Four Shire Stone

The Four Shire Stone is a boundary marker that marks the point where the English counties of Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire once met.

It is in the English midlands at the northern corner of a T junction on the A44 road, a mile and a half east of the small town of Moreton-in-Marsh (which has the closest railway station), at 51°59′15″N 1°39′57″W / 51.98750°N 1.66583°W / 51.98750; -1.66583 (Four Shire Stone), grid reference SP2301432023.

[4][5] Thomas Habington's Survey of Worcestershire mentions "the stone which toucheth four sheeres, a thing rarely scene".

In that work, the Shire, the homeland of the hobbits is divided into four farthings, three of which meet at the "Three-Farthing Stone".

The project comprises restoring and repairing the stonework, replacing the railings and enhancing the engravings on all four sides of the pillar.

The Four Shire Stone
Detail from Wenceslaus Hollar's An Orthographical Designe of Several Views Upon Ye Road, in England and Wales (1660) [ 2 ]
Detail from Joan Blaeu 's map of Gloucestershire (1662), showing the "Shire Stones"