Kiftsgate Stone

The Kiftsgate Stone is a small standing stone with a hole through it, on the Cotswold edge about a mile west of Chipping Campden as the crow flies, about 30m from the Cotswold Way. It was the meeting place, or moot, of the hundred of Kiftsgate, and Historic England schedules it as a monument.

History

The stone was where the hundred of Kiftsgate met. A hundred was a division of a county in Saxon and medieval England, with its own court. Historic England's record says the stone was reused as the hundred's moot, and was also a place where local and national news was read out, including the proclamation of each new monarch up to William IV in 1830. Moots in general were first set up between the seventh and ninth centuries, but the record gives no date for this one. Weston Subedge Parish Council's village history says the court of the hundred met here in Saxon times.

The name is thought to come from the Old English cyft, a meeting, and gate, a gap or gateway: the meeting place at the gap. The hole through the stone may once have held a gate. Whether the stone was first set up in prehistory is not known, though using it as a moot suggests it was already a known landmark. Historic England scheduled it in 1973, noting that standing stones are nationally rare. It lies close to the boundary between Chipping Campden and Weston Subedge parishes and, by the parish council's account, on the boundary of Weston Park, almost 200 acres of ancient woodland still in private hands.

What to look for

The stone is easy to walk past. It is about 1m high, 0.7m wide and only 0.2m thick, an upright slab with a single hole through it. It stands on the steep, south-east-facing slope of the ridge, looking over what the scheduling record calls the valley of the Cam.

Visiting

The Kiftsgate Stone is beside a public path and free to see at any time. The ground around it is a wooded slope, uneven and muddy after rain. Take care not to climb on it: as a scheduled monument it is protected by law.

Getting there

The easiest approach is from the National Trust car park at Dover's Hill (GL55 6UW), under a kilometre away along the Cotswold Way. On foot from the town, the Cotswold Way passes about 30m from the stone, nearly 2 miles out of Campden, after it has crossed Dover's Hill on the way to Broadway. The stone is also about 30m from the road that runs along the top of the hill, so it is easy to miss. Our guide to the Cotswold Way from Chipping Campden to Broadway walks the whole section.

Nearby

Dover's Hill, with its topograph and the Olimpick arena, is the next stop back towards Campden. In the town are the Market Hall, where the Cotswold Way starts, and St James's Church. The same name is carried by Kiftsgate Court, the garden above Mickleton. In Mickleton itself is St Lawrence's Church. For a meal, the Seagrave Arms is in Weston-sub-Edge below the hill and the Noel Arms on Campden's High Street.