The Beaufort County treasurer’s office has announced the mailing of 2009 property tax bills on Wednesday, November 18th. The bills reflect tax amounts post the much discussed assessment. Residents of Hilton Head Island and Bluffton should probably receive their statements by weeks-end. If you’re curious as the amount you’ll owe and just can’t wait for your hard copy to arrive, click through to: http://sc-beaufort-county.governmax.com/svc/default.asp?sid=3446C0ABD04349A9A72482FE78059E01

Be sure to enter the Owner’s Name EXACTLY as it appears on  your tax bills/assessments.

Of course, there’s still time to appeal the assessment amount if you feel you have been over-assessed and therefore over-taxed. Let us know if we can provide stats to help you make your case!

The Hilton Head Area Home Builders Association recently presented its 10^th annual Lighthouse Awards to some of the Lowcountry’s most talented homebuilders!

Winners in overall categories include Coastal Green Building Solutions, WeldenField Homes, Arbor Green Builders, Randy Jeffcoat Builders, Island Builders of Hilton Head, Bunting Construction Co, RCH Construction, D. Lee Builders, Grey Oaks Builders, Tilton Group Signature Homes, Reclamation By Design, Yestermorrow, Harden Tuten Custom Homes and H2 Builders.

 The Association celebrated their 10^th anniversary by honoring an extended number of builders and entries. The many talented subcontractors and suppliers who assisted in the design and construction process of the nominated homes were also honored.

For a complete list of winners please visit: www.lighthouseawards.com

A recent survey shows that one in 20 Americans plan to buy a home within the next year and are likely to purchase a home in either the South (perhaps on Hilton Head Island or Bluffton?!) or West. A full quarter of potential buyers said low prices are the motivational factor behind their desire to purchase in the next twelve months. The majority of survey respondents implying they would purchase in 2010 were under 34 – leading experts to believe they may also be motivated by the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit of $8,000.

It’s a great time to buy Hilton Head Island real estate – please contact one of our Buyer Specialists if you’ve got an interest in a new Lowcountry property!

Just a reminder that if you need help pulling stats/info to back up an appeal of your recently received Beaufort County tax assessment – we can help! Please shoot us an email at Info@CollinsGroupRealty.com with what you’re looking for and we’ll be happy to provide it! Bills for tax year 2009 should be hitting mailboxes shortly.

Hilton Head Island real estate company, Collins Group Realty, is happy to announce that our community vehicle is once again available for use! Both buyer and seller clients of CGR are able to use the box truck for household moves, large item relocation and more – free of charge!

We are also happy to make the truck available for use by local, non-profit organizations!

For more information or to reserve a date and time, please contact us at 800-823-7516 or send us an email at Info@CollinsGroupRealty.com!

Good Morning!

Here’s hoping you had a wonderful weekend!

Below you’ll find the market pulse reflecting last week’s activity. Last week saw an increase in listing activity, while closing activity fell in both categories.

Feel free to call or email us with any questions/comments you may have on these latest numbers, and have a great week!

Below is the MLS report for all listings on Hilton Head Island and Bluffton for the week of November 14, 2009. Please review the following and let us know if you have any questions on the statistics.

Active (New listings): 144 (Up 4% from last week)

Homes: 85

Villas: 31

Lots: 28

Pending (Accepted contracts, but not yet closed): 51 (Down 28% from last week)

Homes: 30

Villas: 13

Lots: 8

Sold (Closed contracts): 41 (Down 42% from last week)

Homes: 29

Villas: 10

Lots: 2

Price Reductions: 190 (Up 7% from last week)

Homes: 116

Villas: 36

Lots: 38

Chip Collins, owner and broker-in-charge of Collins Group Realty interviews Matt Webster of SunTrust on the pre-approval process and tips for improving your credit score!

The annual Hilton Head Island Oyster Festival will be held this weekend, with gates opening at noon on Saturday, November 14^th! Held at Shelter Cove Community Park, the event will feature the requisite 250 bushels of oysters, chili, chowder, burgers and hot dogs, beer, wine and more!

More than a great time, the Oyster Fest is a fundraising effort by the Island Rec Center to raise funds for their high school scholarship fund. Big screen TV’s will be available for anyone wanting to catch a football game, while a bounce house and carnival gamed will help keep the kids entertained.

