Bird’ stone mystery

AN East Budleigh woman is appealing for help identifying a stone she found buried in her garden.

Grandmother Kim Holmes, of the High Street, believes the stone could be an ancient relic but her pleas for help from the experts have so far drawn a blank.

Mother-of-three Mrs Holmes said she has previously found fossils in the village and believes the stone - shaped like a crude bird's head - could be a primitive carving.

The 51-year-old wrote to a number of local and national museums asking for help, but has so far hit a brick wall.

She even logged on to a website forum asking for help - but to no avail.

Now she is appealing to Journal readers to come forward and help identify the stone.

Mrs Holmes, who has been married for 32 years, said: "My husband Pete thinks it's just a stone and it's just the way it is.

"It looks like a primitive carving. I think it looks like a plume. I have shown my friends and they agree it looks like a bird's head.

"I want to prove Pete wrong because he says I'm a mad woman."

Mrs Holmes picked up the stone when she and her husband were clearing the garden of a second High Street property owned by the couple.

She believes the stone had lain undiscovered underneath a boulder, which is thought to have been in the garden for the last 50 years.

The stone looks as though it could have been shaped into the head of a bird, with a plume.

On the bird's 'beak' there is a small heart-shape carved into the stone - which looks like a nostril.

Mrs Holmes, who has lived in the village for nine years, said she has picked up a fossil in a field close to the school and also found a fossil in the same garden where the 'bird head' stone was discovered.

She said: "When we found the stone, it was facing upwards. I have never washed it. I don't want to ruin it."

Can you help Kim Holmes with her quest for information about her stone? Contact her on (01395) 446525.