Leper Stone

{{short description|Sarsen stone in Essex, England}}

{{Location map|Essex

|label =

|lat = 51.991754

|long = 0.212362

|caption = Map showing the location of The Leper Stone in Essex.

|title=Data sheet:Leper Stone

|accessdate=March 4th, 2011

}}

The Leper Stone or Newport Stone ({{gbmapping|TL520349}}) is a large sarsen stone near the village of Newport, Essex, England.{{cite web | url = http://www.essexwt.org.uk/geology/sites3.htm | title = The Geology of Essex | access-date = 2011-03-08 | publisher = Essex Wildlife Trust | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110725131837/http://www.essexwt.org.uk/geology/sites3.htm | archive-date = 2011-07-25 }} The name Leper Stone probably derives from the hospital of St. Mary and St. Leonard (fn. 1156?), a nearby hospital for lepers.{{cite book | last1 = Harper | first1 = Charles George | title = The Newmarket, Bury, Thetford, and Cromer road: sport and history on an East Anglian turnpike | url = https://archive.org/details/newmarketburyth01harpgoog | publisher = Chapman & Hall | date = 1904 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/newmarketburyth01harpgoog/page/n116 92]–94 }}{{cite web | url = http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=39866 | title = The Hospital of Newport | access-date = 2011-03-08 | editor-last=Page | editor-first=William | editor-first2=J. Horace | editor-last2=Round | date = 1907 | work = A History of the County of Essex: Volume 2}} Passers by could have left offerings of alms for the hospital residents in a small depression atop the stone; the hospital grounds were sold in the sixteenth century, and only a portion of the wall near the stone remains.{{cite web | url = http://www.uttlesford.gov.uk/documents/website/Planning/areaappraisals/newport.pdf | title = Newport Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Proposals, Approved December 2007 | access-date = 2011-03-08 | date = 2007 | publisher = Uttlesford District Council}}

Julian Cope, Peter Herring, UK Geocaching along with D.G. Buckley and Ken Newton's paper for the Council of British Archaeology have suggested that the Leper Stone was set vertically in the ground as a megalithic menhir or standing stone.{{cite book|author1=D. G. Buckley|author2=Kenneth Charles Newton|title=Archaeology in Essex to AD 1500: in memory of Ken Newton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VQl4AAAAIAAJ|access-date=21 March 2011|date=October 1980|publisher=Council for British Archaeology|isbn=978-0-900312-83-0}}[http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/4339/newport_leper_stone.html The Leper Stone - Standing Stone / Menhir - Entry in The Modern Antiquarian][http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146411030 Herring, Peter., The Sacred Stones Of Essex - Article for The Megalithic Portal] J.D. Hedges report of 1980 also classified it as a standing stone for English Heritage, who describe this type of monument as A stone or boulder which has been deliberately set upright in the ground. Similarly it has been described as a monolith by the Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian society.{{cite book|author1=Cambridge Antiquarian Society Cambridge|author2=England|title=Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, incorporating the Cambs and Hunts Archaeological Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V41nAAAAMAAJ|access-date=21 March 2011|date=1998|publisher=I.L. Norie and Wilson, Ltd.}}