The above picture shows Matlock’s Cuckoo Stone, which you will find conveniently close to a footpath running across the golf course. Nearby, you will also find Cuckoostone Lane, Cuckoostone Dale, Cuckoostone House, Cuckoostone Quarry and Cuckoostone Grange. You will notice that Matlock Golf Club uses an image of the stone in its logo. The stone is said to turn around now and then, at cock crow. It is also said to be the last remaining part of an ancient stone circle. This lump of rock has been very busy, carrying all kinds of meanings for many people for a long time.
Stories gather around prominent rocks like moths around candles. It is easy to understand why that happens.
This is how it starts. Imagine you live long, long ago…
Your life is in your landscape.
You’ve trekked many miles, and you’ve heard many travellers’ tales, but your daily life is in this one place. Day by day by week by month, the years accumulate and this place is your life.
It is a good place. You know every corner. You made some of those corners yourself. You, your family and your neighbours. You chop down trees, you make fences and paths. You put your animals there to munch away at the grass. You plant your food. You harvest. You even build houses. You change things.
All the souls living there make things, move things and take things away.
Time makes changes, too. Seasons shift the colours and shapes as plants grow, flower, fruit and die back. Mud develops and disappears. Water runs fast and high, then dries up. Plants, animals and people appear, live and die. The fence you made a few years ago rotted and fell down. Clothes wear out. Roofs start to leak. Everything changes.
One thing never changes. Just off the path, nature has placed a large rock. It has always been there. It will always be there. It is a solid, still point in your mutating landscape. A significant, permanent presence. Living near the rock is having an address.
Now and then, people like to walk to the rock. Some nimble few can climb it. People start to say that if you climb it, you will be lucky for a year.
……….
Slowly at first, then rapidly, your little community develops in every way. Landscape and people. Lives, experiences, building and destruction.
The rock is still there, just a pleasant stroll away. Your descendants like to sit by it and look at the view. It is good luck to climb the stone. It even has a name now. They call it the Drop Stone, because somebody’s uncle once said that a Giant shook it from his shoe as he made his way across the land.
………..
Much, much later, as the 19th Century melts into the 20th, an earnest chap arrives. He collects local songs and tales then writes them down in a book. After that, the Drop Stone appears in every guidebook for the whole area. You can buy postcards of it. The council puts a seat in front of it. Occasionally, someone wonders about the significance of the Giant.
That is how it works.
Stories gather around prominent rocks like moths around candles. It is easy to understand why that happens.
This is how it starts. Imagine you live long, long ago…
Your life is in your landscape.
You’ve trekked many miles, and you’ve heard many travellers’ tales, but your daily life is in this one place. Day by day by week by month, the years accumulate and this place is your life.
It is a good place. You know every corner. You made some of those corners yourself. You, your family and your neighbours. You chop down trees, you make fences and paths. You put your animals there to munch away at the grass. You plant your food. You harvest. You even build houses. You change things.
All the souls living there make things, move things and take things away.
Time makes changes, too. Seasons shift the colours and shapes as plants grow, flower, fruit and die back. Mud develops and disappears. Water runs fast and high, then dries up. Plants, animals and people appear, live and die. The fence you made a few years ago rotted and fell down. Clothes wear out. Roofs start to leak. Everything changes.
One thing never changes. Just off the path, nature has placed a large rock. It has always been there. It will always be there. It is a solid, still point in your mutating landscape. A significant, permanent presence. Living near the rock is having an address.
Now and then, people like to walk to the rock. Some nimble few can climb it. People start to say that if you climb it, you will be lucky for a year.
……….
Slowly at first, then rapidly, your little community develops in every way. Landscape and people. Lives, experiences, building and destruction.
The rock is still there, just a pleasant stroll away. Your descendants like to sit by it and look at the view. It is good luck to climb the stone. It even has a name now. They call it the Drop Stone, because somebody’s uncle once said that a Giant shook it from his shoe as he made his way across the land.
………..
Much, much later, as the 19th Century melts into the 20th, an earnest chap arrives. He collects local songs and tales then writes them down in a book. After that, the Drop Stone appears in every guidebook for the whole area. You can buy postcards of it. The council puts a seat in front of it. Occasionally, someone wonders about the significance of the Giant.
That is how it works.
Matlock Wishing Stone
There is no Drop Stone, but Matlock Wishing Stone (found down a footpath just off Wishing Stone Lane) has a similar history. Its name was changed from the Block Stone, and many changes have happened around it, but it is still lucky. If you walk around it three times widdershins (or some say 9 times) you will get your wish. Gaining anything from a lucky place always requires expenditure – of coins, of energy or skill. You don’t get anything for nothing.
Matlock Wishing Stone has been documented for more than a hundred years: council members were wondering about developing the area for walks as early as 1898. By 1926, the wishing stone was in a walkers’ guidebook. In 1934, it was given to the town. The paths were cleared and it was made into an attraction. It may be less popular in the 21st century, but the steep route up from the town centre surely represents enough work to earn a wish or two.
Close to Ashover is another wishing stone, sometimes called Ashover stone and sometimes Faybrick stone. You have to sit on this one, and wish three times.
The Eagle Stone
On the moor above Baslow village sits an impressive gritstone rock; the Eagle Stone, also said to turn around when the mood takes it. Young men once climbed it to show they were strong and therefore should be allowed to get married. According to the pecsaetan.com website, the name possibly comes from a Norse god Aigle. These names are not spelled consistently across all sources, but a semi-divine figure called Agilaz, Agil or Egil was a mighty archer in some sagas.
There could also be an echo of the eagle and child tale. In fourteenth century Lancashire, the childless Lord Lathom was walking in his grounds when he heard a baby crying. He followed the sound and found a baby boy. The boy was an Irish prince and he had been stolen by an eagle, which carried him across the sea. Lord Latham made him heir to his estate. Happens all the time. The child grew up and had a daughter who married into the Stanley family, thus giving the world an evocative pub name and the unusual crest used by the Earls of Derby.
There could also be an echo of the eagle and child tale. In fourteenth century Lancashire, the childless Lord Lathom was walking in his grounds when he heard a baby crying. He followed the sound and found a baby boy. The boy was an Irish prince and he had been stolen by an eagle, which carried him across the sea. Lord Latham made him heir to his estate. Happens all the time. The child grew up and had a daughter who married into the Stanley family, thus giving the world an evocative pub name and the unusual crest used by the Earls of Derby.
Why do so many stones turn around? Jeremy Harte, writing for White Dragon, collected a few theories:
Worth a visit, then.
References:
The Modern Antiquarian.com – national and international resource about ancient sites and folklore.
Pecsaetan.weebly.com – website with lots of information about Derbyshire sites.
The Andrews Pages – huge website by Ann Andrews, history and images.
White Dragon –pagan website containing some thought-provoking essays.
- It’s a joke which spread… everyone likes a laugh.
- It’s a development of beliefs about stones holding energy.
- It’s because stones represented local deities or spirits who could do all kinds of things.
Worth a visit, then.
References:
The Modern Antiquarian.com – national and international resource about ancient sites and folklore.
Pecsaetan.weebly.com – website with lots of information about Derbyshire sites.
The Andrews Pages – huge website by Ann Andrews, history and images.
White Dragon –pagan website containing some thought-provoking essays.
