Latest Folklore

According to ‘Dorsetshire Folklore’ by John Symonds Udal (1922), this hill features in a couple of connected local sayings:

“As much akin as Leuson Hill to Pilsen-Pen” implies people who are near neighbours ‘but neither relations nor aquaintance’.

“As far off as Lewedon Hill from Pillesdon Pen” denotes ‘a distinct severance of friendly relations between near neighbours.”

Lewesdon and Pilsdon Pen are indeed very close; and according to the info on Magic there are four hillforts overlooking this end of the Marshwood Vale “representing an unusual concentration.”

A Farrier from Hook Norton tells of how the King Stone got its unusual shape by saying an immoral king tricked Wayland Smithy into making enchanted armour for him, but upon wearing it he was twisted and deformed and turned to stone, for only the faeries could don that armour without risk of harm.

In Christine Bloxham’s book ‘Folklore of Oxfordshire’ (published by Tempus 2005), There is another version of the witch’s rhyme, associated with the King Stone at the Rollright site, involving a Danish General and goes thus:

Said the Danish General
If Long Compton I cou’d see
Then King of England I shou’d be
But replied the British General,
Then rise up hill and stand fast Stone
for Kind of England thou’lt be none

According to George Witts in c1882, “There is a local tradition that ‘in the time of the wars’ blood ran down Abbey Lane like water, and many people are still afraid to go down the lane at night! ”

“The views from this position are very extensive, including the river Severn for many miles, Stinchcomb Hill, Haresfield Beacon, Bredon Hill, the Malvern Hills, May Hill, Dean Forest, Lydney, Chepstow, &c. The ancient Ridge way runs through the centre of the camp. ”

As for its name:

[It] is in a piece of ground called the Abby, as Sir Robert Atkyns thinks from an old house near it which formerly belonged to an Abby. It is about a mile from Alveston, and near the eleven mile stone in the road from Bristol to Gloucester. Its dimensions are about two hundred and forty yards from east to west, and about three hundred and forty from north to south. It is much mutilated by the plough and other things. It may be seen from Oldbury, Old Sodbury, and Westridge. Most probably also from Dyrham, Horton and Drakestone.

From ‘An Account of a Chain of ancient Fortresses’ by Thomas Baker – In Archaeologia 19 (Jan 1821).

Local landowner, Sir Philip Brocklehurst, wrote in 1874:

The peasants of the neighbourhood have a curious legend respecting the origin of ‘The Bridestones’. “When the Danes invaded England,” they say, “a Danish youth became enamoured of a Saxon lady, and in the end the two were married at Biddulph church (about a mile and a half distant) but on returning from the wedding, they were here met and murdered, and after their interment had taken place on the spot where they fell, these stones were laid around their grave, and the name Bridestones given to it from that circumstance.” So much for public opinion.

You can see him rolling his eyes.

Quoted in Westwood and Simpson’s 2005 ‘Lore of the Land’.

A village grew up inside this hillfort, including the church of St John the Baptist. In 1402 the Devil appeared in the church during a terrible thunderstorm, taking on the form of a grey friar and ‘behaving himself verie outrageouslie’ according to Holinshed’s Chronicles (written in the 16th century). The nave and a part of the chancel were destroyed. Cynics will put this down to the relative height of church, the fort being the highest point in Essex, and thus vulnerable to lightning and eldritch storms, rather than to any devilish qualities of the fort itself.

Mentioned in Westwood and Simpson’s ‘Lore of the Land’ (2005) p255.

It seems to be originally in Thomas Walsingham’s ‘Historia Anglicana’, written at about the time the event is supposed to have happened? You can see it here, and if you put the latin into google translate (I’m afraid my latin talents won’t run to it otherwise), you will hear about Unspeakable Terror of the parishioners and flashing globes of lightning.

Westwood and Simpson suggest in ‘Lore of the Land’ (2005) that an alternative name for these stones is ‘Lady Williams and her little dog Fido’. What can this mean? They give no explanation. Surely no-one can miscount stones that badly. Does anyone know what this is about?

