In Hove Park is the famous "Grey Wether," called the "Goldstone." This used to lay in Goldstone Bottom between the railway and the Downs. It's estimated weight was 20 (twenty) tons and it measured 13 foot 6 inches in length, 9 foot high, and 5 foot six inches at it's greatest thickness.

 

It has been labelled "Tolmen or Holy Stone of the Druids" and now stands at the south west end of the park.

 

The Goldstone viewed from the south-west.

 

Many years ago, when the land at present occupied by Hove Park and the ground to the south was open downland, the Goldstone stood on the western side of the valley not far south of the Shoreham Road.

 

The first mention of the stone seems to be from the Rev. James Douglass, F.S.A., in a letter dated May, 1818 which is quoted by Dr. Gideon Mantell on page 60 of his Geology of the South-East of England, 1833. This letter is also reffered to in Horsfield's History of Sussex, vol 1, page 166.

 

In 1833 the stone was situated on the then Goldstone Farm owned by one Farmer Rigden who was so annoyed by the visits of the curious and the antiquinarians who visited the site by walking over his fields and ruining some of his crops, he decided to bury the stone. To this end a hole some 16 feet deep was made next to the stone and it was then dragged into the hole and covered over at great expense and labour.

 

The Goldstone lay undisturbed for 67 years with only the stories to keep it alive. Then on 29th September, 1900, Mr William Hollamby, an old Hove Commissioner, managed to locate the whereabouts of the site and had it uncovered to gaze upon the light of day once more. Once removed from it's grave it stayed there until 1906 when it was conveyed to a new spot some 300 yards from its original place to the southern centre of today's Hove Park, just north of the Shoreham Road. It was surrounded by a group of smaller stones which came from the northern end of Goldstone Bottom near a small pond level with the Goldstone Waterworks.

 

The Goldstone itself was entirely solitary when in it's original position with no other stones in the immediate vicinity before it was 'Dressed up' for display in 1906. The smaller gropu of stones were removed for 'farming purposes', about 1847, the stones then being rolled into the pond and covered with mould and turf. The site and the surrounding area was later ploughed and crops were sown over the site. It was Mr Hollamby who also discovered the obliterated pond and had the stones unearthed once more and they were conveyed to the southern end to accompany the Goldstone.

 

No accurate records exist telling the number or position of the northern group of stones. In the 'Handbook of Brighton', 1847, W. and C. Fleet mention "nine singularly shaped stones," but their drawing by 'Nibbs' shows only six. That there were more than nine is suggested by the remark of J. A. Erredge (History of Brighthelmston, 1862, p.188), that some of the Goldstone Bottom boulders were used to form the basement of the Victoria Fountain in the Old Steine, Brighton.

 

The Rev. James Douglass was pretty positive that the stones formed an ancient stone circle. W. and C. Fleet say that the stones "all lie within the circumference of a hundred yards and have therefore a manifest connection with each other."

 

As described in "Sarsens in Sussex," these great stones, of hard sandstone or of sandstone and flint conglomerate, are the harder portions of ancient geological strata which once capped part of the Downs. They occur not only in the debris of the old land surface which now fills the base of our valleys, but under deep soil in higher regions. When exposed by the plough they proved dangerous obstacles in the way of farming, and were consequently dragged away to some piece of waste land, such as the immediate neighbourhood of a pond. This is one possibility of the so called stone formation.

 

It must however be conceeded that the stones did indeed resemble portions of the early megalithic groups in other parts of England. So it may well be that the Goldstone Bottom group was ancient, intentionally arranged, and not a mere dumping of stones randomly. So what about the Goldstone half a mile to the south? The Goldstone is labelled a "tolmen," but the word "tolmen," or "dolmen," should now be restricted to large flattish stones (such as the Goldstone) which are supported by two or more upright slabs or blocks to form a table-like structure. There is no record to show that the Goldstone was ever situated this way and indeed it has always been reffered to as an individual stone standing on it's side.

 

There is a drawing by Mr Clem Lambert, of Brighton, which shows a resemblance to a human face when the stone was viewed on a sunny morning standing on the Old Shoreham road. There is also a photograph from the 1930's which shows the same thing (see below). Due to erosion the 'face' has now receeded into the whole and is difficult to make out.

 

Photograph of the 'Goldstone' taken in 1930's.

 

Owing to the lack of Celtic place-names in Sussex, it is imagined that the name which has come down through the centuries is of pure Saxon origin. In this language both "Gold" (gield) and "God" can be construed as reffering to an idol or god. Take also the inferences that the Goldstone had long been in it's erect position when the Saxon's came; that the Saxon's, too, saw in it the resemblance of a human face and gave it what they considered an appropriate name - "The God Stone".

 

The Goldstone itself is a large block of indurated sandstone containing a mass of fairly large flints in it's eastern side, but with only fine broken flint mixed with the greyish sand on the other side. All the boulders surrounding the Goldstone are of very similar sand and flint conglomerate.

 

Whatever the history and superstition behind the stone it stands to this day before all who care to visit it. This stone amongst many others seem to hold a place in our lives whatever your outlook is on these matters. There are no doubt many better and more interesting stones in the Uk but this is one that is fairly unique.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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