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Somerset: Latest Posts — Folklore |
Previous 10 | Showing 71-80 of 125 folklore posts. Most recent first | Next 10 
Dunkery Hill Barrows (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) |
Miss Acland told me.. in 1902 the Horner [village] churchgoers would not go to evensong in the winter at Luccombe because [the Exmoor forest demon] waited for them at Dunkery foot by the ruined chapel, as a stag or ram. The Reverend Acland therefore used to hold the service in the afternoon.What a dilemma. Shun the locals' superstitious fears or end up with no congregation. The reverend obviously didn't want to end up talking to himself. Or perhaps he wasn't that keen on the dark either. The ruined chapel referred to is a funny place for the demon to wait, as it used to be a particularly feared spot for such creatures. St Dubricius of Dunkery built the chapel (he lived 150 years in Porlock, don't you know, and officiated at King Arthur and Guinevere's wedding). At the sound of the chapel's bell the hideous forest fiends and dragons went deeper into the moor, and even the devil found things to do somewhere else. Under its altar St D. buried a chest full of gold, which was to be spent on keeping the bell(s) in order and for giving to anyone who had to cross the 'dreadful waste' on their own in order to get to market. You can see the site of the chapel "but nobody can find the gold." This was told to Ruth Tongue in 1950 by Jane Rudd, then 11. Quote from 'Forgotten Folktales of the English Counties' (1970) and info from 'Somerset Folklore' (1965), both by Ruth Tongue. |
Posted by Rhiannon24th August 2005ce |
Murtry Hill (Long Barrow) |
From Proc Som Arch Soc 21 for 1875:Prebendary Clutterbuck, the vicar of the parish, stated that after digging at the foot of the larger stone, to a distance equal to its height above the ground, the labourers were unable to reach the bottom of it, so that the actual length of it is not known, nor is it worth ascertaining at the risk of overthrowing it.This was told to a group of antiquarian daytrippers. One wonders if it was told 'as folklore' and the poor old souls got the wrong end of the stick. Or perhaps Preb. Clutterbuck was just trying to put them off digging? The stones had possibly only recently been dug up, as v57 has the following information: Mr F Clarke (head gardener at Orchardleigh house) says that when a schoolboy at Buckland Down he went with other excavations on this site about 1872. He distinctly recollects three holes. He does not know if anything was found, but he says there was the common tradition about a gold coffin being buried on Murtry Hill.Volume 57 (early 1920s) also describes the contemporary excavation of the stones. They found a lot, including other largish buried stones. The book has a photo of the site laid bare. "Our excavations.. told a very different tale [to Clutterbuck], and showed how necessary it is to check the statements made by antiquaries of the middle of last century." The stones only go down about 1 1/2 ft below the surface, quite boringly. So they are about 11.5 and 7.75ft tall. The excavator described a tradition from 1875 (v21): "a modern tradition [is] that these stones are not ancient at all but were erected by a former owner of the estate." So perhaps - although they are clearly ancient - maybe they lay prostrate for a long time, but were erected. Also from the 1875 journal: The natives of the district to this day have a dread of passing near the stones except in broad daylight, as if there were still remaining the notion that they marked a place of burial, or perhaps of Pagan rites, in which Satan may have taken an active part. |
Posted by Rhiannon 17th August 2005ce |
Brean Down (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) |
The Berrow Flats are the huge expanse of sand that abuts Brean Down. I read this folklore in Ruth Tongue's 'Forgotten Folk Tales of the English Counties' (1970) and it also reminded me of the fishermen's lore associated with Worlebury, the next headland north."My father used to tell us that there was a big fish of Berrow Sands and it had a huge mouth. It used to swallow all the fish and the sailors too, and what it didn't finish, the conger eels did. They used to bark at those times and people knew the big fish was hungry and the fishermen were in danger. Well, there was a bold fisherman who went out in his little boat and the big fish opened his great mouth to take him and he cast his anchor down its throat and the cold iron finished it."You will notice the mention of 'cold iron' - always good against the fairies too - the power of metalworking! And the conger eel, which is also mentioned in the folklore of Wookey Hole. |
Posted by Rhiannon 16th August 2005ce |
Porlock Stone Circle |
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The road goes right past the stones here, and they say you will rarely see hill ponies grazing around them after dusk. Horses being ridden refuse to go along the lane. The spectre that haunts the area is of a horse, and people tell of hooves clattering hollowly along the hard surface of the road when no horse is there. Mentioned by S Toulson in her 'Moors of the Southwest, v1.' 1983. |
