office files in 1984. It is therefore not at all clear what is meant by 'suspicion of forgery'.
As the stones were in place before 1800, see (S2), and there is no large house anywhere near in which they could have formed a garden ornament, an antiquarian folly seems very improbable.
E. Rose (NAU), 26 June 1987.

(S3) states that the site was destroyed in 1768 when the stones were dug around and pulled over.
E. Rose (NAU), 12 November 1992.

(S4) (copy in file) states that the 1842 tithe award map shows four fields whose name included 'Stone' covering the area corresponding to the present Nile Road to Cliff Hill and an 'equivalent distance' south of Springfield Road and west of Lowestoft Road. This is a much larger area than marked on the NHER map by R. R. Clarke. However the reference also states that a 'later 18th century map' shows only boundary stones. The remainder of (S4) is nonsense.
The site of the railway station was used for a new road roundabout in 1994.
E. Rose (NLA), 15 March 1995.

For a natural formation in Suffolk (Mutford Wood), see (S5).
D. Gurney (NLA) 11 October 1996.

[2] suggests that this may all derive from a ficticious history of Gorleston now in the British Library complied in about 1830 by Randall (exact title unknown), so it is possible the other sources may have been quoting him. The field names Stone Close etc could have other origins, and this has inspired Randall.
E. Rose (NLA), 5 September 2003.

Monument Types

  • STONE CIRCLE (Undated)
  • STONE CIRCLE (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
  • STONE CIRCLE (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

---Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card.
---Secondary File: Secondary File.
---Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Miscellaneous. Yarmouth, Great (Gorleston).
<S1>Article in Serial: Chester, G. J.. 1855. A Brief Sketch of the Antiquities of the Valleys of the Waveney and Yare. Norfolk Archaeology. Vol IV pp 310-316. p 312.
<S2>Publication: Suckling, A. 1846. The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk with Genealogical and Architectural Notices of its Several Towns and Villages. Vol I. p 360.
<S3>Publication: Forbes, P.. 1894. Gorleston and its parish church.
<S4>Article in Serial: Eastern Light. 1994. The Stonehenge of East Anglia. No 7, p 21.
<S5>Article in Serial: Creed, H. K. 1872. The Stones in Mutford Wood. Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History. Vol IV Pt 5 pp 244. pp 244ff.

Related records - none

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