Between the rocky ridge known as the Roaches and the hill known as Hen Cloud in the Staffordshire Moorlands U.K. can be found an unusual boulder known as the Bawdstone. This stone is thought to be a Dolmen, and it has been placed on a short edge of rock which is also supported by two upright pillars. It is said to have magical healing powers for people who touch the stone, its original purpose is not known but it may have been used as a Neolithic burial site.
This is me next to the Bawdstone. Photo by Gary Tacagni.
During the Spring Solstice the Bawdstone is said to be aligned with another curious stone nearby on Ramshaw Rocks, called the Serpent Stone it resembles the head of a serpent emerging from the earth.
The Serpent Stone on Ramshaw Rocks. Photo by Gary Tacagni.
The name Bawdstone is thought to be derived from the Welsh word "bawd", meaning table, the three stones which support it are thought to be legs (table legs?). The healing power the stone is said to possess seems to have cured an injury which I had suffered with for about two and a half years, after touching the stone the pain disappeared within two days and has not come back since!
The photograph above shows the devastating effect that a fire which raged out of control in April of 2003 had on the surrounding vegetation growing on the slopes of Hen Cloud. It was to be some years before the vegetation and wildlife recovered. Photo By Gary Tacagni.
A spiritually gifted and pyschic friend of mine accompanied me on a visit to the Bawdstone, she told me that the stone still contains power, perhaps this is due to the high quartz content which is contained in the rock and also the fact that the stone has been placed on a very strong Ley-line.
In the past the Bawdstone has been described as having evil connotations, this would have been because the healing attributed to it was being done in a non Christian way, to overcome this the stone had used to be whitewashed, this was seen as symbolic, the white colour being seen as good overcoming evil.
Another view of the Bawdstone. Photo by Gary Tacagni.
The people of the nearby town of Leek and the surrounding area, up until the start of the Second World War would bring the sick people to the stone and make them crawl underneath it and come up the other side of it, this was said to "knock the Devil from their backs". This custom of crawling under the stone was a relatively new custom, and should not be confused with the healing properties that the stone contains, besides you would have to be quite an accomplished Limbo dancer to crawl underneath as it is a tight squeeze.
The Bawdstone seems to have been carefully placed at this location for a purpose, who by we cannot know for sure, but it seems to have been used for healing purposes for possibly thousands of years, whatever forces this strange stone may have, there will always be an aura of mystery attached to it.
