Feeling for money at the top of Churn Milk Joan.
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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.
A near seven foot high monolith at the junction of several footpaths.
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.
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.
“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
Sites within 20km of Churn Milk Joan
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Wicken Hill
description 1 link 1 -
Miller’s Grave
photo 3 description 1 link 1 -
Robin Hood’s Penny Stone
photo 3 description 2 link 1 -
Midgley Moor Standing Stone
photo 2 description 2 -
Rocking Stone, Warley Moor
description 1 -
Hippins Stone
description 1 -
Bent Head
photo 3 forum 1 description 1 -
Turley Holes Moor Standing Stones
photo 2 description 1 -
Higher House Moor Monolith
photo 1 -
Two Lads (Withens Moor)
photo 3 -
Standing Stone Hill
photo 3 description 1 -
Blackheath Circle
photo 1 -
Blackheath Barrow
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Walshaw Dean
photo 14 forum 2 description 3 link 1 -
Great Bride Stones
photo 11 forum 1 description 5 -
Sutcliffe Rough Standing Stone
photo 4 -
Castlestead Ring
photo 1 forum 1 description 1 -
Ringstone Edge Mounds
description 3 -
Beacon Hill Round Barrow
description 1 -
Ringstone Edge Cairn Circle
photo 2 forum 1 description 6 link 2 -
Ringstone Edge Moor
description 2 link 1 -
The Stones
photo 13 -
Silver Hill
photo 1 -
Dove Stones
photo 3 -
Catstones Ring
photo 7 description 1 -
Cant Clough
photo 2 -
Harden Moor
photo 10 -
Rocking Stone Hill (Golcar)
photo 1 description 1 -
Fairy Stone (Cottingley)
photo 7 forum 1 description 2 -
Delf Hill
photo 15 description 4 -
Hellclough
photo 8 description 3 -
Extwistle Moor
photo 3 description 2 -
Ell Clough
photo 4 description 1 -
Hambledon Pasture
photo 10 description 3 -
Burwains Camp
photo 7 description 3 -
Mosley Height
photo 3 forum 1 description 4 link 3 -
Pike Lowe
photo 1 description 1 -
Upwood Hall
description 1 -
Ring Stones
photo 5 description 3 -
Twist Castle & Barrow
photo 4 description 2 -
Worsthorne Hill
photo 4 description 5 -
Stump Cross
photo 3 description 3 -
Hitching Stone (Keighley Moor)
photo 3 link 1 -
Beadle Hill
description 1 -
Wycoller Hall
photo 5 -
Round Hill
photo 2 description 1 -
Winter Hill Stone
photo 1 -
Cliviger Law
photo 3 description 1 -
Burwain’s Farm
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Pin Stone
description 1 -
Ring Stones Hill
description 1 -
Crosland Moor Holy Well
photo 4 description 2 -
Brackenhall Circle
photo 6 description 1 -
Baildon Stone 4
photo 3 description 1 -
Baildon Moor Circle
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Butternab Camp, Crosland Hill
description 2 -
Baildon Stone 2
photo 4 description 1 -
Baildon Stone 1 (Dobrudden)
photo 7 description 1 -
PRAWR 150
photo 2 -
Baildon Stone 3
photo 2 description 1 -
Castercliff Camp
photo 12 forum 2 description 2 link 2 -
Robin Hood’s Stone (Kirklees)
forum 1 description 1 -
Bradup
photo 6 forum 1 description 6 link 1 -
Rivock Edge
photo 11 forum 1 description 2 -
Stanbury Hill
link 2 -
Devil’s Footprint Stone
photo 2 description 2 -
Jacksons Barrow
photo 5 description 2 -
Honley Old Wood Cairnfield
description 1 -
Castle Hill (Huddersfield)
photo 32 forum 1 description 9 link 3 -
Two Eggs
photo 3 description 2 -
Buck Stones – West
photo 6 description 2 -
Slate Pit Wood Cairnfield
photo 1 description 2 -
Horncliffe
photo 12 description 3 link 1 -
The Doubler Stones
photo 19 description 4 -
Scheduled Rock 25350
photo 3 forum 1 -
Thimble Stones
photo 10 description 1 -
Cock Crowing Stone
photo 1 forum 1 description 1 link 1 -
Cowper’s Cross
photo 2 forum 1 -
Ravenstone Rocks
photo 1 description 1 -
Black Hill
photo 5 description 2 -
Ashlar Chair
photo 4 forum 1 description 4