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Stanton Drew

Civil parishes in SomersetEngvarB from October 2013Somerset coalfieldVillages in Bath and North East Somerset
Stanton drew church
Stanton drew church

Stanton Drew is a small village and civil parish within the Chew Valley in Somerset, England, lying north of the Mendip Hills, 8 miles (13 km) south of Bristol in the area of the Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority. Just outside the village are the prehistoric Stanton Drew stone circles. The largest of these, the Great Circle, is a henge monument and the second largest stone circle in Britain, after Avebury. The circle is 113 m in diameter and probably consisted of 30 stones, of which 27 survive today. The village has a range of listed buildings, dating from the 13th to 15th centuries, including the church of St Mary the Virgin, the Round House (Old Toll House) and several farmhouses. The parish of Stanton Drew, which includes the hamlet of Stanton Wick, had a population of 787 in 2011. Until 1947 the parish also included Belluton and part of Pensford. It has a primary school, pubs (the Druids Arms and the Carpenters Arms at Stanton Wick), a church and a village hall, which is the venue for various village activities. The area around the village has several dairy and arable farms on neutral to acid red loamy soils with slowly permeable subsoils. It is also a dormitory village for people working in Bath and Bristol.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Stanton Drew (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.3663 ° E -2.5782 °
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BS39 4EP
England, United Kingdom
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Stanton drew church
Stanton drew church
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Stanton Drew stone circles
Stanton Drew stone circles

The Stanton Drew stone circles are just outside the village of Stanton Drew in the English county of Somerset. The largest stone circle is the Great Circle, 113 metres (371 ft) in diameter and the second largest stone circle in Britain (after Avebury); it is considered to be one of the largest Neolithic monuments to have been built. The date of construction is not known, but is thought to be between 3000 and 2000 BCE, which places it in the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. It was made a scheduled monument in 1982.The Great Circle was surrounded by a ditch and is accompanied by smaller stone circles to the northeast and southwest. There is also a group of three stones, known as The Cove, in the garden of the local pub. Slightly further from the Great Circle is a single stone, known as Hautville's Quoit. Some of the stones are still vertical, but the majority are now recumbent, and some are no longer present. The stone circles have been studied since John Aubrey's visit in 1664, and some excavations of the site were performed in the 18th century. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, geophysical surveys have confirmed the size of the stone circles and identified additional pits and postholes. The Cove has been shown to be around 1000 years older than the stone circles, and so date from 4000-3000 BCE. A variety of myths and legends about the stone circles have been recorded, including one about dancers at a celebration who have been turned to stone.