The Tibblestone
HISTORY * MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE * SPELLINGS * LEGENDS
HOAX * TIBBLESTONE HUNDRED * BOOKS & REFERENCES * LINKS
The Tibblestone is a standing stone at the borders
of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire in England.
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The
Tibblestone is ancient stone that stands by a crossroads in the Midlands of
England. The grass is kept neatly cut by the Texaco/Londis Garage (formerly
Esso) of Teddington Hands, Gloucestershire who are well aware that the stone on
their property is listed in the County's Sites and Monuments Record.
Its
name means Stone of Tetbald. ( A Tetbald was tenant of the manor of Cliftone in
Stoke Gifford Parish) It can also mean Theobald's Stone, Theobald being a
person recorded as a member of the Northumbrian royal family.
The Stone Age
There
are several known Stone Age sites in Gloucestershire with probable connecting
routes. One of these routes passes by the Tibblestone. Similar stones in the
county are believed to be the remains of long barrows. Could the Tibblestone be
one of these?
The Bronze Age
As
the second millennium came to an end (1,000BC) so did the building of round
barrows. The burial of cremated remains in special urns in small cemeteries
became the common practice. Some of these cemeteries were marked with standing
stones and it has been suggested that some of the ones in Gloucestershire,
which were previously thought to be the remains of long barrows, may have been
used for this purpose. Could this have been an alternative (or additional)
function of the Tibblestone?
Years 450 - 1086 AD
The
Tibblestone gave its name to the Tibblestone Hundred (see below for full
description of what a Hundred is.) Every village had justice administered at a
hundred court. These courts were attended by the freedmen of the village at
four weekly intervals, and were held in the open air. The site of the
Tibblestone was characteristic of the ancient sites of many hundred courts as a
choice of a prehistoric stone on neutral territory was quite common.
Domesday Survey 1086
There
is a reference to Tibaldstone in the Domesday Survey.
Late 18th Century
In
1779 the Tibblestone was a monolith recorded by Rudder as standing near the
turnpike road from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, to London, England.
Although
old maps showed it, the stone went "missing" and only came to light
again in 1948 when workmen digging the foundations of the former Esso Garage
(now a Texaco Garage) unearthed it.
Reported
in the Tewkesbury
Register & Gazette,
Saturday, April 17th 1948
"ANCIENT STONE UNEARTHED
Its
Curious Tradition
When
the Teddington Hands Garage Ltd. decided to replant with grass at the front of
their garage at the junction of the Cheltenham-Evesham and Tewkesbury-Stow
roads, they found what they thought was a round stone, of which about a foot
was showing, and dug to raise it up. Although they had dug down for about eight
feet by the weekend, the stone, which is roughly cylindrical and about eighteen
inches in diameter was still not uncovered. They had found the Tibble Stone,
marked on the six-inch ordnance survey map, which is a boundary stone of which
reference is made in the Domesday Survey.
According
to local folklore, a giant at the back of Dixton Hill threw the stone towards
the Severn at Tewkesbury. His foot slipped and the mark is said to remain on
the side of the hill while the stone fell at Teddington Cross Hands.
Mr.
D.W. Herdman (curator Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum) has examined the
column and has kindly sent to us the result of his researches.
In
"Place-names of Gloucestershire" by the last Dr. W. St. Clair
Baddeley, appears the entry, "Tiboldestone Hundred (Domesday Survey). It
included Beckford. The Anglo-Saxon personal name, Tetbald, Theodbeald: A.S.
stan. Stone (i.e. boundary stone) Tibaldstone and Cleeve form the modern
Hundred."
Bryant's
map of Gloucestershire, published in 1824, confirms the theory that the stone
was a boundary mark, as it is at the boundary of the Tiboldstone Hundred.
The
stone is deeply pitted with holes, indicating that it may have borne projecting
signs at an earlier date. It is very roughly hewn and the geological formation
is not yet ascertained.
The
garage company are anxious that it should be dealt with sympathetically and Mr.
Herdman has suggested that it should be kept exactly in situ and raised, so
that it might stand prominently in the centre of what is to become a lawn in
front of the garage.
The
Ministry of Works have been informed and will tell the garage company what is
to be done with the stone.
Several
archaeologists have already been to Teddington Cross Hands."
Tibblestone
Tibaldstone
Tedbaldston
Tetboldstone
Tibboldstone
A
giant who lived on Dixton Hill a few miles away amused himself by hurling stones
at ships sailing on the River Severn. Once, he slipped as he threw, leaving a
great scar on the hillside and landing his missile off-target, at Teddington.
Another
legend appears in Alfred Watkins book " The Old Straight Track". A
man motoring past Teddington Cross, east of Tewkesbury, noticed a large,
irregular stone where six roads meet. An old man at the nearby inn (currently
the Cross Hands) told this tale about it. " A long time ago, a giant
lived in these parts, and he went up the hill to fetch a large stone to destroy
his enemy's house. When he was carrying it down, his foot slipped, and his heel
made a great furrow in the hillside, and you can see it to this day, and he had
to drop the stone just where you see it. It is quite true because you can see
for yourself the holes where the giant's fingers had hold of it"
Reported
in the Gloucestershire
Echo, Friday, October
21, 1988
Prank
left resident stonefaced
A joke backfired on workmen who told a resident that they were going to
pull down an historic stone in a Gloucestershire village.
