Monthly Archives: March 2012

Thirteen of us took advantage of the wonderful weather to join Steve Joul this afternoon and carry out more work on the Buck Stone.  Even then we were not able to complete the job – there is a last bit of tree trunk to remove and some general tidying up.  However, the Buck Stone is now clearly visible in all its glory.

Those of us who stayed to the end (about 5.30pm) were each rewarded with a gift from the woods – a bottle of lager each to take home – garnered in our pre-Christmas litter picking.  If any of you who missed out are aggrieved, please let me know as we still have a few lagers left!

If you have not read my earlier blog entries, the Buck Stone appears on a map as a landmark – and is called the Buck Stone – on a map dating back to 1770.  If you do not know where it is, the easiest way to find it is to go along Buck Stone Avenue in a South Easterly direction from Buck Stone Road.  Just after you come to Buck Stone Rise (on your left) you will see a public footpath sign on your right pointing down a ginnel between two houses. Go down the ginnel and the Buck Stone is at the end, to the right.

Before and after

The Buck Stone

Only fifteen years ago the large rock known as “the Buck Stone”, and from which the Buckstone estate gains its name, was a well-known landmark, and the subject of many nostalgic and happy memories.  In recent years it has become obscured by trees to the point that sometimes your correspondent could not find it.  Mind you, your correspondent failed his geography ‘O’ level, so we cannot put too much emphasis on the Buck Stone’s obscurity.

Cutting to the chase, in response to several requests from local residents, the Friends spent a couple of hours clearing a large oak tree and abundant shrubbery from around the Buck Stone and have largely restored it to its former glory.  There is still a couple of hours work left, but it is now once more a wonderful place to go and while away the hours on a warm Summer evening, and a spring board for happy dreams of climbing the Himalayas!

The Buck Stone taken from the East (I think)

In the foreground  of the lower picture David can be seen cleaning an engraving which seems to be dated 1801!

Noted historian Steve Burt tells me that the Buck Stone is shown as a landmark (and named as the Buck Stone) on a map dating from about 1770 prepared for the Land

The Buck Stone from the West (I think!)

Fox family when they were in dispute with John Dixon of Gledhow Hall who claimed this land as being in the manor of Chapel Allerton.

Happy Friends, celebrating a successful and happy day’s work.