Essex erratic boulders: a gazetteer
Margaret Roding
Propped up at the entrance to Marks Hall Farm (TL 599111) is a sarsen (100x70x25). It is used as
a nameplate for the farm.
On the main road at White Hall (TL 598125) a sarsen (130x90x30) lias recently been erected by
the entrance with the name of the property inscribed neatly on it.
Manuden
Beside the road next to the churchyard wall (TL 491267) is a sandstone boulder (100x50x30).
Across the road next to the Yew Tree Inn is a puddingstone (120x100x30) that has unfortunately
been whitewashed in the past.
One kilometre north of the village, at the junction of the road to Pinchpools (TL 486276), is a
puddingstone (100x100x60).
Newport
A large sarsen (170x120x50) known as the Leper Stone sits upright on the grass verge on the side
of the road (TL 520350) at the north entrance to the village. This is the best known erratic boulder
in north Essex (Salter 1914; Rowntree 1954; Searle 1994; Lucy 2000).
Alarge puddingstone (150x90x75) can be seen by the village hall in StationvRoad (TL 521335). It
was brought to this spot from the outskirts of the town in the 1950s when the village hall was built
(Mollet 1994; Lucy 2000).
Ugley Green
Beside the green, next to the village pump (TL 524271), is a puddingstone (120x90x60). It was
formerly situated on the village green.
Saffron Walden
At the junction of Gibson Gardens and Margaret Way (TL 53693817) is a grassy mound containing
the greatest variety of erratic boulders in Essex (Lucy 2003). There are at least 25 boulders visible
of varying sizes up to 1.2 metres long. The rock types include sarsen, puddingstone, sandstone,
Millstone Grit, limestone. Septarian nodules, granite, dolerite, basalt and gneiss. Most are
partially or almost completely buried. The Gibson Gardens housing estate was built on land which
was formerly the magnificent gardens owned by George Stacey Gibson, naturalist, who died in
1883. This mound was originally the site of a summer house. Gibson, also an amateur geologist,
must have accumulated Illis collection of boulders in his garden.
In the private grounds of sheltered housing known as Elm Grove, off Fairycroft Road is a small
summer house built of erratic boulders (TL 53983828). The area around the summer house was
originally the garden of a house known as Elm Grove (now demolished) built by Jabez Gibson in
1828, co-founder of the Natural History Society that founded the town's museum. Gibson gathered
the stones from surrounding farmland. There arc at least 20 boulders of different rock types but of
particular interest are the large blocks of calcrete, a weathered boulder of Carboniferous Limestone
with Crinoid fossils, and Septarian nodu les which have been cut in half to reveal the calcite-filled
cracks and positioned to make the rear wall. The largest boulder is a giant puddingstone
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)
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