The foregoing story is founded upon one of the earliest traditions of
the neighbourhood, which states that a great battle between the
ancient Britons and the Romans was fought upon the elevated ground in
the vicinity of "Coombs Tor." Several writers of local history have
included this battle in their accounts of actual events. Butterworth,
the historian, gives an elaborate account of it in his description of
the Coombs Cairns. He first mentions the conflict as having taken
place between the Romans, "who were inspired by conquest and the
thirst for military glory," and the Britons, who "fought for their
country's independence"; and then he continues as follows: "Though the
poet and other historians are silent upon the great engagement--for
such I consider it to have been--yet two prodigious mounds, barrows or
tumuli, at from a quarter to half a mile distant from each other, on
the field of battle, remain to attest the magnitude and consequence of
the action. I have been upon them both, and observed that they each
consist of some hundred tons of stone heaped together in a circular or
rather an oval form, covered with the effect of time. One of them has
furze or dwarf gorse growing upon it, and I have seen cows in hot
weather standing on their summits for the purpose of inhaling the
cooling breezes." The same writer then goes on to record the erection
of a Roman trophy stone at some short distance from the field, and
also deduces evidence of the Druids once existing near.
In the neighbourhood of Coombs Rocks there are several relics of
antiquity which are classed as Druidical. One of these, which consists
of two upright stone pillars, rising from a massive stone base, is
situated on Ludworth Moor. It is locally known as the "Robin Hood's
Picking Rods," because Robin Hood and his men are said to have used it
as a target for their arrows. But tradition states it to have been
used by the Druids as an altar of sacrifice.