Blowing Stone Hill, where 19th-century antiquarians thought King Alfred the Great's Saxon troops had camped, and that this was how Alfred summoned them for the Battle of Ashdown against the Danes in AD 871. Thomas Hughes' novel "Tom Brown's School Days" refers to it as the "Blawing Stwun" and calls the village "Kingstone Lisle". It is also one of the "sacred stones" mentioned in William Horwood's "Duncton Wood", the first book in his fantasy fiction series about a group of moles. Blowing Stone The Blowing Stone is a perforated sarsen at in Kingston Lisle, Oxfordshire (Berkshire until 1974). The stone is in
Battle of Tettenhall according to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" defeated them and inflicted losses of many thousands including two or three kings. While little is known of the exact manoeuvres employed at the battle, it is obvious the allies trapped their Viking opponents and inflicted heavy casualties on them. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" states that "many thousands of men" were killed, referring to the Danes. Seemingly unable to retreat, the Kings leading the Viking raid were both killed by the allied troops. With the Northern Danes subdued, the forces of Wessex and Mercia could be focused against those who had settled further south. It was