The Hoarstones are part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages, over a period between 3300 and 900 BCE.

[7] By 3000 BCE, the long barrows, causewayed enclosures, and cursuses which had predominated in the Early Neolithic were no longer built, and had been replaced by circular monuments of various kinds.

[10] These stone circles typically show very little evidence of human visitation during the period immediately following their creation.

[12] The archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson suggests that in Neolithic Britain, stone was associated with the dead, and wood with the living.

[3] These were among five probable stone circles that are historically recorded as being within two miles of each other, largely in Shropshire but also stretching in neighbouring Powys.

[17] Just south of the centre of the circle is a single stone, measuring around 1 metre (3 feet) high;[17] it is unclear if this is an original prehistoric feature of the monument or a later addition.

[14] Chitty suggested that some of these stones might have been deliberately shaped and that the larger examples were supported with small pieces of sandstone packing their bases.

According to an account recorded in 1893, these were caused during weddings held nearby, when miners drilled holes in the rocks and filled them with gunpowder to produce explosions.

[5] Around 1897, a Mr Jarrett ploughed up a perforated sandstone axe-head from the field immediately to the south of the circle, later donated to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

[5] Assisted by Mr Roberts, the Chittys removed much of the foliage and opened a trench across the northeast part of the circle, revealing a previously concealed stone.

[18] Chitty took chippings of several stones and presented them to Dr H. H. Thomas of the Geological Museum in Jermyn Street, who identified it as being of the dolerite found in Stapeley Hill.

[1] Writing in the 1920s, Lily F. Chitty commented that she suspected that this name and its associations had actually been applied to the Mitchell's Fold circle.