Photo by Gary Tacagni
There are many strange places on and around the strange shaped hill known as the Cloud which overlooks the town of Congleton, Cheshire, U.K. One of these places is known as the Catstones which can be found on the side of the Cloud facing Congleton in the area known as Timbersbrook. Along the road that runs around the base of the Cloud can be found a large white stately home known as Catstone House, named after the fifty foot high unusual stone which can be found at the rear of the house, it is difficult to obtain a clear view of the stone from the road so permission would be needed from the owner of the house if you wanted to view the stone or photograph it.
It is believed that the stone was used in a ritual involving human sacrifice to the Goddess Catha or Catta, this cult of cat worshippers would throw their sacrificial victims from the top of the Catstones where they would fall to their death on the rock altar fifty feet below at the base of the rock. The ritual was said to have occurred at the spring equinox, the pagan time of rebirth that was taken over by the Christian church and became Easter.
It is said that up until recently, at the time of Good Friday, that many thousands of people from Congleton, Macclesfield and the surrounding area would make there way to the Cloud, and it is thought that this ritual was a throwback to the time when the Cloud was used by the cult of the cat and its use involving human sacrifice.
It is said that if you look carefully you will be able to see the outline of a cats face in the stone and this is probably where it has aquired its name from, I have in fact seen two faces in the rock resembling the face of a cat, one however can only be seen when the sun shines from a certain angle which reveals the profile of a cats head. Perhaps this is the origin of the saying "grinning like a Cheshire cat", or maybe it is a reference to the carved stone head of a grinning cat which can still be found in the church at Pot Shrigley, or perhaps it is like the Sheela-na-gig which can still be found in some of the older churches and is a throwback to Pagan times and the belief in the Old Ways. 