Posted by Rhiannon 16th August 2005ce |
Priddy Circles (Henge) |
| A follow up on Rhiannon story of Jesus in Priddy. I heard a story many years ago that the local people of Priddy would use the phrase, " As sure as the Lord walked in Priddy". This would be used in the same way as someone today might use the phrase " Is the pope Catholic?". |
Posted by vulcan 13th August 2005ce |
Dunkery Beacon (Cairn(s)) |
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Ruth Tongue was told in 1944 by a Person from Porlock that people used to climb to the top of Dunkery Beacon to see the sun rise on Easter Sunday, 'for good luck'. (Somerset Folklore, 1965) |
Posted by Rhiannon 3rd August 2005ce |
Stoke Pero (Cairn(s)) |
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Various mounds, cairns and barrows lie here, between Dunkery Beacon and Exmoor's remote highest church at Stoke Pero. It's got a bit of a spooky reputation. On St John's Eve (that is, the night before Midsummer Day) in 1942 an old carter asked Ruth Tongue to accompany him up Ley Hill (just to the north). From there they watched little marsh lights moving aroud by Stoke Pero and Dunkery. These were said to be spunkies (Somerset willo the wisps) gathering to Stoke Pero church, where they would guide the ghosts of all those people who would die the following year. Spooky. (R Tongue - 'Somerset Folklore' 1965) |
Posted by Rhiannon 2nd August 2005ce |
Wambarrows (Round Barrow(s)) |
These three dented bronze age barrows hide some treasure, which is guarded by a big black dog. Ruth Tongue describes the fearsome beast in 'Somerset Folklore' (1965) :On Winsford Hill on autumn nights a traveller may be stopped by a black hound with glowing saucer eyes. If he tries to advance he will die, either at once or very soon, but if he stands still the dog will slowly vanish until only its eyes still glow. As soon as they disappear the traveller is free to move on, but some lesser ill-luck will follow. There was once a farmer whose frightened pony danced near to the spectre before he could stop it. The farmer did not die, it was the pony who collapsed half a mile from home.The barrows are probably also the home of pixies, lately moved from the Brightworthy Barrows. |
Posted by Rhiannon 2nd August 2005ce |
Trendle Ring (Hillfort) |
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This univallate hill fort dates from the late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age. Can it really be a fort? It looks so precarious on the map, crossing a thicket of contour lines. Naturally well defended at least. (see details on MAGIC at http://www.magic.gov.uk/rsm/24008.pdf 'Trendle' (like the Trundle, one assumes) comes from the Middle English for 'wheel', which in turn comes from the Old English for 'circle' - indeed, the shape of the fort. It's said that here on Bicknoller hill 'the woman of the mist' can be seen (apparently, according to Ruth Tongue in 'Somerset Folklore' 1965, 'in recent years'). She sounds rather like the Scottish Cailleach (see Schiehallion) as "she herds the red deer. Sometimes she appears as an old frail crone, sometimes as a great misty figure." |
Posted by Rhiannon 2nd August 2005ce |
Dowsborough (Hillfort) |
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Ruth Tongue's sources (for her 1965 'Somerset Folklore) knew this as the Danish Camp, or perhaps even 'a Roman look-out or summer camp' (ah, a Roman summer camp, how sweet) and traditionally 'a band of Danish sea-robbers made it their fort while they preyed on the villages.' However, the women they kidnapped thought up a devious plan to get them all incapacitated, so one night while they were all feasting and drinking, the locals suddenly attacked and massacred the lot of them. 'On wild autumn nights at midnight they say you can still hear the revelry, followed by the clash of arms.' Only one of the Danes survived. A girl had fallen in love with the young musician boy who had fled before the battle, his harp slung over his shoulder. She sheltered him for several days until he was discovered - and killed. Afterwards his ghost was said to roam the slopes of Dowsborough - or 'Danesborough'- and heard singing faintly and plucking at his harp. To put it even more romantically (as Lawrence does in 'Somerset Legends'): "At times a startled pony pricks his ears at soft movements in the bracken and the notes of a muted song." Tongue mentions that 'Wordsworth remembers him in a poem." Wordsworth did live for a time on the edge of the Quantocks. So no doubt 'The Danish Boy' http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww157.html is the poem she refers to. John Garland's 'Haunted Somerset' (2007) mentions Berta Lawrence's 'Quantock Country', in which she says: Near Danesborough Ring the Quantock woodmen swore they heard ghostly music issuing from underground, the revelling of Viking warriors feasting with wassail-cup and song. |
Posted by Rhiannon 2nd August 2005ce |
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