Citations:witches' stone

English citations of witches' stone

small ledge, jutting out of a chimney on a house

typically in Jersey or Guernsey; said in folklore to be used by witches to rest on as they fly to their sabbats, but originally serving to prevent rain from seeping under a thatch roof (now added to some newer houses, which never had thatch, analogically), see Witches' stones

• 1898, Notes and Queries, page 116:

  Saumarez, Jersey, witches' stone at, viii. 508

• 1940, Jerome Beatty (Jr.), Americans All Over, page 159:

  [...] the Seigneurie has flat "witches' stones" projecting from its chimneys. They give a passing witch […]

• 1965, Joan Stevens, Old Jersey Houses and Those who Lived in Them:

  [page 74] The so called witches' stones, on which a witch could rest on her flight, and seen on all old granite chimneys, are in fact utilitarian, and, most important, to prevent seepage of rain water under the thatch. […] [page 236] Witches' stones. Projecting stones built into chimney stacks […]

mention:

• 1979, Raoul Lemprière, Portrait of the Channel Islands, Robert Hale, page 145:

  The stones which produce from the large chimney-stacks of many of these old dwellings date from when the roofs were of thatch and were designed to prevent water seeping underneath it. These stones, as well as the ends of fire-place corbels protruding through a gable wall, are called 'witches' stones'. It is said that their object was to provide resting places for witches […]

a hagstone / adder stone

• 1895 May 25, "witches'+stones" Notes and Queries, 8th S. VII. May 25, '95, page 414:

  I found witches' stones were sometimes used here [...compare...] the hollow flint—that is, a flint with a hole in it […] In Lancashire, "a hag-stone with a hole through, tied to the ey of a stable-door, protects the horses, […] "

• 2019, Barbara Meiklejohn-Free, "witches'+stones" Scottish Witchcraft, page 124:

  Susan used to take us down to Nairn beach on the Cromarty Firth to search for witches' stones forged by the sea. Once we collected the stones, she would show us how to get rid of things we did not want in our lives.

• 2022, Anne O'Donoghue, "witches'+stone"+hole The Little Daemon Booklet By Anne O' Donoghue, page 113:

  She is said to terrorize children at night. Defense against this spirit is to carry a witches’ stone, or a stone with a hole in the center, mothers may place a knife within a cradle or draw a circle around them with a blade for protection.

other uses, including in reference to cromlechs or prehistoric stones

other uses

• 1865, George Tate, The ancient British sculptured rocks of Northumberland and the eastern borders, page 24:

  Similar shallow indentations have been found on the "Witches' Stone" at Bennington Mains, near Rath, in Mid-Lothian, which forms the capstone of a cromlech;* and also on another cromlech in Guernsey. It has been supposed that these indentations had been made with the design of […]

• 1876, "witches'+stone" Water-Color in New York, page n1:

  The Cromlech proper, or witches' stone,—for the simple cromlech is as often called dolmen—is a collection of dolmens communicating with one another, and having the sides closed, except at the common entrance.

• 1931, Société guernesiaise, Report and Transactions, page 108:

  […] and tales were told of witches dancing at full moon round the 'witches' stones at Essex and Clonque'.

• 1992, Derek Ernest Johnson, "a+witches'+stone" East Anglia at war : 1939-1945, page 108:

  Then there was the 861st Engineer Aviation Battalion and the curse of the witches’ stone. These stones, standing about three feet high and measuring around 80 inches at the base can be found in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and beyond. They are thought to date back to 5000BC and may have been used as milestones by nomadic tribes — or as altars in Black Magic ritual. A long standing legend warns dire consequences to anyone removing or damaging one of the stones. Intent on building a base at Borham, the engineers of the 861st found a witches’ stone in the path of a road-widening scheme. The locals refused point blank to move it so the CO called in a bulldozer which was badly damaged trying to move the stone. […] The bulldozer driver was killed […] The CO [...] was struck down […]