THREE STONES PROJECT PHASE 2: 'The Druid Stone Blidworth'.
As a part of the TSP Phase 2, a Blidworth member of the Hidden History team, John, shot this video of the 2016 Samhain sunset at the Druid Stone, Blidworth, Nottinghamshire. It was John who captured the spectacular photo of the Beltane sunrise as witnessed from within the artificial cavity cut into the Stone. This sunrise alignment, from the Stone a short distance to a now lost earth-fast boulder, was predicted by Barry Christian in a field survey carried out in the mid 1970's. As with other alignments of this kind, a sunrise alignment on a given date, marks the sunset at the opposite time of the year: Thus - Beltane sunrise viewed from the Druid Stone over (behind) the boulder, = Samhain sunset over (behind) the Druid Stone, when viewed from the boulder.
Unfortunately, John was unable to get into the field containing the Stone and the site of the now missing boulder, because of the presence of cows and a very large bull. However, his video capture the shadow of the Stone being cast along the line of the alignment by the setting sun. Looking at the Google-earth image: red X marks Johns viewing position, red arrow, direction of the setting sun, yellow line, Beltane sunrise line, black line, shadow as it appears on the video.Working with the program, SunCalc, (Google search to take a look), the shadows length increases as the sun moves along the horizon and as the sun appears to set behind the Stone, when viewed from the boulder, perfectly fills the ground between the two sites along the alignment.
This same phenomena happens at the Hemlock Stone when the setting Beltane sun cast the shadow of the Stone across the valley between the saddle-backed hill, filling for an instant, an artificial view point. It is this shadow/light phenomena which I feel the Bronze Age people were trying to capture.
