Derbyshire (England) -- Antiquities; Derbyshire (England) -- History
Reduce the compasses to the equivalent to eight miles, and a series of
coincidences follows. They exactly span Arbor Low and Stadon; Arbor Low
and an unmarked circle near Park Gate on East Moor; the latter and the
double circle on Abney Moor, and, again, the same circle and two others
on Brassington Moor; the Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor and the circle on
Froggatt Edge; that on the Bar Brook and the most northern of the two
on Bamford Moor; the southern circle on Bamford Moor and the double
circle on the Ford estate near Chapel-en-le-Frith; the latter and the
circle on Abney Moor, and so on, until it would seem to be worth one’s
while to follow the eight miles radius from any given circle in search
of its colleague. If there is any variation in the distances quoted
above, it is so slight as to be scarcely perceptible on the one-inch
scale Ordnance map. This is, at the least, tentative evidence of that
careful system of mensuration which seems to pervade the mystery of
these interesting memorials.
[Illustration: Arbor Low: General View of the Southern and Western
Part.]
The triangular arrangement of the three chief circles calls attention
to that of Stadon, situate a mile and a quarter south-east from Buxton.
Its stones, like those of its neighbour, the Bull Ring, have been
confiscated, and for centuries, perhaps, it yielded to the plough;
nevertheless, its mounds, though almost levelled, are quite distinct,
and disclose a plan probably unique in its design. It comprises an
annular vallum, forming three-quarters of a circle, the fourth quarter
being straight-sided for one hundred feet, and from the corners of this
side expand two straight causeways or mounds for a distance of about
one hundred and, presumably, one hundred and twenty feet respectively,
when they then turn at an acute angle and unite in a straight line, of
probably one hundred and twenty feet, almost parallel to the side of
the circle. Thus they form the base of an isosceles triangle, bisected
horizontally by the straight side of the circle. Unfortunately, the
south-west corner of the base line is now cut off by the London and
North Western Railway line from Buxton to Ashbourne, and therefore its
measurements can only be estimated. If continued, the apex of this
triangle would correspond with the nearest quarter of the horizon,
namely, on the ridge of Stadon Hill at a point nearly due east. On
the inside of the mounds, both of the circle and of the triangular
adjunct, are indications of a ditch, and the usual entrances are north
by west and south-east respectively. The average width of the circle
from the outside of the mounds is now two hundred feet, but owing to
the straight side it is subjected to more than the usual elliptical
variation; the width of the mounds and ditch are twelve and ten feet
respectively. These latter dimensions probably indicate that originally
it must have had a fosse and vallum of no mean importance. One hundred
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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