Not all that far from where is used to live there is/was an abandoned stone quarry. A place just waiting for adventurous children of all ages, and in an even earlier time moonshiners. It gradually became a site of paranormal {not the term we used then} events, and abductions of unwary young people, ghostly sights and sounds, all the sort of tales made up in my not so humble opinion, buy parents. Oh, and there were also mountain lions sighted there, which at least turned turned out to be true.
Anyway, where was i going with this, ah yessssss!
I find these places interesting, and the Humber Stone, is no exception. Since roughly 90% of the earths crust contains silica, and silica which is used to make chips, computer chips , is the earth then some sort of computer???? Saving bits of information , words , thoughts, symbols etc, etc and resembling them?
I think, yah, i know!, i think too much. But i digress and i do that too much also. I think there could be a syllogism written to prove that " one never knows what one never knows."
A
mangled block of stone lies in a small field in Leicester, between a
branch of KFC and a housing estate. People walk past it everyday, many
of them oblivious to its identity...what is it, and why is it there?
The
Humber Stone is a massive rock that sits with most of its mass under
the earth, like a stone iceberg. According to 19th century antiquarians
it was used by some of the ancient inhabitants of the area as a
"sacrificial altar", a claim requiring a pinch of salt perhaps - but it
gets stranger.
The stone has
gone by other names – Hell Stone, Holy Stone, all tenuously following
the tradition that some kind of ritual may have gone on here. The nearby
area of Humberstone is definitely linked as it appears in the Domesday
book as “Humerstan”, probably meaning “Humba's or Humma's Stone”.
The
whole of the Humberstone used to be on display but various attempts
have been made through history and in folklore to bury and even break
it. Probably because of the “Hell Stone” name it once went by, a vicar
had the entire stone covered with earth to create a mound then performed
the rite of exorcism over it. On his way home he was thrown from his
carriage, breaking his hip. It is said that a local landowner then
attempted to break parts of the stone off to flatten it so a plough
could pass over. His fortunes went into an immediate downward spiral,
ending eventually in bankruptcy with the man ending his days in the
workhouse.
After hearing of
“groans” emanating from the stone at night, a man from Barkby named
Pochin decided to “investigate” the Humberstone, armed with a revolver.
Whatever happened that night is not fully known, but he managed to shoot
two of his own fingers off in panic, blasting away at something in the
dark.
In 1925 a farmer built a
haystack, complete with traditional corn dollies, over the now
half-buried Humber Stone which spontaneously combusted, causing the fire
brigade to come out twice to quell the flames. The stack re-ignited a
third and fourth time, with the fire fighters having to run four hoses
to finally quell the flames.
When
work began on a new road near the stone a family living in a street
next to the Humberstone were disturbed by their 10 year old son being
menaced by a “horned figure”, which he drew for teachers at his school.
He said he didn't know what it was but referred to it as “the thing that
I see at the end of my bed”. So unsettling was this phenomenon that the
family moved out but a few years later their parents moved in to thar
same council property, whereupon the boy's grandmother claimed she had
been throttled “by a ghost”.
Finally,
in 1985 a man taking a driving lesson was making his way carefully past
the Humberstone when both he and his instructor claimed to have seen a
UFO in the form of a small silver disc – hovering in the sky above the
stone!
Whatever the truth of any
of these tales, today the Humberstone now lies half buried in a lonely
little field next to the main road, hidden by hedges. The deep gashes
made by the many attempts to break it up are still clearly visible while
erosion has made its mark too, but with its main mass underground it is
difficult to get an impression of how great this monument once was.
If
you intend on seeing it for yourself by car then I would suggest
parking at the KFC and crossing the road by foot into its little field.
An odd spot for such a grand old stone but while buildings rise and
fall...it's still here.
