Great Tottington facts for kids
Great Tottington is a special old farm located near Maidstone in Kent, England. It's known as a "moated manor farm" because it used to have a ditch filled with water around it, like a small castle.
This farm is also home to a natural spring, which is where water comes out of the ground. Around this spring and in the farmyard, you can find many large stones called sarsens. These stones might be what's left of a very old monument built by people in the Neolithic period (the New Stone Age). They could even be part of a bigger group of ancient stone structures known as the Medway Megaliths.
However, some people think these stones might not be ancient monuments at all. They could just be natural stones that farmers collected in the 1700s when they were clearing the land. It's hard to know for sure because many ancient stone sites in the Medway valley were damaged or destroyed in the 1700s and 1800s.
Exploring the Mystery Stones
In 1872, a man named James Fergusson visited the area. He wrote about some large stones he saw. He noted that a line of big stones seemed to stretch for about three-quarters of a mile from a place called Spring Farm to Hale Farm, passing through Great Tottington.
The Coffin Stones
Fergusson also mentioned two very large stones near the center of this line at Tottington. Local people called them the "coffin stones" because of their shape. These stones were about 12 feet long, 4 to 6 feet wide, and 2 to 3 feet thick. They looked like they had been partly shaped by people.
One of these stones was almost completely buried, and the other was partly underground. Fergusson had to use tools to measure them by probing under the soil.
What Were They For?
Some people have suggested that these stones were once part of a stone circle or a long path lined with stones, called an avenue. These types of structures were often built in prehistoric times for ceremonies or burials.
However, if the stones are truly from prehistoric times, it's more likely they were moved from a nearby ancient burial site. This site is a chambered long barrow (a long mound covering a burial chamber) known as the Coffin Stone.
Images for kids
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A sarsen standing at the entrance to Great Tottington. It is not recorded in the literature and was likely erected by the farmer
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One of the spring-fed ponds at Great Tottington
