I was born and brought up in Whitworth in Lancashire. When I was a kid, me and my friends would go walking or cycling over the moors near my childhood home and would play around this rock which was known locally as the “Monstone” or Moonstone but we knew it as Samsons Stone and legend has it that the rock was thrown here from Blackstone Edge, a hill some six miles away. The rock even has a hand shaped indentation in it!
The strange thing is that the rock is completely different to other stone and rock formations found in the area but Samsons Stone does actually match the stone and rock formations found on Blackstone Edge!
If you look online at local Whitworth history and folklore, the stone is referred to as Robin Hoods Stone and was thrown here from a place on Hades Hill known as Robin Hoods Bed, however, this is ridiculous as no mortal person could throw a rock this size and weight and therefore I prefer the thrower of the stone to be a mythical person, so I will stick to giving the credit to Samson, obviously before he had his haircut!
Anyway, the other day I returned 45 years later to see if I could find it again and photograph it.
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