 A holiday craft sale will also auction off golf, fine art and dining gift certificates. Live music will also be available.

 Entry tickets are $5 at the door. Food and beverages are extra.

Let us know if you’re planning to attend – and what you’re favorite part about the festival is!

 As you may have heard, Congress has approved and the President has signed an extension of the first-time homebuyer tax credit! Originally slated to expire on November 30th, the credit will now be available for eligible homebuyers through April 30, 2010.

Who’s eligible? First-time homebuyers, who are defined by law as buyers who have not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase. They may qualify for up to an $8,000 credit.

Existing homeowners who have been residing in their principal residence for five consecutive years out of the last eight and are purchasing a home to be their principal residence may also be eligible for up to a $6,500 tax credit.

All homes with a purchase price of less than $800,000 qualify – including newly constructed and resale single-family detached, townhomes, or condominiums – provided the property will be used as the principal residence of the buyer. Vacation homes, rental and/or investment properties do not qualify.

The credit is refundable and does not have to be repaid unless the homeowner sells or stops using the property as their principal residence within three years after the purchase.

Buyers who closed on qualifying property after November 6th and before May 1st, 2010 are eligible to take the credit. Home purchases subject to a fully executed, binding sales contract signed by April 30, 2010 will also qualify, provided closing occurs prior to July 1, 2010.

We encourage you to contact a CPA for more information on the credit and to find out if you qualify.

In the meantime, it’s still a buyer’s market and one of our Buyer Specialists would love to help you find your first or next Hilton Head Island home!

Quale brand al mondo può vantare una nascita davvero “rock”? Solo il gruppo Virgin.

In principio Virgin fu un negozio di dischi e poi un’etichetta discografica per cui registrarono, tra gli altri, Mike Oldfield, Sex Pistols, Genesis e anni dopo Culture Club, Simple Minds e molti altri ancora. Wikipedia come al solito è beninformata.

Anche noi di Virgin Poker Italia abbiamo quindi del sano rock nei nostri geni. E per condividere i nostri riff preferiti e ascoltare i vostri groove, abbiamo scelto di usare anche un social network musicale.

Vi aspettiamo lì, su Blip.fm/Virginpoker

Ja m’agradaria comprar-la, ja, emperò se me surt una mica del pressupost. Amem si teniu més sort que jo, negociant amb l’autor de Tubular Bells 

Desde que era niña la música ha sido una gran influencia para mi, fuera a donde fuera, pasara lo que pasara de fondo siempre había alguna melodía y ahora si la vuelvo a escuchar me trae buenos o no tan buenos recuerdos; aunque a veces sobre todo cuando se es pequeño ocurre que no es tu música la que esta en el ambiente sino la de tus padres, tus primos mayores, tus tíos… y eso es lo que me pasaba a mi.

Por eso aunque mis gustos musicales estén principalmente relacionados con la música rock y heavy, he tenido muchas influencias que aún sigo teniendo muy presentes, como es el gran músico Mike Oldfield, que aunque principalmente es guitarrista lo presento como músico porque abarca casi todos los instrumentos.

Es un artista que me ha influenciado en gran medida y que junto con otros grupos como puede ser Queen han hecho que hoy prefiera una música no tan comercial como la gran mayoría de los de mi generación que prefieren música mas simple como el reggaeton (no sé si se escribe así) o el techno.

No tengo nada en contra de estos estilos, pero a mi modo de ver pierden un poco la esencia de lo que ha sido siempre la música, evitan los instrumentos que sustituyen por sintetizadores y demás elementos electrónicos, la música techno muchas veces elimina las partes vocales y se limita a ritmos, y el reggaeton que si que tiene letras estas suelen ser ofensivas e incluso como yo veo degradantes para las mujeres, además que musicalmente hablando, es bastante repetitivo, lo que hace que exclusivamente sirva para bailar (si es que lo que llaman perreo se considera baile –mas bien es restregarse -).

Para mi mejor música es el rock y bueno particularmente la música metal en cualquiera de sus múltiples vertientes, la parte instrumental esta mucho mas elaborada, las letras tratan de todos los asuntos y temas mas variados, desde la mitología bien sea egipcia, nórdica… de grupos de Power Metal a canciones de amor o incluso poemas de grandes autores como Espronceda, cuyo poema “La canción del pirata” ha sido interpretada por Tierra Santa.

