White Horse Stone - Upper White Horse Stone

Upper White Horse Stone

The Upper White Horse Stone (grid reference TQ753603) is 2.9 m long, 1.65 m high and about 0.6 m thick and stands just inside Westfield Wood, off the Pilgrims' Way. Close by it are nine smaller stones that stretch to the west for about 10 m.

There is no evidence of a covering barrow and it has been suggested that these much smaller stones were moved from the neighbouring field by local farmers. Its identification as a chambered long barrow like the other Medway megaliths is therefore uncertain although the shape certainly resembles a chamber wall stone.

In local tradition this is also the burial place of the Saxon leader Horsa. The standing stone is also considered by some visitors to resemble a horse's head. Both these links have been suggested as the source of the name. A connection with the white horse on Kent's "Invicta" coat of arms has also been invoked. Locals at the nearby public house in the early 1990s used to refer to the White Horse Stone as "The Ingá stone".

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