What looks like an ordinary rock can carry a long memory. Calum Stott has been working with archaeologists and fellow enthusiasts to identify stones believed to have been used in the old practice of stone lifting, including examples at Stone Raise in Cumbria and Denston in Suffolk.

Archaeologist Carley Noga said the tradition was a feat of strength among working-class people in the late medieval period and took place in community spaces such as churchyards.

Noga said the five stones were “most probably used in lifting” based on Stott’s research, which drew on local knowledge, folklore, and the stones’ distinctive size and shape.

“There’s so little written about stone lifting but what we know is that it usually happened in churchyards,” said Stott, who lives near Tebay.

Many people would come to the parish on a Sunday and young men would challenge each other, he said.

“Some of the stones are written about in the late 1700s to late 1800s, where it is mentioned as a dying tradition.”

Noga said the activity rarely appeared in archival records because it was mostly done by working-class people.

“They were also known as manhood stones, because they tested strength and marked a transition into adulthood,” Noga said.

Stott said it was the “mystery, folklore and research” that drew him in, including searching archives and speaking to fellow farmers and women’s institutes.

“We found out about one stone near Bristol through a medical journal published in 1900, which reported a man had badly injured himself,” Stott said.

The 35-year-old said what could be a “humble unassuming stone” might once have been “the focal point of a whole community… bringing people together, testing strength”.

Stott said he had been inspired by fellow lifter David Keohan, who has “spent the past five years unearthing a lost culture in Ireland that was previously unknown”.

He said he was “instantly hooked” and began researching stones in Cumbria and the Borders.

“My family have always lived here in Cumbria, going back generations,” Stott said, adding it was a “great way to honour the past” by “possibly lifting the same stone as his ancestors”.

With help from a farmer and by reading books, Stott also found a stone in Cumbria weighing 114 kilograms that was supposedly used in competitions.

“We understand that the MP for Carlisle Richard Barwise, who died in 1648, was a stone lifter,” he said.

“Legend has it he was a huge man, feared by many, who carried this stone in one hand and carried his wife in the other.”

Stott said he had also identified stones in Mainstone in Shropshire, Denston in Suffolk, Ellisland in Dumfries and Lonton in County Durham.

Noga, who works at CFA Archaeology, said key clues included stones being found in places with community spaces such as churchyards and pubs that had existed for hundreds of years.

Others were placed in “interesting spots that feel deliberate” or sometimes had their weight carved into them, Noga said.

Stott asked anyone wanting to lift stones to do it under supervision from someone with experience and to respect the communities where the stones sit.

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