This mysterious dark boulder stands on a concrete base on the edge of a Birmingham cemetery - what on earth is it?
It is the War Stone. Despite the name it has nothing to do with war, its title probably deriving from the Old English "har stan" meaning "old grey stone" and it served as a manor boundary marker for some centuries. How did it get here though?
Two giants lived in castles near to each other, one at Dudley and one in Birmingham. The Brummie colossus was the subject of his lord at Dudley but rebelled, shouting that he would serve his giant master no longer. In a rage the Dudley giant scooped up a boulder and flung it at his former servant, striking his head and ending his life. As the giant faded away he fell against his castle walls, demolishing his former home in the process, but the boulder was set up by his followers in his honour.
That's the folklore, but the reality is that this is a glacial erratic, a felsite boulder picked up from Wales by an Ice Age glacier than deposited here in its wake. The stone gave its name to the street and the cemetery it stands sentry at - Warstone Lane.
This is a fascinating cemetery that has quite a few tales hidden among its shadows, I tell a lot of them in The Mystery Of Mercia, available at the shop.
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