Sarsen stones are sometimes called grey weathers because they look like grazing sheep from a distance , they are mostly found on Overton Down and Fyfield Down . They are very hard sand stones derived from tertiary deposits later eroded and moved by glaciers . The sarsen stones shown below are located near Lockeridge and can be seen clearly from the road from Lockeridge to Alton Barnes.
Sarsen Stones are found elsewhere in Britain but not on the scale seen near Marlborough . They are tabular- grey internally and composed of sand in a siliceous cement forming a very hard rock . There are very few to be seen on Salisbury plain. Sarsen stones where taken from the Marlborough Downs to repiar Winsor Castle when it was damaged in the great fire.
The Sarsen stones have been of great importance to man from the prehistoric times. From the Palaeolithic Period (500,000BC) through to the bronze age when hand axes and other tools where made from them. They where used to build houses and long barrows and also stone circles such as Avebury and Stonehenge.