Not far from the western edge of Nottingham, on the fringes of the little town of Stapleford, sits an enigmatic stone column.
Known as the Hemlock Stone it is formed from 200 million year old sandstone set down during the Triassic period.
Overlooking the modern A6002 road the Hemlock Stone is traditionally reckoned to have been a site of ancient Celtic ritual, and potentially was revered by even earlier human cultures. In the Middle Ages it remained something of a devotional site, albeit now Christianised, and customs around fire lighting remained active into the Early Modern period and potentially as late as the early 19th Century. Purportedly a fire would be lit on Beltane’s Eve – approximately the 1st May – the beginning of the bright, warm part of the year, and always an important date for working people.
The fire lighting tradition has been revived from time-to-time for royal jubilees. Indeed, since Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee in 2002 there has been an annual celebration of the Hemlock Stone and the role that it plays in the area’s identity. Known as the Hemlock Happening, it occurs every June in the little walled garden park just across the A6002 from the stone.
Stapleford Hill, the name of the rocky sandstone escarpment that the Hemlock Stone sits on, is a prominent local feature. However, it is unknown how the 8.5 metre tall, obelisk-like, Hemlock Stone came to stand proud of it.
In Medieval times there was a local legend that the devil had been angered by the ringing of church bells in Castleton near the centre of the Derbyshire Peak District. At the time Castleton was a major centre in the crucial lead mining industry and despite its remote location, an important local centre. The legend goes that in his rage the devil picked up the Hemlock Stone and threw it 40 miles where it landed just over the county boundary into Nottinghamshire where it stands to this day.
This origin story is somewhat spoiled (supernatural elements aside) by the fact that Castleton lies in a fold between the limestone White Peak and the Pennine gritstone Dark Peak. There is no sandstone anywhere near it.
In the 18th Century the antiquarian William Stuckley suggested that it might have come about through quarrying on the hill. Later geologists rejected this interpretation, reckoning that the Hemlock Stone was created by the actions of ice flows during the Ice Age. Nowadays however, the consensus appears to be leaning towards William Stuckley’s interpretation, concluding that the Hemlock Stone was once a larger chunk of rock which was shaped by the action of people quarrying the sandstone on Stapleford Hill into the form that it takes today.
The layers of sandstone at the top of the Hemlock Stone are black with soot from industry in the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries. A sign of how solid the upper layer of sandstone is. The base of the pillar is not discoloured rather it is a clean sandstone colour. This is due to the fact that the lower layers are less firmly pressed together and are eroding at a faster rate.
In time this will cause the Hemlock Stone to break in two and collapse. But despite the weather’s best efforts this is likely to occur thousands of years in the future, meaning that this fascinating rock will continue to be an important local landmark in south west Nottinghamshire for generations to come.