Essex erratic boulders: a gazetteer
Mashbury
On private land at Mashbury Hall farmyard (TL 651118) is a puddingstone (110x90x60) (Salter
1914). E.A.Rudge stated that this boulder was originally found on the side of the valley about one
kilometre south of Mashbury Hall (Cooper 1994).
Pleshey
On the traffic island at a road junction west of the village (TL 648143) is a splendid block of
Carboniferous Limestone with fossil corals (110x70x60) and a sarsen (70x70x35),
COLCHESTER DISTRICT
Boxted
Several fragments of sarsens (the largest 120x60) are visible as the foundation stones of St. Peter's
Church (TL 998332). The tower, which is of Norman age, is constructed mostly from blocks of
ferricrctc.
Colchester
In the suburb of Greenstead a sarsen (90x90x30) stands upright next to a bus stop in Avon Way
(TM 02312483). On the other side of the road, about 150 metres to the west, a fine colourful
puddingstone (150x75x25) sits on a concrete plinth a few metres from the pavement (TM
02162481). This puddingstone is a puzzle as it is in mint condition and shows no sign of being
transported by a river or an ice sheet. It may have been brought here from Hertfordshire by a
collector. Greenstead housing estate was built in the 1960s.
Dedham
In the churchyard of St. Mary's Church (TM 057331) is a gravestone (65x40x30) made from a
sarsen. It is crudely inscribed "Edward Ward and his wife Martha" and parish records show the
burial to have taken place in 1690 (George 1997). The story is that Edward Ward was a local
ploughman who came across this stone in a field during the course of his work and instructed his
relatives to use it as his gravestone (Laver 1907). This is the only example in Essex of a sarsen
being used for this purpose although the practice is common in Wiltshire where sarsens are more
abundant.
Adjacent to St. Mary's Church porch is a sarsen (90x70x30).
East Mersea
Opposite the Old Rectory, on the East Mersea Road, by the East Mersea sign (TM 037142), is a
rounded boulder of basalt (70x70x35) known locally as Deremy's Stone. It was dug up on this
spot in 1974 and provided with a plaque stating that it was placed here to define the boundary of
the manor of West Mersea granted by Edward the Confessor in 1046 (Stanier 2001).
Fordham
At Rams Farm (TL 934288) is a fine sarsen (130x110x50) standing upright by the roadside. This
may be the Targe broken boulder' that Rudge reported seeing in the yard at Rams Farm (Cooper
1994). The boulder was moved to its present position in the 1960s (Anon. 2000a).
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)