Peterborough – Peterborough Cathedral (Hedda Stone)

Peterborough Cathedral is very proud of the Hedda Stone and it is located behind the main altar. It is around 1,250 years old and carved on it are the representations of twelve religious figures, six on each side of the stone.

Hedda was an early Abbot and he, and around 83 others, were killed by the Danish army. Some books say that this stone was allegedly placed over his burial site in the medieval period, before the stone was later brought into the Cathedral. I’m not exactly sure where his burial site was, so this explanation isn’t entirely convincing to me.

There are seemingly also two explanations for the holes in the stone, one is that this is where candles are placed, the second reason is that they are slots for carrying poles. There is though more agreement about the figures on the stone, with St. Peter on the right hand side, holding the keys to heaven.

There seems to be a fair amount of conflicting information about this stone, but the web-site at http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=13023 seems to have the most clarity.