inscribed and dated "The Cloven Stones on the rd between Douglas & Laxey Isle of Man sept 1873" and signed with initials "LWT"
Tom and Laura Taylor and thence by descent
The “Cloven Stones” are believed to be a late example of a is type of megalithic barrow chambered tomb which today stands in the front garden of a family bungalow in the small village of Baldrine at Pack Horse Lane . Megalithic means relating to megaliths and measn ancient large stones, sometimes forming a group or circle), or te period when these were immportant. (visit link) The Coven Stones is a group of larege stones which once formed a chambered-tomb or burial cists which dates from the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. The tall eastern stone is spilt down the middle, and it is this stone which give the site its name. North-north-east of the chamber which probably had one or two compartments are two portal stones.Although the site can only be viewed form the road the rectangular arrangement of the slabs forming the tomb which approximately 2m square Originally the tomb would have been covered with a cairn stone.
Source: "The Old Stones' edited by Andy Burnham (ISBN:978-178678-154-3)
Source: "A guide to the Archaeological Sites of the Isle of Man up to AD 1500" by Andrew Johnson and Allison Fox (ISBN:978-09554043-5-1)
The “Cloven Stones” are believed to be a late example of a is type of megalithic barrow chambered tomb which today stands in the front garden of a family bungalow in the small village of Baldrine. Megalithic means relating to megaliths and measn ancient large stones, sometimes forming a group or circle), or te period when these were immportant. (visit link)
The Coven Stones is a group of larege stones which once formed a chambered-tomb or burial cists which dates from the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.The tall eastern stone is spilt down the middle, and it is this stone which give the site its name.North-north-east of the chamber which probably had one or two compartments are two portal stones. Although the site can only be viewed form the road the rectangular arrangement of the slabs forming the tomb which approximately 2m square . Originally the tomb would have been covered with a cairn stone.
This site is bewildering to anyone who has the pleasure of walking past it on lower Packhorse Lane in Baldrine. In the front garden of a 1960s pebbledash bungalow are the remains of a neolithic site referred to as the Cloven Stones. Under protection from Manx National Heritage, this landmark may have been the site of an ancient grave:
Cumming says “In Douglas Road, about one mile from Laxey, there is on the southern side of a little ravine, a small circle of twelve stones, one of which, six feet high, is remarkable as being cloven from top to bottom. The tradition is, that a Welsh Prince was here slain in an invasion of the island, and that these stones mark the place of his interment.
Mr Feltham mentions the discovery in the centre of the circle, of a stone sepulchral chest or kistvaen, and in the view which he has given of it as existing at the time of his visit, there is a clear indication of a coved roof of stones, forming an arched vault in the centre of the mound.” – p350 in The Monument Known as “King Orry’s Grave”, Compared with Tumuli in Gloucestershire, A. W. Buckland . The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 18. (1889), pp. 346-353.
Source: "The Old Stones' edited by Andy Burnham (ISBN:978-178678-154-3)
Laura Wilson Barker (6 March 1819 – 22 May 1905), was a composer, performer and artist, sometimes also referred to as Laura Barker, Laura W Taylor or "Mrs Tom Taylor".
She was born in Thirkleby, North Yorkshire, third daughter of a clergyman, the Rev. Thomas Barker. She studied privately with Cipriani Potter and became an accomplished pianist and violinist. As a young girl Barker performed with both Louis Spohr and Paganini. She began composing in the mid-1830s - her Seven Romances for voice and guitar were published in 1837. From around 1843 until 1855 she taught music at York School for the Blind. During this period some of her compositions - including a symphony in manuscript, on 19 April 1845 - were performed at York Choral Society concerts.
On 19 June 1855 she married the English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine Tom Taylor. Barker contributed music to at least one of her husband's plays, an overture and entr'acte to Joan of Arc (1871), and provided harmonisations as an appendix to his translation of Ballads and Songs of Brittany (1865).
Her other works include the cantata Enone (1850), the violin sonata A Country Walk (1860), theatre music for As You Like It, (April 1880), Songs of Youth (1884), string quartets, madrigals and solo songs. Her choral setting of Keats's A Prophecy, composed in 1850, was performed for the first time 49 years later at the Hovingham Festival in 1899. The composer was present.
Several of Barker's paintings hang at Smallhythe Place in Kent, Ellen Terry's house.
Barker lived with her husband and family at 84 Lavender Sweep, Battersea. There were two children: the artist John Wycliffe Taylor (1859–1925), and Laura Lucy Arnold Taylor (1863–1940). The Sunday musical soirees at the house attracted many well-known attendees, including Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, Henry Irving, Charles Reade, Alfred Tennyson, Ellen Terry and William Makepeace Thackeray.
Tom Taylor died suddenly at his home in 1880 at the age of 62. After his death, his widow retired to Porch House, Coleshill in Buckinghamshire, where she died on 22 May 1905, aged 86.