Commentary

What immediately impressed me on meeting the stone that sits on Beeley Moor was its size and weight. Even from a distance it was unmissable in all that heather and bog cotton: a stolid vertical fixed amongst horizontal lines. I spent a lot of time running my hands over the block's contours, its cracks and fissures, its mossy letters. There was one W that particularly impressed me in terms of how ornately it was carved into the rock.

When Amanda arrived we began to discuss the stone together. I told her about my love of the letter W in BAKEWELL. Amanda pointed out there were actually two hands on the BAKEWELL face - signaling in opposite directions. ‘Ghost’ fingers had been overlaid with a four-digit hand. This little detail tipped me into writing process.

This
Companion Stone

Other
Companion Stones

Other
Guide Stoops

Site numbering
taken from
Howard Smith's
Guide Stoops
of Derbyshire

grid reference  SK 29073 69223