Perhaps this is the tale Purejoy hints at below. It was described by Edward Waring in his 1977 ‘Ghosts and Legends of the Dorset Countryside’.

A farmer was out on the hill late one night, when he heard in the distance the sound of a huntsman’s horn, and the baying of a pack of hounds. Looking across he saw ‘the form of a man running for dear life’ through a hedge and ditch. The hounds appeared next, ‘urged on by a tall black figure striding at an unearthly pace, with sparks of fire flashing from his boots’. They seized their quarry before he got down into the valley and the farmer realized that what he had seen ‘must be the Devil tormenting a lost soul’.

Nice turns of phrase. Quoted by Westwood and Simpson in their 2005 ‘Lore of the Land’.

Sir Walter Scott apparently stole the story and transferred it to Scotland in ‘The Black Dwarf’. Scroll down to chapter two of ‘Tales of My Landlord’:
arthurwendover.com/arthurs/scott/bdwrf10.html
Sir Walter. I’m disappointed in you.

“In the annotated edition of his novels, Sir Walter fails to tell that he took up this idea from a communication to the Gentleman’s Magazine of April 1808. In this paper it is stated that, on the top of an eminence in the parish of Addlestrop, in Gloucestershire, there was a number of blocks of stone, which had stood there from time immemorial, under the name of the Grey Geese of Addlestrop Hill, until they had lately been taken by Mr Warren Hastings, and formed into a rock-work for the decoration of his grounds at Daylesford. There was added a ballad which had been composed evidently for the amusement of the circle at Daylesford..” It’s on p246 here, in the Book of Days by Robert Chambers (1832).
google.co.uk/books/pdf/The_Book_of_Days.pdf?vid=0tSGEQNuyrkTdE0eELtBZ_4&id=K0UJAAAAIAAJ&output=pdf&sig=OpY85EZW24QzN-ZCK_vXk_KAr44

Hastings was the former governor general of the East India Company. If he’d just retired I expect he was looking for something to interfere with around the house??

I wonder how the stones looked before he moved them. And have they been moved about since?

Westwood and Simpson (’Lore of the land’ -2005) mention a tale collected in 1985 by the Cotswold writer Edith Brill. She spoke to an old man who said “he wished he could borrow a bulldozer and search for the money that lay hidden inside [the tump] and then he would be rich for the rest of his life.” She herself ‘knew’ that the money originated from a wealthy local chief who’d left it there while fleeing the Saxons.

Until the 1750s, it seems that the stone stood upright? Westwood and Simpson (’Lore of the Land’ 2005) quote from the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1813:

Some old persons in the neighbourhood, still living, remember when it stood a very considerable height, perhaps 8 or 10 feet, in an artificial fosse or hllow. About fifty or sixty years ago the upper parts of the stone were broken off, and the fosse levelled, that a plough might pass over it; but, according to the then frequent remark of the villagers, the owner of the land who did this deed never prospered afterwards. He certainly was reduced [..] to absolute poverty, and died about 6 years ago in the parish workhouse.

Still, it sounds like he lived to a ripe old age. Unless he actually died six years later.

Many years ago, all the country round about Stokesay belonged to two giants, who lived, the one upon View Edge, and the other at Norton Camp. Most likely they were brothers, for the land belonged to them both alike, and so did the money. They kept all their money locked up in a big oak chest in the vaults under Stokesay Castle, and when either of them wanted any of it he just took the key and got some out, and took the key back with him. And if the other one wanted it, he shouted to his brother on the other side to throw it to him, and then he went down and got some; and so they went on, throwing the key backwards and forwards just as they happened to want it. But at last, one day, one of them wanted the key, and the other had got it, so he shouted out to him to throw it over as they were used to do; and he went to throw it, but somehow he made a mistake and threw too short, and dropped the key into the moat down by the castle. They tried every way to find it, but they never did, and there it lies now at the bottom of the pool somewhere. Many have been to look for it, quite of late years even, but it has never been found. And the chest of treasure stands in the vaults still, so they say, but nobody can get into it, for there is a great big raven always sitting on the top of it, and he won’t let anybody try to break it open, so no one will ever be able to get the giant’s treasure until the key is found, and many say it never will be found, let folks try as much as they please.

