A stone that sounds
The Blowing Stone is a block of sarsen about a metre high, riddled with natural holes. One hole leads into a Y-shaped channel inside the stone, and anyone who can seal it with their mouth and blow hard can make the stone give out a deep, booming note, likened to a bellowing calf. Local tradition claims it can be heard for miles.
History and legend
The stone stands at the foot of Blowingstone Hill, just south of the B4507 (the lower route along the downs often identified with the Icknield Way), in the parish of Kingston Lisle, which was historically part of Sparsholt. It is first recorded on John Rocque’s map of Berkshire of 1761. The Royal Berkshire History site records that it once stood higher up on Kingstone Down, and that the parish smith brought it down into the valley, probably in the early 18th century, and set it up by his smithy. By 1809 that building had become the Blowing Stone Inn, and the landlord blew the stone for customers for a small fee. The Victoria County History (1924) found it in a cottage garden with its holes covered by a lid.
The best-known story says that King Alfred used the stone to summon his men before the Battle of Ashdown against the Danes in 871. There is no evidence for this, and the battle’s site is itself unknown. In 1887 Cooper King suggested instead that it had been a sacred stone of the local Iron Age people; that too is speculation. Thomas Hughes, who grew up nearby at Uffington, made the stone famous in Tom Brown’s School Days (1857), where it appears as the ‘Blawing Stwun’.
Visiting
The stone stands in the front garden of a cottage on Blowingstone Hill, the lane that climbs from the B4507 to the Ridgeway east of White Horse Hill. It can be seen from the roadside. It is on private property, so please be considerate: do not block the lane or enter the garden. The Blowing Stone pub, named after it, is in Kingston Lisle village, a short distance north.
Nearby
The Ridgeway crosses the top of Blowingstone Hill. White Horse Hill and Uffington Castle are about a mile and a half to the west. Kingston Lisle’s Norman church of St John the Baptist and the parish church of Sparsholt, with its medieval wooden effigies, are both close by.