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Legends of the Thames Valley
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Legends of the Thames Valley |
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| . | Windsor Forest | . | |
| SU8774 | Binfield | Hawthorn Hill : The Innkeeper of the
Old Woodman Inn, Hawthorn Hill kept having a dream in which he was
told to go to London Bridge where he would hear something to his
advantage. Eventually he decided to make his way to London and
as he walked across London Bridge one of the shopkeepers stopped him and
asked him what had brought him there that day. He told him the story of
his recurrent dream to which the shopkeeper replied that he should not
take notice of such things.Why, he kept having a dream in which he was
told to go to a place called Hawthorn and look for a hill on which
grew an ancient thorn tree under which was a pot of gold. His advice was
for the Innkeeper to leave the city before anything bad should befall him
on the streets. The Innkeeper hurried back knowing exactly where the
Hawthorn tree grew , on a tumulus, on top of a hill. Here he dug and
found a pot of gold . The Inn Keeper spent his gold lavishly and it finally ran out, the empty pot remaining on the shelf. One day 2 Oxford scholars visited the inn and noticed the pot and translated an inscription on it. "Beneath the place where this pot stood, There is another twice as good" The Inn Keeper once again dug and found another pot of gold with which he was more careful. The Woodman Inn was renamed The Money Pot. |
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| SU9776 | Windsor | Home Park: Hernes Oak There is an old tale goes that Herne the Hunter, |
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| . | Kennet West | . | |
| SU0364 | Bishops Cannings | The Moonrakers: A traveller came across some drunken Wiltshire men one moonlit night trying to rake a glowing object out of a pond. They said it was a cheese but the traveller concluded that it was the moon. Another version has smugglers on being approched by excise men throwing the contraband into a pond. When they thought the men had left they started raking the barrels out again. The excise men, however returned but the smugglers raked at the moon's reflection saying they were trying to rake out a large cheese (The excise men concluding that they were stupid or drunk) | . |
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| . | Mendip, Quantock & Blackdown Hills | . | |
| ST4938 | Glastonbury | The Glastonbury Legends. 1: Jesus travelled
here with his uncle Joseph of Aramathea. 2: Joseph returned after Jesus'
death and established the first English church here. 3: Joseph pushed his
staff into the ground on Wearyall hill where it took root and produced the
first Glastonbury Thorn which flowers on Christmas Day. 4: King
Arthur was buried in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey. 5: The 2 springs at
the base of the Tor originate from Christ's blood (the iron rich
"Red" or Chalice Well spring) and Christ's sweat (the "White Spring" - now
lost) which Joseph brought with him in 2 flasks. The Church of England purchased the Abbey in the early years of the 20th century and the mystical architect Frederick Bligh Bond directed excavations (using what he described as messages from a Cosmic Memory during sessions of automatic writing to guide him). Bligh Bond became so convinced by his theories that he sometimes let them cloud the physical evidence and generally fell out with many others involved with the excavations. He was also convinced of the truth of the Glastonbury legends. The publicity attracted many other mystics to the town and a host of further myths and legends have developed. |
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| ST1442 | Kilve | Blue Ben the Dragon lived within Putsham Hill. He would cool himself down by swimming in the sea and built a causeway of rocks into the water. One day hurrying off to cool down (after the Devil had ridden him round the streets of Hell) he slipped into the mud and drowned. The fossil ichthyosaurus found near Glastonbury and now in Taunton museum is said to be the dragon. | . |
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| . | Lands End & The Lizard | . | |
| SW4938 | Zennor | The Mermaid of Zennor Many years ago a beautiful lady attended church at Zennor and caught the attention of Mathew Trewella, a young fellow with the best singing voice in the village. One Sunday after service he followed the lady as she made her way off towards the cliffs. Neither Mathew nor the beautiful lady were ever seen again. Many years later a ship cast anchor in Pendower cove nearby and the captain was captivated by the singing of a mermaid sitting on the rocks. She asked him if he would be so kind as to raise his anchor since it was resting on the door to her house and she was anxious to get back to her husband, Mathew and their children. |
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| . | Other Sites in England & Wales | . | |||
| TL9662 | Woolpit | The Green Children:Some time in the 12th century in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, a strange thing happened. It was during the harvest near the old wolf pits that 2 children (a boy and a girl) were found. They both had green skin and were wearing clothes made of an unknown material. The villagers adopted them, but the boy died, unable to adapt to his new diet. The girl however thrived, lost the green colour of her skin and learned to speak English. She told of how her people lived in a twilight land where the sun never shone, on the other side of a wide river. She and her brother were tending their fathers sheep one day when they heard the sound of church bells which they followed into a cavern. They eventually emerged into the dazzling light of the sun in the wolf pits and were unable to find their way back. The girl lived a long and happy life and married a man from King's Lynn. The village sign shows the children, the church spire and a wolf. |
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| SK5330 | Gotham | The Wise Men of Gotham:"On a time the men of Gotham
would have pinned in the cuckoo, whereby shee should sing all the yeare,
and in the midst of the town they made a hedge round in compasse, and they
had got a cuckoo and put her into it, and said Sing here all the yeare,
and then thou shalt lacke neither meat nor drinke. The cuckoo as soone as
she perceived her selfe incompassed within the hedge flew away. A vengence
on her said they. We made not our hedge high enough" The Wise Men of
Gotham (1630) Clumps of trees can be found in the countryside
known as Cuckoo Pens after this story. |
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| SK6161 | Sherwood Forest | Robin Hood
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| ST5971 | Bristol | Ships in the Sky Gervase of Tilbury (c1150-1220) relates a story of how, one foggy Sunday morning, people coming out of church were astonished to see an anchor caught on one of the tombstones in the church yard with a rope stretching up into the sky. Then they witnessed a sailor come climbing down the rope in order to free the anchor but he seemed to choke on the air as if drowning in water. The church kept the anchor for all to see but it was eventually flattened out to make hinges for the door. |
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