From volume 1 of ‘Shropshire Folklore: A Sheaf of Gleanings’ by G F Jackson and CS Burne (1883).
archive.org/stream/shropshirefolkl00burngoog#page/n30/mode/2up

To add to Bryony’s note,

“on the Trundle, near Goodwood, Aaron’s Golden Calf lies buried, and local people in the 1870’s claimed to know the very spot -- only no one could dig it up, because whenever anyone tried, the Devil came and moved it away.”

From Brewer’s ‘Dictionary of Phrase and Fable’ 1870 (351,761) and the Rev. W D Parish’s ‘Dictionary of Sussex Dialect’ of 1875, and mentioned by Jacqueline Simpson in:
Sussex Local Legends
Folklore, Vol. 84, No. 3. (Autumn, 1973), pp. 206-223.

She also says (p207) “Modern archaeological excavations may serve to reinforce [traditions of buried treasure]; a party digging on the Trundle in 1928 found that the story of the Golden Calf ‘was much upon the lips of the people of Singleton during the progress of our excavation’. Their presence can only have strengthened, not created, the belief, for it happens that this particular tale first appeared in print in 1870.”

Amongst the outcrops and close to the hedge, behind the cromlech, there are a number of other large stones which may have formed part of a larger monument.

Also in a hedge at the roadside a couple of hundred metres from the entrance to Garn Turne is the Cantref Stone, marking the place where three ‘hundreds’ met; those of Dewisland, Cemais and Daugleddau.

According to an entry in ‘Saints and Stones’ (Gomer Press), “relics of St David....were brought here on 1 March each year and that the bishop and the Lords of Cemais and Daugleddau met at this point to decide questions of mutual jurisdiction”.

You can certainly see all three ‘hundreds” from Garn Turne itself, attesting perhaps too, not only its great importance as a site, but also to the longevity of traditions.

William Crossing, in his 1900 ‘Stones of Dartmoor’ gave the following explanation of the stones of Stall Moor.

One Sunday afternoon a group of girls set off across the moor – once out of sight of the farmhouses they began to dance. This was of course extremely naughty as it was the sabbath day, when they should have been doing good or resting, not enjoying themselves. They accosted a young man and invited him to dance with them. Cheekily he refused to dance, saying that he would only play ‘Kiss in the Ring’. So the girls formed a circle and (one imagines) they played by him chosing one of them by touching her shoulder, then running off round the ring until she caught and kissed him. However things got a bit out of hand and the girls started grabbing and kissing him out of turn, so he demurely ran off, and they followed, running in a long line. As is usually the way, these transgressors of the Sabbath got turned into stone for their behaviour, and you can see them as the stones of the circle and the row. William Crossing rather bizarrely suggests that perhaps they were petrified for failing to abide by the rules of a game. So no cheating next time you’re playing ludo.

(I have paraphrased from a summary of Crossing’s original story in Westwood and Simpson’s ‘Lore of the Land’ (2005))

The name ‘Pupers Hill’ surely led to the invention of the following story, told by William Crossing in his 1900 ‘Stones of Dartmoor’:

There are two of these [pipers] and according to the story they once played there on a Sunday afternoon, while a companion danced to their harmonious strains. Suddently the music was interrupted, and to the horror of the latter he beheld those who were expending so much wind to furnish a suitable accompaniment to his nimble steps turned to stone.. and as there was no more music to be got out of them, he rather unceremoniously took his leave. But he had not gone far ere he too shared the fate of his comrades. You may see them if you choose to take the trouble to visit the tor.

