The search for the Sarsen Stones of Essex continued again this morning with another short expedition around Chelmsford.

After Saturday’s visit to St Mary the Virgin Church, Dedham and Sunday’s stop at St Mary with St Leonard Church, Broomfield, I returned to the area to track down another recorded stone connected with the former Beehive pub in Great Baddow.

The pub itself once stood on the corner of Baddow Road and Beehive Lane. Although the building has since been converted into residential use, one small piece of its history still survives.

Set against the corner of the building, overlooking what would once have been the pub car park, sits a large sarsen stone.

Like the stones at Dedham and Broomfield, this weathered sandstone boulder is far older than any of the buildings around it. Sarsens formed millions of years ago and are most famously associated with prehistoric monuments such as Stonehenge, although isolated examples are occasionally found across Essex.

The Great Baddow stone appears to have come from Beehive Pit, a gravel quarry that once operated nearby. Gravel workings frequently exposed these ancient boulders where they had been buried within old river deposits and glacial gravels.

Rather than being broken up or removed, this particular stone was preserved and placed outside the Beehive pub, where it became something of a quiet local landmark.

Even though the pub has now disappeared, the stone itself remains where it was placed, a small survivor from both the geological past and the more recent history of the village.

Another small but satisfying discovery on the continuing search for the Sarsen Stones of Essex.

— Richard Clements The History Alchemist