Presently located in an isolated position alongside a track leading onto Ludworth Moor from Gun Road, approximately 500 m north-east of Ludworth Moor Farm.

The shafts and base have been in this location for some time but the earliest record is unclear. The Lysons record only one stone present in 1817 but also note that 'part of them' was used to make the turnpike from Grindlethorpe Bridge to Sheffield. They further refer to the stone as being 'eight-sided' (Lysons and Lysons 1817, ccxxxiv) and it may be that they were describing stones different to those erected on the site today. Bateman (1848, 215–16) records 'obelisks on Ludworth Moor' and also refers to shafts at Mellor (nearby) which were reused as supports for sundials; this may be an earlier location for the shaft fragments. The Derbyshire Historic Environment Record mentions that one of the stones was removed in 1810, but subsequently replaced (HER 4101).

The shafts are worn smooth and appear to be undecorated.

The two shafts are presently set in a double-socket base stone and so are treated as one monument. Both shafts are undecorated tapering cylinders, and as such have no distinguishable faces. One shaft is shorter and generally broader than the other, but the dimensions suggest that they were not originally part of a single column. The shorter shaft is damaged by a wide slot suggesting former use, perhaps as a gate-post.

The shafts, sometimes known as ‘Robin Hoods Picking Rods’, have also been referred to as ‘The Maiden Stones’ (Cox 1904, 57). There is no evidence to show that they are Anglo-Saxon in origin except that they are tapering round shafts consistent with other examples in the region which do bear diagnostic details. There is thus every possibility that these two shafts were once round-shafted crosses found in many areas of England. Indeed, the taller of the two has a distinct taper, consistent with round-shafted crosses of the region, which as noted in Chapter III, cluster around the border area between north-western Derbyshire, north-eastern Staffordshire and south-eastern Cheshire (Sidebottom 1994, distribution map 9). As with these other examples it is possible that these shafts are reused Roman milestones. Notable is the proximity of the former Roman road from Buxton. The twin-socketed base stone is also consistent with examples found in an Anglo-Saxon context, especially in the neighbouring county of Cheshire (see e.g. Disley 3; Bailey 2010, 79–80), although when these shafts were set into this base is uncertain. The taller shaft is a reasonably good fit for its socket, but the taller is too thin.

Uncertain, possibly tenth century

Lysons and Lysons 1817, ccxxxiv–v; Glover 1829, i, 284; Bateman 1848, 171; Allen and Browne 1885, 355; Cox 1904, 57; Allen 1905, 282–3; Andrew 1905, 203, 208, 211; Le Blanc Smith 1906, 237; Collingwood 1923, 10; Lawrence 1925, 119–21; Tudor 1934, 66; Phillips 1937, 294, 296–7, 299, pl. II; Kendrick 1941, 13, n.1; Taylor 1970b, 281; Plunkett 1984, 286; Craven and Stanley 1986, 27; Sidebottom 1994, 119, 148, 153, 155, 258 (Ludworth); Sidebottom 1997a, 51; Sharpe 2002, 12–13, 93–4; Bailey 2010, 38, 73, 79