Como ya he dicho no tengo nada en contra sobre los géneros que he mencionado, y con todo lo dicho no quiero hacer ver que mis gustos sean los mejores, simplemente doy mi opinión, ya que cada uno tiene sus gustos y libres somos de escuchar lo que nos agrada.

Para concluir quería dejar un video para el que quiera escuchar un poco de Mike Oldfield. Es una canción que me encanta y que resume su disco Millenium Bells y que lleva el mismo nombre, me gusta especialmente porque mezcla casi de todo desde violines a sintetizadores incluyendo unos solos de guitarra espectaculares. Espero que os agrade tanto como a mí.

SAVE THE MUSIC!!

by Connie Imboden

Dende a revista dixital Sono-Tone pedíronme unha lista. Os 10 temas da miña vida.

Un pedimento tal que leva a crer que a vida de unha pode ser tan relevante e cinematográfica como para dispór de banda sonora.

Obediente de min, pensei durante varios días os 10 temas, tachei varios, considerei outros. Finalmente parín 10 entre os cales foron inseridos moitos máis. Sibilina que é unha cando se cre sibilina. Pero non foi ata días despois que reparei na falta dalgúns temas, temas do cerebro reptiliano poderiamos dicir, temas que burbullan tan profundos que a bote pronto non agroman, tardan máis, veñen de máis lonxe, de onde a médula espinal se cruza coa órbita de Sedna e cun crocodilo que pasaba por alí.

Lista de temas dun cerebro reptiliano:

1.- Ommadawn, part II, On horseback. Mike Oldfield. Coñecida na miña casa como a canción dos gnomos. Deille a vara a moita xente moito tempo cantaruxándolla logo de tela emborrachado [á xente]: por casualidade, sóache esta canción? A táctica non deu froitos. Eu medraba, afastábame desa canción e desesperaba. Como se chamaba? Sabía que era de Mike Oldfield pero, como atopala na cantidade inxente de melodías dese tipo? Internet, o pirateo e demais fixeron o resto. 20 anos despois atopeina. Por suposto, como debe ser, era moito máis misteriosa e gnómica a que eu escoitaba na nenez. En realidade todo Ommadawn así como o estraño disco Five Miles Out [parte Taurus II] forman parte dunha banda sonora que eu sentín moitas veces a través da porta da habitación do meu irmán cando moi cativa. Unha mañá atopamos roto o cristal da porta do Ford Fiesta marelo. Roubárannos a radio do coche. Con boa parte das cintas, claro. Entre elas Ommadawn, xunto con algunha de Milladoiro, os Calchakis, Silvio Rodríguez, Nino Bravo e máis.

As bandas sonoras a través da porta dunha nenez grávanse no cerebro reptiliano e atópanse por riba [ por baixo] de calquera elaboración que teña que ver cos gustos, as referenzas culturais. Iso xa é neocórtex. A lista das miñas 10 publicada en Sono-Tone, por exemplo. Iso é neocórtex.  En troques, no cerebro reptiliano flotan outros: temas que me sacuden por motivos alleos aos meus gustos musicais dado que se atopan na súa xénese mesma. Nesa mesma onda de música-escoitada-tras-da-porta-do-irmán-maior andarían Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, o ska de The Specials, The Cure, Bela Bartok, Os Planetas de Holst, Satie, Stravinsky, Charlie Parker, Fuxan os ventos, Milladoiro e por riba de todos eles pola insistencia, The Police.

2.- Neverending Story, Limahl. El pode ter pasado sen moita trascendencia por este planeta pero é a voz e o rostro do tema para a Historia Interminable, de Ende. Para min, unha das mellores obras da literatura, comparable a enxeñosos fidalgos a magdalenas proustianas e castelos de K se habemos de nos poñer estupendirmos citando clásicos. A canción non revolucionou a historia da música pero si as almas de centos de nenos que saíron do cine Coruña crendo cegamente na Emperatriz Infantil. Oitenteira a máis non poder e cunha letra entre new-age e au pied de la lettre da novela.

