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Worlebury

Hillfort

Folklore

The stone ramparts of this wooded hillfort are still up to 10ft high? There are also dewponds known locally as 'fairies' wells', and Apparently there have been regular sightings of the little beggars themselves over the years. In 1938 L E Meyer wrote (in 'West Mendip Fragments') about a sighting which took place in a coppiced area on the northern slopes. (info from Bord's 'Fairy Sites')

Perhaps the following story refers to somewhere on Worlebury hill too (in 'Somerset Folklore' by Ruth Tongue, 1965):
At Worle, when the fishermen go down to the sea, they each put a white stone on the cairn or 'fairy mound' on the hillside and say: "Ina pic winna / Send me a good dinner." And more times than not they come [back] with a load of fish.
This was told her by a Weston-super-Mare fisherman (who presumably wasn't just taking the mickey out of people from Worle)
Apparently the cairn of stones on the highest point of the hill was called 'Pickwinner or Pickwynnard' which goes to 'explain' the first line of the rhyme (perhaps) - Rev. HG Tomkins noted in 1876 that the cairn 'is nearly taken away'. He was writing in v3 of the Bath Field Club journal, and also includes much info on the skeletons found there, ramparts etc with diagrams. He also mentions St Kews Steps which lead from Kewstoke to the crown of the hill.

It may be of no relevance at all, but King "Ina" was king of Wessex in Saxon times, founded the city of Wells, and apparently lies buried in the cathedral there. Might just be a coincidence of sounds of course.

There was a magazine called 'Picwinnard' in the 1970s, which according to Jeremy Harte's 'Alternative approaches to folklore' bibliography, mentioned local folklore of 'secret tunnels' at Worlebury.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
26th January 2005ce
Edited 23rd August 2006ce

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