More information : Stone Row. Consists of 9 granite stones arranged in 2 rows down a hillside, and stands above a small tributary of the River Hayle known as Kerthen Water, situated about 3/4 mile to the North of Townshend along the road from Townshend to Hayle. General alignment is NNE and SSE. West Row - 3 stones (A, B & C) at intervals of 120 and 210ft from above downwards. East row - 6 stones (1-6) at intervals of 40, 100, 32, 77 and 27 ft. Stone No 1 at upper end of East line stands nearly level with Stone B of West line, and distance from Stone A to Stone 6 is about 390ft. Distance between rows is 10ft at upper end and 30ft at lower end. An outlying stone, larger than the rest, lies about 220ft below stone 6 at bottom of valley, which may or may not belong to the alignment, but is not in direct line with either row. It is certainly not in its naturally occurring site as the nearest granite is 1 mile to the South, on the North slopes of Godolphin Hill. The alignment stands on slate, and the stones are obscured by the fact that they lie on either side of a main road half buried in the ditches and covered by roadside vegetation.
Heights of stones A, B, & C are 44", 34" & 32" respectively.
Length of second row (1-6) are, from above downward, 27" 23" 18" 32" & 17". Stone 6 is obviously the whidden of the family being only 5" thick but the others are all slabs of granite 10"-15" thick and weighing up to half a ton each. There is no evidence that the stones have been worked with tools. The only other megalithic alignment in Cornwall, the "Nine Maidens", Winnards Perch, is 40ft shorter than the Townshend Stones. (1)
Hencken does not mention this. According to him, the 'Nine Maidens' (St Columb Major) is the only megalithic alignment in Cornwall. (2)
Rows centred SW 58653341
There are eleven stones, five on west side and six on the east side of the Praze-Townshend road. They appear to be no more than kerbside stones. (3)
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