3.- A Bruxa, Milladoiro. A día de hoxe escoito ao azar unha peza de Milladoiro e regreso a unha aldea que nunca tiven, ao momento íntimo -a carón dunha cociña bilbaína- no que a miña tía prohibíalles ás miñas curmás maiores asistir ao Festival Celta.  Aí vou, directa ao renxer do faiado dunha casa enorme na que durmía na mesma cama coa miña nai e a unha casa diminuta, de ananiños, case un alpendre onde vivira a miña bisavoa Dorotea soa a meirande parte da súa vida. Onde paríu a un avó que axiña emigrou  á Habana  e regresou e… En fin. Todo iso.  Ao longo deses anos, a zanfona d‘A Bruxa consentíu en evocarme toda esa bruma que me sempre me abrumaba.

4.- Bring on the night, Police. En  realidade, absolutamente todo Police, que era a banda fetiche da adolescencia do meu irmán, equivalente á miña nenez. Déronme a escoitar hai pouco esta versión de Gustavo Cerati que me parece soberbia. A súa voz é… É.

5.- 21st. century schizoid man, King Crimson. Con 8 anos non comprendía moito ese tema pero iso non impedía que me enchera dunha especie de terror after-the-bomb ao que acabei por tomarlle gusto.

6.- What a feeling, Irene Cara, Flashdance. Vin esa peli cunha curmá e a súa nai. A miña tía comentoulle logo á miña nai: Moi para nenas a verdade que non era. De golpe, fíxenme maior. Pasei varias metamorfoses posteriores [de crisálida a avelaíña, de discofun a punkie, de nena a muller] bailando un chisco o tema principal perante ese espello no que toda nena se fabrica unha falsa unicidade, esa primeira maquillaxe de postureos e bailes que é un espello. Un bo día, sepultei o casette. Agora exerce de  fósil que, nas arqueoloxías das limpezas ou das mudanzas, obra o poder de me retrotraer a outras eras xeolóxicas.

7.- Banda sonora de Ulises 31. Tan juxtapoz que era esa serie, tan futurismo de clásico revisited: argonautas con extraterrestres, deuses gregos noutros planetas, robots mascota… Quienquiera que se atreva a desafiar el poder de los dioses merece ser castigado. Desde ahora errarás por mundos desconocidos… Ulises, el camino hacia la Tierra se ha borrado de mis memorias… Encantábame [sobre todo Thais]  e a súa  intro é unha inxección de posibilidades aventureiras, esas que todo neno experimenta cando se deixa levar. Gregos e marcianos, mitoloxía e espadas láser… Todas esas series que lesionaron para sempre os nosos brandos miolos.

8.- Banda sonora de El hombre y la tierra, Antón García Abril. Fago un chamamento ás autoridades musicais para que desalambiquen este endiañado ritmo co que todos vimos unha águia arrebatar un rebeco das abas dos picos de Europa e a Rodríguez de la Fuente abrazar unha anaconda.  Todas as síncopas visuais da natureza encarnaron en dúas síncopas acústicas: a voz de Félix [amigo...] e esta partitura.  Con ela non se pode evitar corriscar cos lobos. Marabillosa.

9.- Con las manos en la masa, Vainica Doble con Sabina. Era a sintonía que sinalaba a fin da programación infantil da tarde malia que unha sempre ficaba a escoitar a letra [unha lista de cousas de comer nas que fulguraba o lacón con grelos, como esas fotos nas que distinguimos a un familiar noso no medio dunha morea de alumnos descoñecidos e severos e dende alí fulgura para nós, o rostro do noso familiar sorrí imperceptiblemente para nós dende os seus anos 50 do século XX].  Alén diso, o tema falaba doutras cociñas, doutros pratos e doutras nais que xa non eran as nosas. As nosas saían a traballar, ás veces xa non tiñan home e facían como podían. Grazas a Vainica Doble lembro que o gazpacho leva allo e pepino, que o morteruelo e o cordon-bleu son cousas de comer e que o pato chinés non pertence á gastronomía castiza. A canción non é que sexa espectacular, pero levanta capilares oitenteiros ao seu paso.

