Bargain Stone

St. Peter's Collegiate Church, by far the oldest in England's Wolverhampton, has shrouded origins in the Anglo-Saxon era. Even more mysterious than the church itself are some of the ancient objects lying in its churchyard.

The Bargain Stone, located on the south side of the church just inside the railings surrounding it, is one of the only standing stones to have a hole in it. Its name comes from the old practice of merchants shaking hands through its hole as a symbol of their deals with each other. Wolverhampton was once an important market town, especially for Welsh drovers who came to sell sheep.

Yet the true mystery of the Bargain Stone is its origin. It is most certainly not a tombstone, as all the others in the churchyard lie flat on the ground. It is also probably not a prehistoric megalith. The most likely theory is that it is the heavily eroded remains of a gargoyle which fell off the church in the 17th century. The hole is presumably its mouth, which would have functioned as a drain pipe.