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The 'bluestones' and Bluestone Heath of eastern Lincolnshire: some thoughts on their significance and name — new post by me :) https://www.caitlingreen.org/2021/02/lincolnshire-bluestones.html
So, why is this interesting? First off, the stones named 'blewstone' are pretty much all *important* to their communities—the Stone at Louth is also known as 'the Louth Stone', was located at the centre of town from at least 1503, was used as a judicial-stone (e.g. in 1745 the >
> Warden of Louth was paid 6d. for examining Jews 'at Blew Stone', and the stone said to have been 'a sanctuary for murders and other criminals'), and also seems to have been a market-stone, where items could be pledged for sale.
The North Thoresby 'blue stone' was found in the field to the north of the church; it was locally also known as 'the Moot Stone' and arguably functioned as a public meeting-site back into the twelfth century. In the 19thC, the manorial court met there, the village fair took >
> place at the stone & games were played around it, and it functioned as a judicial-stone where the local jury met & all local land-transfers took place. It was also said to be magical, causing rain to fall and there to be 'plenty in the land' if it were whipped with hazel wands.
The blew-stone at Grimsby known as Havelocks Stone from at least 1521 functioned as a boundary stone between the town & the Wellow Abbey, as well as 'proof' of the historicity of Havelok the Dane and Grim, the founder of Grimsby. It was supposedly brought to Grimsby by the Danes.
Another, now lost, 'Blue Stone' also gave its name to a large section of the central Lincolnshire Wolds between Belchford & Cadwell, the 'Blue Stone Heath'; the name now only survives in the prehistoric Bluestone Heath Road that runs across the Wolds (image: Armstrong 1779).
These 'Blue Stones' seem to have been exceptionally common in eastern and northern Lincolnshire, but they are found elsewhere too; the most famous examples are the Stonehenge 'bluestones' which have been in the news today... https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/12/dramatic-discovery-links-stonehenge-to-its-original-site-in-wales
Note, Stonehenge probably derives from Old English stān + hengen, arguably 'stone gallows', suggesting it had some (at least imagined) judicial function in the past, something possibly supported by the discovery of an Anglo-Saxon decapitation burial there: http://dro.dur.ac.uk/5904/
There was also a 'Great Blue Stone' at Scarborough near the Castle that functioned as the market stone for the town, being 'where public bargains were ratified and discharged, it being the custom in those days': https://issuu.com/yourlocallink/docs/sr_july_2017.compressed/34
There was also a 'blew Stone about the middle of the Bridge' at Newcastle that marked 'the bounds of Newcastle Southwards' and from which the Mayor pronounced the banishment of the Society of Friends from Newcastle in 1657–8 (pic via @n_docs & https://www.dur.ac.uk/imems/cities/contesting/1/?imageid=8186)
The term 'Bluestones' is also used for a number of important stones used as boundary-stones, judicial-stones, court-stones or even execution-stones outside of Britain too, esp in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Flanders & parts of Germany...
The 2nd reason that the 'bluestones' are interesting is that not all of them actually seem to be particularly 'bluish' in colour… Has been said that colour blue is 'irrelevant' to the Lincolnshire examples, & Grimsby's Haveloks Stone is pinkish granite… https://web.archive.org/web/20080724202918/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nigel.portas/legend1.htm
The Scarborough stone is similarly un-blue in pictures… And though the Louth Stone might be seen as slightly blue-ish with the eye of faith, it was clearly not considered particularly blue by the folk of the town, as at one point it was actually painted blue to match its name!
A lack of blueness is apparent in the German stones too, & in 1930 the North Thoresby stone was described this: 'the stone is not blue'. So, if these important 'bluestones'—used as meeting-, judicial- & market-stones &c—were not all blue, then why were they all called this?
