NGR: SJ 86410 51380. Near the main entrance to Tunstall Park (also known as Victoria Park) on Queens Avenue in the town of Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, in North Staffordshire, is a glacial erratic boulder, which is said to be many millions of years old, and, to weigh over six tonnes. The large 4½ foot high rock is to be found close to the Adams clock tower in what is a very well-kept suburban park in the Potteries. We know that the erratic boulder was dragged along by a retreating glacier some 13,000-15,000 years ago and then deposi-ted here; it was apparently dug out of the ground during some ex-cavations in the park. Did this huge rock come from the Lake District? or somewhere else? but there is a possibility that it could have come from the Pennines, or even Scotland, but that is much, much further north. There are other glacial erratic boulders scattered about the country, more especially in the north of England, and on exposed moorland in Yorkshire. The Tunstall park boulder is mostly made of granite but with a mixture of other types of rock too – all of which are not native to North Staffordshire, which is mostly Carboniferous – Limestone and Coal measures, and, also Devonian – Sandstone and Mudstones.

The information plaque at the front of the boulder does give us a bit more to go on. It says: This rock originates from the Lake District where it was formed, around 450 million years ago, during an extensive period of volcanic activity. It was trans-ported by ice flows which covered the Potteries in the last Ice Age. The ice finally retreated about 15,000 years ago leaving boulders like this one which are known as “glacial erratics”.

Sources / References & Related Websites:-

https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMTWN4_Glacial_Erratic_Tunstall_Stoke_on_Trent_Staffordshire

http://www.thepotteries.org/another/004.htm

https://m.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?mapref=SJ890512

http://www.thepotteries.org/geography/geology.htm

Copyright © Ray Spencer, The Journal of Antiquities, 2022.