Is Wrekin a sacred mountain?

The Wrekin is perhaps Shropshire's best-loved landmark, and thousands trek to the summit every year.

But have we all missed something - that it also boasts a prehistoric astronomical calendar?

The theory has come from George Evans, the Wellington author, historian and renowned expert on The Wrekin, and follows a discovery he made years ago which, he believes, means it is likely that The Wrekin was considered a "sacred mountain" by the ancients.

"I was sitting below the Cuckoo's Cup and saw these two rocks, with a shape like a V in between them. I thought that perhaps something might happen on the equinox, and went there then.

"I watched carefully at midday and then at 10 past 12 - because we are west of Greenwich - a shaft of light came through the rocks, and rested on another rock, moved slowly for about 10 minutes, and disappeared," he said.

George successfully tested it out on more than one equinox, finding that the phenomenon occurred at the spring and autumn equinoxes.

The Wrekin was once inhabited - there is a hill fort on the top - and George thinks that this "Calendar Stone", as he has dubbed it, would have provided invaluable information to the inhabitants.

"It would mean you knew exactly when the equinox was, and you called work out how many days there were in a year, and all sorts of things like when to plough and when to sow."

He says he has had several friends check the theory, and they found it worked.

"I fancy it was enough to get The Wrekin labelled as a sacred mountain."

George says he is not alone among Wrekin-lovers in noticing this "Calendar Stone", although so far as he is aware it has not been mentioned in any other authors' books.

The rocks which give the effect appear to be a natural formation, he says, although he has not closed his mind to other possibilities about how they came to be there.

He has already canvassed the theory in his books and it has been given wider coverage recently when Church Stretton writer Simon Whaley featured George's findings in an article in a country magazine, and went to see for himself and take a picture, albeit not on a solstice.

"I could see the cleft in the rocks that George was talking about," said Simon.