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" One touch of nature

makes all the world kin "

William Shakespeare

The God Stone

April 18th, 2008

In Hove Park just a few miles away from Lewes there stands the ‘Gold Stone’ which in the 19th century was called (at least on one map) the Godstone – perhaps because of the gnarled troll-like face on its side.

There’s an excellent site ‘Standing Stones in Sussex’ which talks of its history and has archive photos and sketches of it, but I couldn’t find any modern photographs of it. So yesterday while in Hove I took some pictures – if you click on the ones below you’ll get good sized images. Around the massive stone are nine smaller ones.

The Council’s sign beside it reads: ‘At the turn of the 19th century this ‘Goldstone’ was thought to be a sacred stone of the Druids. This led to large numbers of people visiting the site and causing damage to the surrounding farm crops. In the early 1830’s, the landowner buried the stone and the smaller surrounding stones to stop this happening.’ They were unearthed in 1900 and moved to Hove Park in 1906. I have read that some people blame the poor performance of Brighton & Hove Albion football club on this interference with the subtle earth energy grid of the planet!

More Druid connections are provided by the ‘Standing Stones in Sussex’ site: ‘The stone is popularly known as the site of a Druidic Gorsedd, but this is probably just modern fancy. A sign next to the Goldstone tells us that it is a “Tolmen or holy stone of the Druids”! Though it is debatable whether ancient druids used the site, more modern druids certainly have. On the 3rd June 1929, an oak tree was planted near the stone to commemorate the King’s recovery, also to commemorate the 1000th night of the Ames Lodge and the 100thchapter of the Brighton & Hove Royal Arch (Ancient Order of Druids). The ceremony and a banquet afterwards was attended by many important figures in Druidism of the time and a plaque was placed nearby to commemorate the occasion.’

2 Responses to “The God Stone”

  1. What a shame they felt they had to move them… I wonder if the magic goes with them or does it fade because they aren’t in situ… They do look good – very fatherly as though he is looking after his children… 🙂 The first photo looks like a man curled up in thought with a child playing on his shoulder nearly toppling off onto his lap…. or maybe that’s just me :/

  2. Thank u Philip. I really needed this fee back. Stone worship is /was a universal phenomena which has been severly restricted or destroyed by the universal religions who feel happy to term them as ‘paganism ‘ with a negative colouring. Thnks once again.

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