The stone circle under the church

Chesham's old church stands on strange knobbly boulders. Some insist they're the remains of a pagan stone circle, older than Christianity here.

St Mary's, Chesham's medieval parish church, rests partly on puddingstones, lumpy natural conglomerate boulders found in the Chilterns. Several sit under its buttresses and south porch. In 1951 Dr Rudge, an amateur researcher, told visiting Essex Field Club members they were the toppled remains of a pagan stone circle, and a postcard from about 1905 already claimed a Druid temple stood here. The idea spread into church leaflets, guidebooks and Wikipedia. Others offer simpler readings: hard stones make good footings, and a 1905 newspaper linked them to the Bible verse about building a church upon a rock. A later survey found stones under only six of nineteen buttresses.