White Horse Stone
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The Upper and Lower White Horse Stones are sarsen megaliths near Aylesford in the English county of Kent. They are generally considered to be fragmentary examples of the Medway megaliths.
Upper White Horse Stone is 2.9m long, 1.65m high and about 0.6m thick. Close by are nine smaller stones that stretch to the west for about 10m. There is no evidence of a covering barrow and it has been suggested that these much smaller stones were moved from the neighbouring field by local farmers. Its identification as a chambered long barrow like the other Medway megaliths is therefore uncertain although its shape certainly resembles a chamber wall stone. It has been claimed as the burial place of the Saxon leader Horsa and the standing stone is also considered by some to resemble a horse's head. Both these links have been suggested as the source of the name. A connection with the white horse on Kent's Invicta coat of arms has also been invoked.
Lower White Horse Stone once stood about 300m west of Upper White Horse Stone. It was destroyed in 1823 and the site is now under the dual carriageway that climbs nearby Bluebell Hill. It therefore cannot either be said with certainty to have be a true prehistoric megalith.
White Horse Stone Country Park is a park nearby, created by Kent County Council on a portion of the North Downs close to where the stones once stood but is named in connection with Kent's Invicta emblem.
External links
- The Megalithic Portal (http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6945)
- The Modern Antiquarian (http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/493) (Comments, news and photographs of the stone)
- White Horse Stone Campaign (http://odinic-rite.org/whs%20campaign.htm) (An Odinic Rite campaign to prevent the construction of a telecomunications tower within yards of the stone.)
- Guardians of the White Horse Stone. (http://www.odinic-rite.org/whs2/whs2.htm) (A group set up by the Odinic Rite to protect the stone and surrounding area)