High up on the rocky escarpment known as the Roaches in the Staffordshire Moorlands U.K. and not far from the triangulation point can be found a strange rock carving in the form of a circle with another deeper circle carved in the centre.
Circle within a circle on the roaches. Photo by Gary Tacagni.
The surrounding area has been carved to form a platform on the edge of this rocky ridge. Expert opinion suggests that it was not carved with modern tools and was probably done using a medieval stone pick, many suggestions have been made regarding its use but so far no one knows for certain what its true purpose was.
Probably the best suggestion so far was that it was a base which held a phallic fertility shaft similar to Cluelow Cross, whereby a woman wishing to conceive would walk round and round the shaft probably hugging it or in contact with it some how hoping she would become pregnant.
A fair amount of thought has gone into the carving of this circle as a drainage channel has been cut out of the rock, this would stop water collecting around the base of the shaft and damaging it when it would freeze in the winter. Photo by Gary Tacagni.
I have found the upper part of the shaft which I believe would have been sited here, it can be found below the Roaches on the roadside, some heathen has decided to use it as a gate post no less! I have been searching for the rest of the shaft on the lower slopes of the Roaches but as yet have not found it.
The upper part of the fertility shaft now used as a gatepost. Photo by Gary Tacagni.
