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Blowing Stone

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Blowing Stonemap
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The Blowing Stone is a perforated sarsen in Kingston Lisle, Oxfordshire, England (grid reference SU32412 87083). The stone is in a garden at the foot of Blowingstone Hill just south of the Icknield Way (B4507), about 4+12 miles (7 km) west of Wantage and about 1+12 miles (2.4 km) east of White Horse Hill.

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The Blowing Stone in its modern setting

Blowingstone Hill is part of the escarpment of the Berkshire Downs, at the crest of which is The Ridgeway National Trail.

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Notability

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The blowing hole in the stone

The stone is capable of producing a booming sound if someone with the required skill blows into one of the holes the right way. According to legend it could be heard atop White Horse Hill, where 19th-century antiquarians thought King Alfred the Great's Saxon troops had camped, and that this was how Alfred summoned them for the Battle of Ashdown against the Danes in 871 CE.

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Literature

Thomas Hughes' 1857 novel Tom Brown's School Days refers to it as the Blawing Stwun[1] and calls the village Kingstone Lisle.

It is also one of the "sacred stones" mentioned in William Horwood's Duncton Wood (1980), the first book in his fantasy fiction series about a group of moles.

See also

References

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