The Stones
Stanton Drew lies off the beaten track and it is perhaps for this reason that its remarkable prehistoric stone circles have not received the same level of interest and exploration as their more famous relatives at Avebury and Stonehenge. This obscurity, and the lack of modern intrusions into their surroundings, has protected the solitude and character of these sites. Very little is known about them. The great stones (or megaliths), and the patterns they make in the landscape, remain mysterious; no excavations are recorded, nor have any modern surveys been made - that is, until very recently. This note provides you with a very brief background to the site and of the results of this new research.
The megalithic sites
There are three stone circles at Stanton Drew: the Great Circle being one of the largest in the country. The other two, to the south-west and north-east respectively are smaller. Both the great Circle and the north-east circle were approached from the north-east by short `avenues' of standing stones. Most of the stones have fallen, although a few still remain upright. In the garden of the village pub is a group of three large stones called The Cove, and to the north, across the river Chew, is the site of a standing stone called Hautville's Quoit.
Their proximity to each other, and alignments between some of them, indicate that these sites are related as a single complex, and it is a fair assumption that Stanton Drew was once a place of primary significance during the later Stone Age.
History and folklore
The circles are thought to have been originally noted by the famous antiquarian
John Aubrey in 1664, and the first plan of them was published by William
Stukeley in 1776. Although several other observers have written about
them, they remain very much as first recorded over three hundred years
ago. In the absence of many facts about the sites, the stones have attracted
a considerable tradition of folklore. The most persistent tale is that
the stones represent the members of a wedding party and its musicians,
lured by the Devil to celebrate on the Sabbath and thus becoming petrified
in their revels.