Hidden East Anglia:

Landscape Legends of Eastern England

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thriplow:

 

The Devil and the church

 

The church of St. George was supposed to be built in a meadow down in the village, but every time they tried, the stones mysteriously ended up on top of the hill where the church now stands (TL442470), not far from the site of a large Bronze Age burial mound.1 According to the local version, it was the Devil who was to blame.2

 

Sources:

1. Enid Porter: ‘Cambridgeshire Customs & Folklore’, (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969), p.184.

2. http://www.druidic.org/camchurch/churches/thriplow.htm

 

 

Tydd St. Giles:

 

The Devil's tower

 

The current  tower at St. Giles (TF427165)  stands about 15 metres away from the main church, where it was rebuilt in the 1880s, probably to ensure a sound footing in an unstable area. The original tower had fallen a hundred years earlier, but the tale here is that although the people tried to attach it to the church, the Devil kept moving it away. A variation on Wikipedia, though without a source, says that the Devil couldn't abide the sound of the bells, so it was he who pushed over the tower.

 

Source: Former webpage: http://www.lowwood.org.uk/newsletters/2004_10.pdf