10.-Cosmos, Vangelis. Nesta recta final de bandas sonoras non podía faltar ese pianiño con synth que abría outro programa mítico, quizais un dos máis, conducido por Carl Sagan. Reunir a unha familia de clase media-baixa-que-foi-alta de 3 membros (adulta, adolescente e nena- e gato) nunha provincia dun recuncho do mar arredor do calendario cósmico, a biblioteca de Alexandría, Andrómeda e Eratóstenes, lost somewhere between inmensity and eternity… coido que foi o milagre máis grande que a televisión fixo algunha vez por min.

to some people praying is getting down on their knees, to others it is holding hands around a dinner table. there are countless ways that people communicate with God, or whatever it is that they chose to believe is out there or within everyone of us.

music is how i pray.

music is my link to religion.

when i want to purify myself and realign my spirit, my very essence, the fiber of who i am, i play music. i let myself be pulled under the waves of the creation. i play for hours, or i listen to the beauty that others have crafted out of nothing. i tap into the power that God, or the great spirit, has provided for us. i let my soul dance and morph into the greater spirit that flies through everything everyday. when i listen to music that is more than just sound, when i hear perfection and monolithic grandeur i feel God in me. i feel the power of a billion lives run through my veins. it can be anything from soulful acoustic music to throbbing and grinding metal.

prayer isnt about genres, and i cant talk down to the way that someone wants to communicate with their spirit. i dont rule out any genre, or type, or instrument, or player. everyone has the right to pray the way i do, and i encourage it. just because i dont like the sound doesnt mean i value their music any less on a creative level, it just means that it wont be part of my praying.

i’m writing this today because i have recently immersing myself in some of the most true and honest music i have ever heard. Keith Caputo bootlegs from the ‘Died Laughing’ tours, Michale Graves’ “Illusions Live”, Life Of Agony’s “Ugly”, David Bowie’s “Hunky Dory”, and Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” and “Amarok”. this music has been pulling my very soul out every day and dancing with the being that i really am. it mas made me want so much more musically for myself, and it has made me calm down immeasurably. these albums, these songs, this is prayer.

i dont know if these musicians thought that when they wrote the music, but the unflinching truth and passion in them makes me think that the musicians knew this was more than music. this isnt something you hear on the radio, these albums can not and should never be cut up and listened to mixed in with other songs. these are each intensive prayers in their own. every one of them is a cathartic experience that has brought me closer to God than anything before them.

they will be the largest influence on my music, maybe not genre-wise, but spiritually.

this music bleeds truth and honesty, this music if carved into the very surface of my bones.

thank you. thank you each and every one of you musicians who helped to construct these works of beauty.

Als mein Jüngster vor anderthalb Jahren verkündete, er wolle auch Gitarre spielen (so wie mein ältester Sohn, und moi), wurde die Anschaffung eines eigenen, günstigen Instruments aktuell.

Inspiriert durch Guitar Hero war die Wahl des Modells für ihn nicht schwer: “Ich hätte am liebsten eine schwarze Explorer oder eine schwarze SG!”

Die Explorer habe ich ihm ganz schnell ausgeredet, denn er ist noch recht zierlich gebaut; und eine Exporer hängt wie ein Sofatisch am Hals. Also ‘ne SG…

…und was liegt da näher, als eine Lizenzkopie der Gibson-Tochterfirma Epiphone?!

Ich entschied mich für die G-400, eine “ordentliche SG” mit geleimtem Hals. Dieses Modell ist durch die Fertigung in Gibson’s eigenem Werk in China erstaunlich preiswert.

Die G-400 gibt es sowohl im klassischen kirschrot

als auch in coolem schwarz

Ich muss schon sagen, dass ich von dieser Gitarre richtig angetan bin. Die Qualität ist in dieser Preisklasse kaum zu überbieten. Die Gitarre brauchte nur neue Saiten – sonst hätte man sofort mit ihr auf die Bühne steigen können. Ich leihe mir die G-400 öfter zum drauf klimpern aus

Der Korpus unseres Exemplars ist aus vier nebeneinander liegenden Teilen Mahagoni zusammengeleimt. Der Hals ist ebenfalls aus Mahagoni, während das Griffbrett aus Palisander ist. Bei der G-400 wird das Griffbrett nicht mit cremefarbenem Plastik eingefasst, sondern mit Palisander (man muss sehr genau hinsehen, um das zu merken). Die Bünde sind sehr ordentlich verarbeitet.

Seit zwei-drei Jahren verwendet Epiphone auf fast allen E-Gitarren hochwertige Grover-Stimmmechaniken.

