Our Projects - 6th Century Memorial Stones
Tavistock Heritage Trust is currently involved in a project to relocate, from the Tavistock Vicarage garden, three engraved granite stones dated between the 5th and 7th century AD. These stones were likely inscribed to memorialise important members of the early communities who lived in or around what is now the town of Tavistock and the village of Buckland Monachorum. One of the stones is engraved with extremely rare Ogham script, an ancient Irish alphabet that appears on monumental inscriptions dating from the 4th to the 6th century AD. The stones were taken from their original sites and installed in the garden in the 19th century.
All three stones are legally protected by Historic England as Scheduled Ancient Monuments and have been designated as ‘at risk’ due to their declining condition.
The objective is to move the stones to a protected public space with interpretation panels explaining their historical importance.