| Summary : A jumble of large and small sarsens representing the collapsed and demolished remains of a Neolithic chambered tomb. This site is known as Lower Kit's Coty House or the Countless Stones.The earliest known description, belonging to the mid-17th century, refers to seven stones still standing, "all covered with one large stone, the rest are fallen down". William Stukeley's notes, dating from the 1720s, suggest that the upright stones may have been pulled down some thirty years or so earlier. There are suggestions that like its near neighbour Kit's Coty House (TQ 76 SW 4), this monument was also accompanied by a long barrow mound. The monument is also known as the Countless Stones, something perhaps evident in the different totals of sarsens given by different authors. |
More information : [TQ 74416039] The Countless Stones [OE] (1)
The Lower Kits Coty, generally called the Countless Stones or The Numbers. It is a group of 19 or 20 sarsens which represent a megalithic structure destroyed c.1690. In 1722, Stukeley was sent a description of the structure before its destruction given to his correspondent by a person who remembered it.
Stukeley's reconstruction shows a portal chamber with a small peristalith behind but such a structure would be unique and does not accord with the number and size of the stones. Comparison with Coldrum [TQ 66 SE 7] suggests that the peristalith should be larger. There have been the usual vague rumours of human remains found at this site but they lack confirmation. (2-4)
The Beale-Poste MSS include seven possible reconstructions of the Lower Kits Coty. (5-6)
Included in list of Burial Chambers where no remains of a mound are visible or recorded. (7)
The site consists of a confused group of c.20 recumbent megaliths; they probably once formed a burial chamber. At present there are no traces of a barrow. (8)
Little Kits Coty or the Countless Stones, a confused group of recumbent sarsens gathered around a small clump of trees in a cultivated field 200m south of the Pilgrims Way. As suggested by the preceding authorities, they probably once formed a burial chamber. They are a scheduled ancient monument. Published Antiquity model survey found to be correct. See GP/AO/59/6/8 - taken from S. (9-10)
TQ 744604. Little Kits Coty House, also known as the Countless Stones now consists of about 21 large and small stones, now under trees and enclosed by iron railings. The stones probably represent the partially demolished chamber of a long-barrow. It seems probable that some of the stones may also have come from the facade or side
of the barrow. One of Stukeley's sketches suggests that the mound may have been revetted by a stone kerb, but this is by no means certain. The site has never been properly excavated. (11-12)
Lower Kits Coty. This is a jumbled and half buried group of 19 or 20 sarsen stones (the Countless Stones) which represent the remains of a megalithic tomb destroyed in the 17th century. (13)
Additional bibliography. (14)
Paul Ashbee has in recent years published several articles discussing the Medway Megaliths, including Lower Kit's Coty House, with a particular emphasis on historical records and previous investigations, with detailed bibliographic references and numerous antiquarian illustrations and early photographs. Particularly noteworthy for Lower Kit's Coty House is a letter from Dr Thomas Gale to John Aubrey, part of the unpublished material collected by the latter during the mid-17th century for his "Monumenta Britannica", which describes the site as follows: "...13 or 14 great stones; seven standing, all covered with one large stone, the rest are fallen down". Ashbee also discusses the possibility of this site, like its near-neighbour Kit's Coty House, having a substantial long mound. He notes a recent pipe trench, stating that "Variations in the pipe-trench backfill pointed to the possibility of a long barrow some 70 ft in breadth". Unfortunately no further details to support this suggestion are given, and no source is provided. (15-18)
Little Kit's Coty House is situated near the foot of the North Downs scarp, 600m from the Kits Coty House Long Barrow. It comprises a group of ca.20 sarsen stones in a tight cluster and represents the remains of a burial chamber which was seriously damaged in 1690. The stone¿s interpretation is heavily based on the reconstructions made by Stukeley in 1722 based on information from a correspondent who remembered the monument before its alteration. It probably consisted of a burial chamber with deposited skeletons and the chamber completely or partially covered by an earthen mound and a revetting wall of smaller sarsen stones surrounding the mound. The size of the surrounding revetting wall, or peristalith, may have been reduced perhaps as early as during the Iron Age.
Evidence from a recent evaluation suggests that the monument did not
occupy one end of an elongated mound, such as at Kit's Coty House, and that no flanking ditches accompanied this monument.
(19)
The remains (jumble of sarsen stones) of Little Kit's Coty, also known as the Countless Stones. (20)
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