-quote taken from excerpt in Westwood and Simpson’s ‘Lore of the land’ (2005)

From “The Wind Among the Reeds” 1899, by W. B. Yeats, the exceptional Irish poet.

Quoted from the poem “He Remembers Forgotten Beauty”

“The jewelled crowns that kings have hurled
In shadowy pools, when armies fled;”

Similarities to the King Dunmail legend?

The King of the Brough of Borwick fought with the King of Verran, Voyatown [northern edge of Stenness Loch] on the hillslope called Bluntland (which subsequently became East Giron), and when this land was first broken up many slewchan stones [big slingshot] were found.

“A child might easily swing the great stone backwards and forwards, but a ‘mighty man’ with great strength would fail to move it if he had ‘guilt on his soul’.”

(Adrean Searle, in ‘Isle of Wight Folklore’ (1998) -he doesn’t state where he’s quoting from)

.. a very fine monolith, locally called the “Long Stone” [is] on the left hand side of the main road a short distance from Gatcombe Lodge entrance. It is 7 1/2 ft high above the ground, and is said to be as much below the surface.

It is a very fine block of the peculiar stratum of the great oolite formation, locally called holey stone, which underlies the surface soil to a thickness varying from 6” to 18”.

Report says that the superstitious mothers were in the habit of passing ricketty children through a hole in this stone with the idea that they would become strong.

A much smaller stone of a similar kind stands in a wall about 30 feet away, and a third is said to have been removed during the last century.

From ‘A history of the parishes of Minchinhampton and Avening’ by Arthur Twisden Playne (1915).

Also known as John Stump, the Head Stone is another example of a Peak District stone that is said to turn around on a ‘certain’ morning each year on hearing the cocks-crow. (others include Baslow’s Eagle Stone and the Cuckoo Stone in Matlock)
Visitors to the stone in late August with the sun highlighting its western face have also reported seeing a human face.

David Clarke’s ‘Ghost and Legends of the Peak District‘
(The ‘certain’ morning is not revealed by Clarke)

Iley Oak was said to be the place where King Alfred and his troops rested overnight before the battle of Ethandun. The oak was later a favourite (and less legendary) meeting place of the non-conformists of Crockerton, who held their religious meetings in secret there, at the earthwork called Robin Hood’s Bower.

Iley does look like Ilegh, which was the meeting place for the hundreds of Warminster and Heytesbury until at least 1652, according to the Victoria County history (see
british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=16071) – and this was described as the site of a great tree standing in Southleigh or Eastleigh woods. Southleigh is where RHB is. Ah, it all comes together you see.

Completely bizarrely, according to discussion on the Megalithic Portal, RHB is planted with monkey puzzle trees, and you can also see (encouragingly in light of the above) the remains of a stump of a large deciduous tree (an oak? which would fit in with the story – and make a link to Robin Hood and his oaks in Sherwood Forest).

But what is Robin Hood doing so far south? It’s all terribly confusing.

The record on magic doesn’t have much to say about the site:

The monument includes Robin Hood’s Bower, a sub-rectangular prehistoric earthwork enclosure on low lying Greensand south of Warminster.
The monument comprises a sub-rectangular area of 200 sq m enclosed by a ditch up to 1m deep and 7.2m wide and a slight inner bank 3.3m wide and up to 0.2m high. The enclosure is crossed by a modern track.

This monolith is made from the natural stone of the Leicestershire and Rutland aea.

This natural hanging stone near Oaks in Charwood is the most prominent outcrop in a rocky area that is now part of a nature reserve.

The stone stands 15’ high.

Legend tells that this small stone got its name from the accidental hanging of a deer poacher called John of Oxley. Whilst out poaching deer on what is now the Garendon Estate, he was chased off the grounds by the game keepers. Oxley lost sight of his persuers and decided to take refuge in a rocky outcrop. His deer still strapped to his back, Oxley lay over the stone to rest and slipped, the ropes getting caught around his neck. An Odinists end if ever there was one eh Julian?

