Coronation Stone, Kingston upon Thames, London

Summary

An ancient sarsen stone, traditionally associated with a legend that seven Saxon kings were crowned upon it in Kingston in the C10. The stone is placed on a plinth and surrounded by railings and piers of 1850. The stone and its enclosure have stood at their present location since 1935.

Description

An ancient sarsen stone, traditionally said to have been used for the coronation of Saxon kings in the C10, with a plinth and enclosing railings and piers of 1850. The Coronation Stone and its enclosure have stood at their present location since 1935.

MATERIALS: the Coronation Stone is an unhewn block of hard sandstone or sarsen stone. It is set within a two-tier plinth of mixed limestone and concrete composition, with the base rendered with lime and cementitious mortar. It is surrounded by cast iron railings and rendered piers with Caen stone capitals, with various lime and cement mortar repairs. Some of these repairs probably date from 1920 and 1935, with more repairs carried out as part of the 2022 restoration work.

PLAN & DESCRIPTION: the approximately one-metre-high block of stone is set within a two-tier heptagonal plinth, which bears the names of the seven kings to each of its chamfered edges, with the dates of their coronations on the vertical faces below. These inscriptions are in lead with Anglo-Saxon lettering for the names and Roman numerals for the dates. There is a small, circular indentation beneath each name, which is presumably where the coins from each monarch’s reign were placed, although these are now obscured. The Stone and the plinth are surrounded by seven piers, originally of Purbeck stone, but now apparently replaced or covered with concrete, probably due to damage that occurred during a motor accident in 1920 as well as the monument’s relocation in 1935. These piers are of circular section and are set in chamfered, heptagonal bases. They are capped with carved capitals, each of a unique design, and conical, scalloped hoods, all of Caen stone but patched with cement and lime mortar. These are topped with painted spearhead finials probably of cast iron and of varying quality. The piers are linked by painted, iron railings in the form of intersecting round-headed arches, with cubic capitals below, resting upon spiked circles. Some of these details resemble those of the railings on the south side of the adjacent Clattern Bridge.

History

Kingston upon Thames, historically in Surrey, was an important market town, port and river crossing from the early medieval period, while there is evidence of Saxon settlement and of activity dating from the prehistoric period and of Roman occupation. It is close to the important historic royal estates at Hampton Court, Bushy Park, Richmond and Richmond Park. The old core of the town, around All Saints Church (C14 and C15, on an earlier site) and Market Place, with its recognisably medieval street pattern, is ‘the best preserved of its type in outer London’ (Pevsner and Cherry, London: South, 1983 p. 307). Kingston thrived first as an agricultural and market town and on its historic industries of malting, brewing and tanning, salmon fishing and timber exporting, before expanding rapidly as a suburb after the arrival of the railway in the 1860s. In the later C19 it become a centre of local government, and in the early C20 became an important shopping and commercial centre. Its rich diversity of buildings and structures from all periods reflect the multi-facetted development of the town.

The Coronation Stone (or King’s Stone) is an ancient sarsen stone traditionally said to have been used for the coronation of seven Anglo-Saxon kings in the C10. Historic evidence shows that at least two kings certainly were crowned in Kingston: Athelstan (925) and Aethelred the Unready (979), and there is some evidence to suggest Eadred (946) was also. The other four kings traditionally believed to have been crowned there are Edward the Elder (900), Edmund (940), Edwy (955) and Edward (975). Modern historians also think that Edgar was crowned in Kingston in 959. Athelstan is said to have been the first king to wear a crown (as opposed to a helmet) and is considered by modern historians to be the first King of all England. His coronation on 4 September 925 in Kingston, close to the border of the old kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, laid the foundations for modern coronation ceremonies: he first greeted people in the market place before entering a church to be crowned. Local legend has it that Athelstan and other kings were seated upon a stone within the church for their coronations. The C10 church may have been the Saxon Minster Church, which would perhaps have been built of timber with an adjacent chapel.

Antiquaries including John Leland and John Aubrey do not mention a stone or refer to any traditions regarding a coronation stone in their writings about Kingston. The earliest record of a stone possibly matching the description of the present Coronation Stone is in the Court of Assembly (equivalent to a local council) minute book for 1703, which refers to a ‘smooth square stone in Court Hall’ in the Market Place. At some point that stone, which had become an encumbrance, is said to have been moved into St Mary’s Chapel or just outside it, a late Saxon building that stood close to the site of the present All Saints Church. Another theory is that the stone now celebrated as the Coronation Stone had been used as building material in St Mary’s. In 1730 the chapel collapsed when graves were being dug inside it, killing the Sexton. His daughter, Hesther Hammerton, miraculously survived and was pulled from the rubble, apparently along with the stone according to some sources. The notion that the recovered stone was in fact the one associated with the C10 coronations is disputed by modern historians (e.g. Butters, 2013), but by 1793 the sixth edition of The Ambulator, a London guidebook, was describing that stone as the one upon which the Saxon kings were crowned. Historians speculate that it then remained in the churchyard for some time before being placed in 1825 outside the Elizabethan Guildhall in the Market Place, where it was used as a public mounting block. Around 1838 when the Guildhall was rebuilt as the current Market House, it was relocated to the Assize Courts to be used as a mounting block by county magistrates.

Eventually in 1849 Henry Haughton Young of Leamington Spa, an antiquarian, noticed the neglected stone and encouraged the town council to move it to a position more suited to its supposed legendary status. Frederick Gould, Samuel Ranyard and Charles Fenner subsequently led a campaign to preserve the stone for posterity. The council appointed a committee who selected a proposal by Mr C E Davis of Bath. In 1850 the stone was re-erected at the south end of the Market Place, set in a seven-sided granite plinth and surrounded by seven ‘Saxon style’ stone piers with iron railings, according to Davis’s proposal. The heptagonal design was an allusion to the seven kings thought to have been crowned on the stone, their names and coronation dates inscribed on the plinth along with a coin from each of their reigns. The project was part funded by the committee with the remainder by private donations. The town declared a public holiday on 19 September 1850 for the stone’s official inauguration ‘with Masonic honours’. Thousands flocked to Kingston to watch a procession by the Mayor, the Corporation, and the Freemasons of Surrey, which culminated with the Provincial Grand Master anointing the stone with corn, oil and wine. Afterwards there was a public meal followed by poetry, music, a presentation of commemorative medals, aquatic sports and fireworks.

The Coronation Stone was moved (along with the 1850 plinth and enclosure) to its present site next to the new Guildhall around 1935 following the demolition of Clattern House and the Assizes Court. The stone has continued to be a focus for public pageantry, and in 2022 it was restored with a new interpretation board installed to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

The name ‘Kingston’ derives from the Old English ‘Cyninges-tun’, meaning royal estate or enclosure. A local legend (perhaps perpetuated by the Victorians) that the King’s Stone gave the town its name has been refuted. Kingston’s royal association first appears in the record of King Egbert’s Great Council held there in 838, well before the stone is thought to have been used in coronations at Kingston.

Reasons for Listing

The Coronation Stone is listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:
* the stone has traditionally been associated with a legend, probably dating from the late C18, that Saxon kings were seated on a stone to be crowned in Kingston in the C10;
* it helps to tell the story of Kingston as a place with ancient royal connections.

Architectural interest:
* it is a good example of a C19 commemorative public monument, with an attractive enclosure enriched by Saxon-style railings and a seven-side plinth that allude to the stone’s traditional association with the coronation of seven C10 Saxon kings.

Group value:
* with the adjacent Grade I listed and scheduled Clattern Bridge and the nearby Grade II listed Guildhall.

External Links

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