Coffin Stone

The Coffin Stone stands on the edge of Blue Bell Hill near Aylesford in Kent. A large sarsen slab now lies flat on the ground, but it once stood upright nearby. The stone measures over four metres long and two and a half metres wide, with smaller stones close by. In the 1830s local farmers found human bones near the slab. Archaeologists led by Paul Garwood examined the site in 2008–09 and found it was moved to its present place centuries ago. No trace of a chambered tomb was found at this spot. The stone belongs to a group of Early Neolithic monuments called the Medway Megaliths. These tombs were built by farming communities soon after agriculture reached Britain from Europe. The Medway Megaliths are the only megalithic group in eastern England and lie along the River Medway. Experts such as Brian Philp and Mike Dutto have called them some of the most interesting sites in Kent. Paul Ashbee described them as the grandest of their kind in southern England. A short walk north of the Coffin Stone is the Tottington springhead. The site sits within Great Tottington Farm, now a vineyard, about 400 metres from Little Kit’s Coty House. The surrounding area was once dense woodland of oak, ash and hazel during the Neolithic period. The Medway Megaliths share a common east–west alignment and were built from local sarsen sandstone. Their shared design shows strong regional links, though each tomb has its own features.