Rollright Stones Part 1

So I was thinking where should I begin with all of this, and the best place seemed to be The Rollright Stones in Oxford England, these magical stones are a gathering place for tourists, witches and pagans alike and Oxford as a place has a long history of witchcraft and magic

The Kings Men

The Rollright stones are made up of three different structures: The King Stone, The Whispering Knights Dolmen and The Kings Men.

A legend had always accompanied the stones which I can still remember first reading when I was five years old.

A King wished to conquer England and had managed to travel as far as the Rollrights when a Witch (commonly known as Mother Shipton) appeared, she challenged the king and told him if he could take seven strides and could see Long Compton he would rule all of England.
The King laughed and began to take strides but as he approached the seventh the ground rose up and blocked Long Compton from view.
The witch laughed and told the King that as he could not see Long Compton him and his men would be turned to stone and the Witch would change herself into a Elder Tree.

The King Stone

And that is how the King stone came to be, the stone circle - his men and the Whispering Knights are either in prayer or plotting to overthrow their king.
This is not where the story ends though, it is said one day the King and his men will return to life and finish conquering England, although every midnight the stones come back to life to dance and sing, and later go to drink from the river, but the King Stone may only move when the Long Compton clock strikes midnight.

As always there are other myths that follow a legend such as this:
 If the Elder Tree (the tree stands watch between the Kings men  and the King Stone)  is cut  on Midsummers Eve, the King Stone will move his head. If you see the stones move you will go mad or die.
If you remove a piece of stone you will suffer misfortune.

The Whispering Knights Dolmen

One of the most famous things about the Rollright Stones is that they can never be counted the same amount of times, as the number will always change and if you can count the stones and get the same number three times in a row you will either have your wish granted or die.
Since the age of five I have been counting the stones and have found the number changes from mid sixties to mid eighties, and you will often see many people wandering round trying to count them and get the same number three times in a row.