20 April 2011

Shropshire's Stonehenge



Shown on Ordnance Survey Explorer maps as a temple, the 36 stones of the circle at Bron-y-Garth are, in fact, an attenuated take on Stonehenge. Erected circa 1850-1860, in the grounds of a house (The Quinta) of the same date, the circle was apparently put up by one Major West.



The folly, Grade II listed, is known as the Quinta Circle. The outer circle, about ten yards across, consists of 20 limestone uprights, of which six pairs are capped with lintels. In the centre of the inner U-shape array of trilithons is a large flat stone. But, this being Shropshire, albeit only just, one can't imagine Beltane being celebrated here on the first of May.



A number of the stones are marked by the signs of stitch drilling. In Follies: a National Trust Guide, it is speculated that construction of the circle may have been a squire's project to alleviate unemployment.

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