Die Alnico V -Tonabnehmer aus firmeneigener Fertigung klingen erstaunlich gut, und sind gegen Rückkopplungspfeifen doppelt gewachst.

Neuerdings hat Epiphone auch die Brücke und den Saitenhalter (Stopbar) dahingehend verbessert, als dass beide Teile jetzt mit Federdruck auf ihren Pfosten gehalten werden – selbst ohne Saiten. So kann nichts beim Saitenwechsel verrutschen, und den Korpus zerkratzen oder sonstwie andengeln.

Die Les Paul ist zweifelsfrei die schönste Solidbody von Gibson/Epiphone, aber die SG meiner Meinung nach eindeutig die geilste! Der Body flach und stark konturiert, der Hals “schnell” mit ungehindertem Zugang an den letzten Bund. Ein starker, voller Ton, der aber durch den resonanteren Korpus nicht so leicht zum Matschen neigt, wie bei der Les Paul. Sogar Country klingt auf einer SG super, weil sie mehr Höhen hat, als andere Gibson-Designs (außer der Firebird).

Angus Young, Tony Iommi, der frühe Santana, der frühe Mike Oldfield, Frank Zappa, George Harrison, Clapton bei Cream, Townshend bei Woodstock/Live in Leeds, Derek Trucks – need I say more? (“Say no mow-wah! Nudge, nudge…”)

Mein einziger Kritikpunkt ist optischer Natur: Warum packt Epiphone bei den Gibson-Kopien unter den Modellen immer diese merkwürdig-klobige Kopfplatte drauf?

Hier ist noch ein Link zu einer photographischen Factory Tour.

Jaa… vanameister Oldfield on teinud muusikat seinast seina. Minu esimene kokkupuude selle looga oli tõrges, muljetasin umbes nagu üks kommentaatoritest juutuubis – i didn’t know that Oldfield made also trash-music. Ent, ent siiski… peale ma-ei-tea-mitmekümnendat kuulamist pidin tunnistama, et lugu on parajalt hüpnotiseeriv ning omab seda “miskit” mis eristab hullumeelsust geniaalsusest.

A chef who murdered a boyfriend before cooking a section of his flesh with fresh herbs and olive oil and chewing a piece has been jailed for a minimum of 30 years.

Former Mr Gay UK Anthony Morley, 36, from Bexley Place, Leeds, was sentenced to life in jail after he was found guilty at Leeds Crown Court of murdering Damian Oldfield in April this year.

Morley slashed 33-year-old Mr Oldfield’s throat before stabbing him multiple times and cutting sections of flesh from his body.

Sentencing Morley, Judge James Stewart, QC, said this was “one of the most gruesome murders” he had ever encountered.

Full Story Here

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SD 971 383

Also known as:

• Hanging Stone
• Standing Stone
• Waterscheddles Cross
  

Getting Here

The old stone, lost amidst the colour of hills

Pretty easy to find.  Go along the Oakworth-Wycoller road, between Keighley and Colne, high up on the moors.  When you get to the Water Sheddles Reservoir right by the roadside (y’ can’t miss it), stop!  On the other side of the road walk onto the moor, heading for the walling a coupla hundred yards to your east (right).  Where the corner edge of the walling ends, your standing stone is right in front of you!  If for some reason you can’t see it, wander about – though beware the very boggy ground all round here.

Archaeology & History

This seven-foot tall monolith, leaning to one side thanks to the regularly water-logged peath beneath its feet, stands on the Yorkshire-Lancashire.  It is locally known as the Hanging Stone and the Standing Stone, but the name ‘Water Sheddles’ is a bittova puzzle.  The place-names authority, A.H. Smith (1961) thinks it may derive from the middle-english word, shadel, being a ‘parting of the waters’ – which is pretty good in terms of it’s position in the landscape and the boggy situation around it.  But ’sheddle’ was also a well-used local dialect word, though it had several meanings and it’s difficult to say whether any of them would apply to this old stone.  Invariably relating to pedlars, swindling or dodgy dealings, it was also used to mean a singer, or someone who rang bells, or a schedule, aswell as to shuffle when walking.  Perhaps one or more of these meanings tells of events that might have secretly have been done here by local people, but no records say as such — so for the time being I’ll stick with Mr Smith’s interpretation of the word!  Up until the year 1618 it was known simply as just a ’standing stone’, when it seems that the words “Hanging Stone or Water Sheddles Cross” were thereafter carved on its west-face, as the photo below shows.

