Whilst investigating the history of an c.1700s obelisk at the junction of the A62 and A644 at Cooper Bridge in West Yorkshire known as the Dumb Steeple, I was intrigued to find the following by Philip Ahier in his essential 1944 tome, Legends & Traditions of Huddersfield & Its District:
"Mr. Harry Speight, in an article which appeared in the Yorkshire Weekly Post some years ago, wrote the following account of conical stones - 'In several places in the West Riding, there are, in my judgment, still existing monuments of this primitive worship. They are known by the not very enlightening name of Dumb Steeples. No legends or traditions appertain to them, nothing is known of their origin or history, and still they stand dumb or silent witnesses to the creed of a prehistoric age.'"
Sadly, Ahier gives no proper citation for the Speight article but I wondered if anybody had ever come across it, or read Speight (or indeed anybody else) referring to standing stones as "dumb steeples" in any other context?
"Mr. Harry Speight, in an article which appeared in the Yorkshire Weekly Post some years ago, wrote the following account of conical stones - 'In several places in the West Riding, there are, in my judgment, still existing monuments of this primitive worship. They are known by the not very enlightening name of Dumb Steeples. No legends or traditions appertain to them, nothing is known of their origin or history, and still they stand dumb or silent witnesses to the creed of a prehistoric age.'"
Sadly, Ahier gives no proper citation for the Speight article but I wondered if anybody had ever come across it, or read Speight (or indeed anybody else) referring to standing stones as "dumb steeples" in any other context?
Last edited by Kai Roberts on Tue Mar 15, 2011 10:36 am; edited 1 time in total