The irate resident woke up his councillor at 11 at night in a bid to stop
the demolition - but it was all a prank.
Engineers, who were working on a new garage in Teddington Hands, were
digging a trench next to the ancient Tibblestone standing at the side of the
road. When the resident asked them what they were doing, they wound a rope
around the five-foot column and said they were going to pull it into the
trench.
But embarrassed bosses explained away the wind-up to Tewkesbury Borough
Council officers who were called in to investigate the complaints. Mr. Alan
Martin, principal planning officer, said; "it seems someone didn't share
their sense of fun, and contacted their councillor. Officers have been out
there on other business and raised the issue." There was no question of
the Tibblestone being moved, said Mr. Martin.
The site is being developed into a filling station and restaurant, and
the Tibblestone, which is listed in the county's Sites and Monuments Record, is
nearby next to the road. Mr. Mike Stacey, boss of the contractors on site,
said, "We knew very well about this Tibblestone. Road Chef have told us
about it and we have known it was not to be moved".
What is a Hundred? It is the
name given to a portion of a county or shire for administration purposes. It is
supposed to imply the territory occupied by a hundred families; or the space of
a hundred hides of land, or the capacity of providing a hundred soldiers. Each
hundred had its hundred court, but a County Court Act abolished this in 1867.
Tibblestone hundred lay on the northern edge
of the county, and in 1931 the greater part of the three parishes within it,
Ashton under Hill, Beckford and Hinton on the Green, was transferred to
Worcestershire. The land is partly on the southeast slopes of Bredon Hill, and
partly on the flat alluvial floor of the valley below. Whereas the hundred
comprised only a small area, 6,773 acres in all, from the 14th
century until the 20th, it was once much larger and apparently
stretched, in the 11th century or earlier, to the river Severn and
beyond. In 1086 Tibblestone hundred included what was later to become the
hundred of Cleeve. The assessment of hides in 1086 suggests, in addition, that
the hundreds of Tibblestone and Deerhurst had a short while earlier formed
together a double hundred of 200 hides. The suggestion is supported by later
documents linking the names of Deerhurst and Tibblestone hundreds in a way that
suggests a surviving tradition of their former unity.
The apparent abstraction from
Tibblestone hundred of Deerhurst hundred and of parts of Stoke Orchard and of
Ashton under Hill in the 11th century, of Didcot in Beckford parish,
and of Cleeve hundred in the 13th and 14th centuries,
left only Hinton on the Green, most of Beckford, and part of Ashton under Hill
within Tibblestone hundred. Whereas the part of Beckford in Tewkesbury hundred
was small and distinct, Ashton under Hill was divided evenly between the two
hundreds; 24 yardlands were said c. 1590 to be in Tibblestone hundred
and 26 in Tewkesbury hundred.
In the Tibblestone parts of
Ashton and Beckford, which formed a single manor, some hundredal jurisdiction
belonged to the lord of the manor who in the 13th century had
gallows and assize of bread and ale. The Abbot of Gloucester had the same and
also view of frankpledge at Hinton, which was represented by four men and the
reeve at the sheriff's tourn. By the 16th century the lord of
Beckford was also said to have view of frankpledge. In 1287 the hundred was in
the king's hands, and complaint was made that whereas there had formerly been
only one bailiff there were then four. No court rolls are known to survive the
Tibblestone hundred.
The name of the hundred is
connected with an ancient stone, the Tibble Stone, on the boundary of Beckford at
the ancient road junction called Teddington Hands. That was presumably the
hundred meeting-place; though it is at the extreme southwest end of the modern
hundred, it is fairly central to the area, as argued above, comprised the
hundred until the 11th century. The Tibble Stone, which was visible
near the crossroads in the late 18th century, later disappeared from
sight and was re-erected in 1948.
"Folklore
of Gloucestershire" by Roy Palmer (West Country Books 1994)
"The
Place Names of Gloucestershire" by A.H.Smith Volume 2
Gloucestershire
Place Names 1913
"The
Old Straight Track" by Alfred Watkins (Abacus1974)
"A
History of Gloucestershire" pages 243, 244
"Gotherington"
Towns & Villages of England, edited by David H. Aldred
"The Tibblestone
Hundred" by Fred Archer
(Sutton Publishing 1996)
In
Fred Archer's book, he traces the history of the Tibblestone Hundred, from its
beginnings through the time when the Hundred Courts held sway in neighbour's
disputes, up to his own era farming in the area, when the Hundred's successor
in the Parish Council was all powerful.
The
book contains his reminiscences of country life on and around Bredon Hill like
his previous 30 or so similar books.
One of the best sites on the web
about Stone Circles and Standing Stones is the Megalithic Portal. It
has articles, comments, pictures and the latest news about our rich heritage of
stone mysteries!
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For an exceptionally good
photograph of the Tibblestone, go to the site of Hans-Georg Stump. He
is a German photographer who enjoys visiting the ancient sites of Britain.
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To see the Tibblestone by night, visit this page on The Modern Antiquarian Web Site
Visited in August 2002 by Kammer
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Last
updated on 16th March 2004