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Churn Milk JoanStanding Stone / Menhir
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I used to visit this lonely stone alot when I lived in Luddenden foot. The folklore regarding the placing of money into the basin at the top of the stone dates back many,many years. A local chap once told me that the stone marks the spot where Joan (carrying her milk churn in a snow storm) died. I remember visting this stone one July morning in 1999 (if my memory serves me) to find three quid in the basin and a stick of blackpool rock placed on the floor next to the stone. Strange indeed. |
Posted by Comus 29th August 2008ce Edited 29th August 2008ce |
| A near seven foot high monolith at the junction of several footpaths. |
Posted by daveyravey17th February 2004ce |
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I grew up just down the hill from Milk Churn Joan (as we were taught it by local farmers, etc). The story I heard as a kid was that Joan who had two very sickly parents went out in a very bleak and fierce winter in search of milk. I forget the details but she meets the devil who (perhaps) offers an exchange of life for the life of her parents. She accpets and that is her to this day on the hill. As for donating a penny on top, this is indeed true and me and a friend would regularly go up there to stand on each other's shoulders to claim the cash. A local farmer (no doubt spuriously) presented a very large old whiskey bottle full of pennies claiming they had all come from the top of Milk Churn Joan to inspire further looting. |
Posted by Tirath Singh 9th December 2005ce |
| The stone is claimed to spin round three times on New Year's Eve. It is said to be named after a milk-maid who died whilst carrying milk to the villages here. There is also a legend that a penny placed on the stone will bring good luck. |
Posted by daveyravey 17th February 2004ce |
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"A lonely stone Afloat in the stone heavings of emptiness Keeps telling her tale. Foxes killed her. You take the coins out of the hollow in the top of it. Put your own in. Foxes killed her here. Why just here? Why not five yards that way? A squared column, planted by careful labour. Sun cannot ease it, though the moors grow warm. Foxes killed her, and her milk spilled. Or they did not. And it did not. Maybe Farmers brought their milk this far, and cottegers From the top of Luddenden valley left cash In the stones crown, probably in vinegar, And the farmers left their change. Relic of The Plague. Churn-milk jamb. And Joan did not come trudging Through the long swoon of moorland With her sodden feet, nipped face. Neither snow nor foxes made her lie down While they did whatever they wanted. The negative of the skylines is blank. Only a word wrenched. Then the pain came, And her mouth opened. And now all of us, Even this stone, have to be memorials Of her futile stumblings and screams And awful death". Churn-Milk Joan Ted Hughes From Remains of Elmet 1979 |
Posted by fitzcoraldo21st October 2006ce Edited 21st October 2006ce |
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Midgely HistoryChurn Milk Joan Picture |
Posted by daveyravey 17th February 2004ce Edited 17th February 2004ce |
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