English Staddle Stones for Home and Garden
The staddle stone is a two-piece, mushroom-shaped garden element that dates back to the 16th century. Carved from local stone, they were used in farms across England and Northern Spain to support agricultural buildings.
Keeping granaries and haystacks off the ground allowed air circulation, preventing rot. But more importantly, the cap kept the building and its contents out of reach for mice and other vermin.
You may find some staddle stones serving their original purpose in England, particularly in the Cotswolds, where most of our antique staddle stones come from. However, they are mostly used as decorative garden elements today. Most notably, at The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall Highgrove gardens.
Staddle stones can be used to flank driveways, create fencing, birdbaths or as accents in flowerbeds. Pictured above is one of our antique staddle stones in a beautiful garden in Atlanta, Georgia (with the most darling chicken coop) seen during the annual Gardens for Connoisseurs Tour of the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
Antique staddle stones are usually covered in lichen and moss, which adds to their charm, but they can be harder to come by. To the left is a picture of the army we imported from England in 2016, we are now down to just a few.
We do offer reproductions as part of our statuary collection, you can choose from four different finishes and two different styles.
Below is our shop’s front garden during the spring, where one of our reproduction staddle stones has lived for over a decade, come summer you can hardly see it.
Beyond the garden, staddle stones can be used to build furniture and other rustic home decor. We built a custom table for a client a couple of years ago with the help of our friend and excellent metal worker Ben, using six bases of our reproduction staddle stones.
When it comes to landscaping and classic design, these statuary items with a humble origin, are a wonderful and versatile addition to home and garden.
Do you have artists easels ?
Hi Warren. Can you call our shop to check? Our number is +1 404-266-8700
I love the knowledge on your internet site. Regards!
Thanks so much James. 🙂
Saw your ad in the March-April issue of FLOWER magazine. That photograph is crazy beautiful!
JMW Columbus, OH