Pyrford Stone

Kicking a Cross.--In July, 1901, I was making enquiries in Pyrford about the well-known Pyrford Stone, which "turns round when Pyrford clock strikes," or "when it hears the cock crow." A gardener, a resident in Pyrford but not a native, said,-- "I expect it was put up in remembrance of someone being killed. There's a cross scratched on it, so I expect it's like kicking a cross. Don't you know that? I've been in many parishes, and they always kick a cross in the road where anyone's been murdered or killed in an accident." Here he made a cross in the dust with his foot. "If a man's been killed in an accident on the road, the policeman'll always kick a cross; and some people keep on kicking a cross in the same place year after year. There've been several people killed on Pyrford Rough, but no one seems to trouble to keep up the crosses."