Devil’s Punch Bowl, Hindhead
The Devil’s Punch Bowl at Hindhead is a large natural hollow with several pieces of folk lore attached to Old Nick himself.
Country and County: United Kingdom
Osebury Rock
Osebury Rock (or Rosebury Rock) is a remarkable cliff with dense woodland on the River Teme which, according to Edwin Hartland in his ‘English Fairy and Other Folk Tales’ (1890), has an association with fairies.
A Myth of Middridge
The following story entitled ‘A Myth of Midridge’ was published in ‘English Fairy and Other Folk Tales’ (1890) by Edwin Sidney Hartland. ‘TALKING about fairies the other day to a nearly octogenarian female neighbour, I asked, Had she ever seen one in her youthful days?
Devil’s Jumps
Three small hills near Churt have been known as the Devils Jumps (or the Devils Three Jumps) since at least 1765. The highest of the three hills is known as Stony Jump. There are a few folk tales attached to these hills which explains their name.
Myers Flat
An article in the North Echo entitled ‘How railway builders took on the fairies’ was published on Monday 16 June 2008. It concerns the building of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1823 and refers to the local belief that fairies hindered progress at Myers Flat.
Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Frensham
Inside the 13th century Church of Saint Mary the Virgin at Frensham is held a beaten copper cauldron. The medieval 19 inch deep cauldron is believed to have been used for the brewing of Church Ale and has apparently been kept in the church ‘from beyond the memory of man’.
The Miller at the Professor’s Examination
THERE once came to England a famous foreign professor, and before he came he gave notice that he would examine the students of all the colleges in England. After a time he had visited all but Cambridge, and he was on his road thither to examine publicly the whole university.
The Three Wishes
A WOODMAN went to the forest to fell some timber. Just as be was applying the axe to the trunk of a huge old oak out jumped a fairy, who beseeched him with the most supplicating gestures to spare the tree. Moved more by fright and astonishment than anything else, the man consented, and as a reward for his forbearance was promised the fulfilment of his three next wishes.
The Wise Fools of Gotham
CUCKOO BUSH, near Gotham, tradition says, was planted or set to commemorate a trick which the inhabitants of Gotham put upon King John. The tale is told thus King John, passing through this place towards Nottingham, intending to go over the meadows, was prevented by the villagers, they apprehending that the ground over which a king passed was for ever after to become a public road.
The Fairy Funeral
The following story entitled ‘The Fairy Funeral’ was published in ‘English Fairy and Other Folk Tales’ (1890) by Edwin Sidney Hartland. ‘THE parish church of Lelant is curiously situated amidst hills of blown sand, near the entrance of the creek of Hayle.
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