THE LEGEND OF THE HANGMAN’S STONE

It happened but twice in the tide of time
And once since the Conqueror came,
That Shepshed men were in bed by ten
And Whytwyck wyghts the same.

There were fat red deer in Bardon Park,
Fat hogs on the great Ives Head,
Fat goats in crowds on the grey Lubcloud,
Fat sheep on the Forest shed.

There were coneys in store upon Warren Hill,
And hares upon Longcliffe dell;
And a pheasant whirred it a foot were stirred
In the Haw of the Holy Well.

There were trout in shoals in the Charley Brook,
And pike in the Abbot’s lake,
And herons in flocks under Whytwyck rocks,
Their nightly rest would take.

All these were the cause why the Shepeshed men
And the Whytwyck wyghts the same,
Never slumbered when the clock told ten,
But watched for the sylvan game.

What matter that wardens and trusty Regarders
Looked well to the forest right;
The Shepeshed encroachers were aye practised poachers
And their day was the noon of night.

If the smaller prey did not hap in their way,
What matter, the sheep and deer
Were a goodlier meal and the verb “To steal”
Was neuter or nameless here.

John of Oxley had watched on the round Cat Hill,
He had harried all Timber Wood;
Each rabbit and hare said “Ha! Ha!” to his snare
But the venison, he knew, was good.

A herd was resting beneath the broad oak,
(The ranger, he knew, was abed),
One shaft he drew on his well-tried yew
And a gallant hart lay dead.

He tied its legs and hoisted his prize,
And he toiled over Lubcloud brow;
He reached the tall stone, standing out and alone,
Standing then as it standeth now.

With his back to the stone he rested his load
And he chuckled with glee to think
That the rest of the way on the downhill lay,
And his wife would have spiced the strong drink.

That the rest of the way of John of Oxley ne’er trod;
The spcied ale was untouched by him.
In the morning grey there looks that way
But the mountain mists were dim.

Days passed and he came not; his children played
And wept, then played again.
They saw with wet eyes that their mother’s wet eyes
Were still on the hills, in vain.

A swineherd was passing over great Ives Head
When he noticed a motionless man.
He shouted in vain, no reply could he gain,
So down the grey stone he ran.

All was clear, there was Oxley one side the stone
On the other the down-hanging deer.
The burden had slipped and his neck it had nipped!
He was hanged by his prize, it was clear.

The gallows still stands upon Shepeshed high lands
As a mark for the poacher to own
How the wicked will get within their own net;
And it’s called “The Grey Hangman’s Stone”!

Info supplied by Leigh Haywood.

email: [email protected]

“An interesting experience is to visit Hob Hurst’s House, the Bronze Age tumulus up on Beeley Moor, especially at dusk. This ancient tomb is said to hold supernatural powers and if you listen carefully you may hear the voices of the original inhabitants.”

quoted from “The Derbyshire Village Book” 1991, according to the 2000 Derbyshire Stones Meet report at
stones.non-prophet.org/archive/Ancient/004500/102350002200c8a7.html

Sounds just what you want to do – go somewhere dark and lonely and listen to your ancestors whispering away. Not terrifying in the least.

It’s suggested that the rather Scandinavian name of these burial chambers is after the supposed founder of Swansea, Sweyne Forkbeard, (Svend Tveskæg) King of Denmark and sometime king of England 1013-14. Swansea is first mentioned as “Sweynesse” in a 12th century charter. The Welsh name for the city is quite different and sensibly refers to the mouth of the river (Abertawe).

“We all know” the chambers are really prehistoric and not Viking at all – but the mounds might well have been recognised and even reused for a burial in later years: many others across the country were. The story is that Sweyne himself is buried here, but you’d like to think he made it back to Denmark really.

There’s an Earl Sweyne going to Wales here in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle in 1046. So maybe Sweynes were just two a penny at the time.
worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/english/TheAnglo-SaxonChronicle/chap11.html

swanseahistoryweb.org.uk/subheads/samples/sweynfr.htm