The Hall of Waltheof/Chapter VI


 * And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments. . . . . . And all the people stood to the covenant.—II Kings, xxiii, 3.

PLAN in the Duke of Norfolk's office without date, but made apparently at the end of the seventeenth, or the beginning of the eighteenth, century, gives some curious names of places and boundary marks between Loxley and Wadsley. Amongst them I noticed Landin Stone, Candlin Stone, Haggin Field, Normandale, Primtree, Lord's Oak. A later plan of the same property is entitled "a sight of the boundary way betwixt Loxly and Wadsly and Owlerton liberties, his Grace the Duke of Norfolk being Chieff Lord of Loxly, and Mr. Bamforth of Wadsley and Owlerton: the line with props of each side is the way." This plan mentions "the Landin Stone or Landmark Stone," "the Candlin Stone," and "Robertshaw Stone formerly Lord's Oak." Mere trees, or boundary trees, are also marked on the plan.

It will be seen that in the later plan Landin Stone is explained by the surveyor as "landmark stone." Although at the time when the plan was made the stone is said to have marked a boundary it seems that this explanation—if intended for an explanation at all—is a guess made by the surveyor, for Landin Stone does not mean "landmark stone." It means "assembly stone." In describing German open-air courts held by great stones Grimm mentions a court held "in campo apud longum lapidem quod landding dicitur," and there can be little doubt that this "long stone called landding" was used for the same purpose as Landin Stone in Hallamshire, and that the meaning of the words is the same. Let us enquire what that meaning is. It will be observed that in Grimm's landding stone there are two d ' s, so that we may divide the word as land-ding. Now the Old High German ding answers to the Old Norse ϸing, a meeting, assembly, and Vigfusson gives land-ϸing, "a kind of parliament." And then we have the Swedish landsting which denotes, amongst other things, a place of judgment, and also the Swedish folklandsting, which was a court of appeal from the hundaristhing, or hundred court, the final court of appeal being the King's court. The change from Land-ϸing to Landin would be quite regular; for we may see that a similar change has taken place in Tynwald Hill (ϸing-völlr) in the Isle of Man, and final g is usually dropped in the local dialect. It will be seen in the next chapter that a circle of stones called Seven Stones marked a boundary, though they were not erected for a landmark. And so Landin Stone, though not creeled for a boundary stone, marked a boundary—namely the boundary between the liberties of Loxley, Wadsley, and Owlerton. It appears to have been usual for the place of assembly to be upon a boundary, for Kemble says "on the summit of a range of hills, on the watershed from which the fertilizing streams descended, at the point where the boundaries of two or three communities touched one another, was the proper place for the common periodical assemblage of the freemen." Can we connect this Landin Stone with the famous London Stone, in the City of London, at which proclamations were made, and important legal business transacted; in other words does London Stone mean assembly stone, parliament stone? In Old English London was written Lunden, Lunden-burg, and land was very often written lond. One can understand, therefore, how a confusion might arise between the name of the city and the name of the assembly stone, the order of change having been from Land-ding or Land-ϸing to "Landin" or Londin, and then to "London" by way of popular interpretation. And in favour of this explanation it may be remarked that "assembly stone" makes sense, whilst "London Stone" seems unlikely, for one would hardly expect to meet with a "York Stone" or "Chester Stone" in those cities. Landin Stone does not appear to be now remembered by the old inhabitants of the district, from some of whom I have made enquiry, and on comparing the old maps with the Ordnance Survey and with the place itself it seems that a large quarry, which has been worked for many years, occupies the site whereon the stone stood.

Another interesting stone is Burleystone in the parish of Ecclesfield. In an agreement dated 1161 and made between Richard de Lovetot and the monks of Ecclesfield we read of cilium collis de Burleya, the ridge of Burley Hill. This agreement states that "the wood on the left-hand side of the road as you go from Ecclesfield Church to Burleystan, and also the ridge of Burley Hill as far as the clearings of Wereldsend shall be held in common [between the monks and the lord] as anciently they have been." Now the road from Ecclesfield to Oughtibridge passes the northern end of the steep ridge called Birley Edge, and at this northern end, about seven yards from the road, is a stone pedestal surmounted by a stone pillar. This erection is now without name, but its position agrees exactly with the description given above, and it is undoubtedly the Burleystone mentioned in 1161. Birley Edge is a rough and steep ridge of high ground which has only been cleared of late years, being hardly yet cultivated. "Birlaystone" is mentioned as a place-name in 1424, for in that year I find that William de Birlay of Birlaystone conveyed lands in the neighbourhood.

The stone pillar is fixed into a square or rectangular hole in a stone pedestal. The pedestal is two feet high, and measures three feet by three feet nine inches. The stone pillar which fits into the pedestal is four feet six inches in height, and it measures one foot nine inches by one foot in breadth. The present pillar appears to have been chipped during recent years, and viewed from one side it has a somewhat modern appearance, resembling that of an ordinary stone gate-post. It may have been eredted in substitution for the original pillar, but the pedestal on which it stands has an appearance of great age. A farmer who lives near mentions a tradition that "Druids came and worshipped" at this stone. This association of the stone with Druids and with worship affords, at least, proof of the great estimation in which the stone has long been held, and it is not unimportant as suggesting stone worship. Standing on the northern end of Birley Edge this stone commands a wide and lovely prospect to the north and west.

It does not appear to be known at present where Birley is, the name being seemingly merged or lost in Birley Edge and Birley Carr. (Mr. Gatty, however, occasionally mentions Birley in the notes to his edition of the Ecclesfield Church Registers, 1558 to 1619.) And it may have been noticed that in the agreement of 1161 Burley Hill and not Burley is mentioned. We may ask: Is Burley Hill a hill near Burley—a place not at present known—or is it byrlaw-hill, town-law hill? And further, is Burleystone a stone near Burley, or is it byrlaw-stone, or town-law stone? In many places, as for instance in Lancashire and in Cheshire, byrlaw-men are known as burley-men. And there are plenty of examples of Birlie or Burley Courts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. One would scarcely expect to meet with a place-name meaning simply "town-law," though the word byrlaw came afterwards to mean the district in which the byrlaw or town-law was exercised, as it does for instance in Ecclesall Byrlaw. But it is difficult to find any other satisfactory meaning for this Birley or Burley, though the place-name is by no means uncommon. The word cannot be derived from the O. E. búr, a cottage, as that would make "bower," and we should have Bowerley, and not Birley. If Burleystone be the town-law stone, the stone by which a village assembly met, we have here an interesting example of such an assembly held near a single stone.

In the neighbourhood of Sheffield lands were frequently divided by mere-stones and trees. Occasionally I have found the mere-stones themselves drawn upon old plans. Thus "lands" or acre strips in Cowen Field, Heeley, are, as appears in a plan dated 1758, divided by "mearstones and trees," the stones themselves being neatly drawn on the plan. When we consider how easily such stones could be removed we must also remember that "lands" in the common fields were cultivated in rotation, and that the "lands" themselves were originally apportioned amongst the freeholders at fixed periods by casting lots. We must also remember that the decisions of byrlaw courts were of no effect if not unanimous, and that such decisions were regarded as of such a binding nature that to disobey them was to undergo ostracism of the most severe kind.