Cross carved on the head of the stone

Whether or not this stone is prehistoric has been open to conjecture from various quarter over the years.  Is it not just an old boundary stone, erected in early medieval times?  Or perhaps a primitive christian relic?  Certainly the stone was referred to as “le Waterschedles crosse”, as well as “crucem”, in an early record describing the boundaries of the parish of Whalley, dating from around the 15th century.  This has led some historians to think that the monolith we see today is simply a primitive cross.  However, sticking crosses on moortops or along old boundaries tended to be a policy which the Church adopted as a means to ‘convert’ or christianize the more ancient heathen sites.  It seems probable in this case that an old wooden cross represented the ‘crucem‘ which the monks described in the early Whalley parish records.

The old stone, with its names carved for all to see

This monolith likely predates any christian relic that might once have stood nearby; although the carving of a ‘cross’ on the head of the stone may have supplemented the loss of the earlier wooden one.  But it seems likely that this carved ‘cross’ was done at a later date than the description of the ‘crucem‘ in the parish records — probably a couple of centuries later, when a boundary dispute was opened, in 1614, about a query on the precise whereabouts of the Yorkshire-Lancashire boundary.  After several years, as John Thornhill (1989) wrote,

“the matter was resolved on the grounds that the vast Lancastrian parish of Whalley had claimed territorial jurisdiction as far east as the Hanging Stone, thus the county boundary was fixed on the Watersheddles Cross.”

Water Sheddles stone, looking SW

Certainly the stone hasn’t changed in the last hundred years, as we can tell from a description of it by Henry Taylor (1906), who said:

“The remains consist of a rough block of stone, leaning at an angle of about forty-five degrees against a projecting rock. The top end has been shaped into the form of an octagon, on the face of which a raised cross is to be seen. The stone is about six feet long and two feet wide, tapering to eleven inches square at the upper end, and appears once to have stood upright. Some local authorities have cut on it the words, ‘Hanging Stone or Waterscheddles Cross.’”

So is it an authentic prehistoric standing stone?  Tis hard to say for certain I’m afraid.  It seems probable – but perhaps no more probable than the smaller Great Moss Standing Stone found just a couple of hundred yards away in the heather to the west, on the Lancashire side of the boundary.  Tis a lovely bitta moorland though, with a host of lost folktales and forgotten archaeologies…

References:

Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
Brigg, J.J., ‘A Disputed County Boundary”, in Bradford Antiquary, 2nd Series, no.8, 1933.
Smith, A.H., The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire – volume 6, Cambridge University Press 1961.
Taylor, Henry,The Ancient Crosses and Holy Wells of Lancashire, Sherratt & Hughes: Manchester 1906.
Thornhill, John, ‘On the Bradford District’s Western Boundary,’ in Bradford Antiquary, 3rd Series, vol.4, 1989.
Wright, Joseph, English Dialect Dictionary – volume 5, Henry Frowde: Oxford 1905.

… Jag effektiviserade mitt arbete á Taylor. Jävlar vad effektiv jag kan vara om jag bara vill… fortsätter jag så här kommer jag vara orsaken till en kraftig lönedumpning för alla less-achievers där ute. Industrirobotar be aware!

… då jag hittade musikvideon som förklarar varför Danne älskar sin flying v så jävla mycket. Se själva på youtube. Klart man vill va så tuff… Så ska en flying v användas mina damer och herrar! (måste fixa högtalare så jag slipper youtuba en av världens top tio bästa låtar)

… då jag, i lite motsättning till min enorma effektivitet, spenderat minst nio av mina hittils 14 vakna timmar i sängen. Men sen är det också base camp för i princip allt som finns att göra i det här huset, så det är inte så konstigt egentligen. Världens bästa arbetsplats. (Nu är ju även motionerandet igång igen på allvar, så då känns det inte ens en smula obefogat en lördag.)

… då jag gjorde come back på myspace. Återstår att se hur långlivad den blir, men jag ska ge det en ärlig chans den här gången. Vill mest vara med och se deras lansering av sin nya satsning med musikköp, biljetter och mycket annat som det tisslas och tasslas om.