Four shire stone
The Four shire stone is a boundary marker that marks the location where the four historic English counties of Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire once met. It is not a stone, but a nine-foot high monument, built from the local Cotswold stone. It is in the English midlands, a mile and a half east of the small town of Moreton-in-Marsh, at latitude 51°59'15" North, longitude 1°39'57" West, grid reference SP231301. The existing structure was probably built in the 18th century, and is a grade II listed building.[2] There was a "4 Shire Stone" on or near the site in 1675.[3]
From the stone, you could go west into Gloucestershire, east into Warwickshire, south-east into Oxfordshire, or south into a small exclave of Worcestershire. Most of Worcestershire is to the north-west of the stone. Thus the order of the four counties around the stone was different from what one might expect from a map of England.
It ceased to be the meeting-point of four shires in 1931, when the exclave of Worcestershire to its south was transferred to Gloucestershire.[4]
It is claimed that the Four shire stone inspired the "Three-Farthing Stone" in J. R. R. Tolkien's books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In those books, The Shire is divided into four farthings, three of which meet at the "Three-Farthing Stone".[5]
References
- ↑ Because of an error in the printing, the salient of Oxfordshire that extends to the stone appears in mauve rather than the violet of the rest of Oxfordshire.
- ↑ "British Listed Buildings". Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- ↑ Ogilby, John (1675). Britannia Atlas. Richard Nicholson of Chester, map dealer. p. Plate 44. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
- ↑ "The Four Shire Stone Moreton-in-Marsh". Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- ↑ "Moreton-in-Marsh Tourist Information and Travel Guide". cotswolds.info. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
