As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations Butser Ancient Farm staff, volunteers and 35 Royal Navy seamen moved and raised a 3.5-ton limestone using prehistoric techniques.

It took the 60-strong team three hours to move it 100ft using a wooden sled and rope, before tipping it into a hole and pulling it upright.

Butser Ancient Farm director Simon Jay said: “This stone is roughly the same weight as the smaller bluestones at Stonehenge, which were moved more than 140 miles around 5,000 years ago.

“How they did it remains a mystery; this is just one theory based on the technology, tools, and skills we know were available in the Stone Age.

“We wanted to mark our 50th anniversary by doing something really special.

“The standing stone will act as a 50-year marker for us.

“Its erection will coincide with the Council for British Archaeology’s Festival of Archaeology which has the theme of Journeys this year so the movement of the stone fits well with that theme.

“We have also aligned the stone to the midsummer sunrise and we may add more smaller stones that can create different alignments such as at midwinter too. ”