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Gestingthorpe:
The turning stone
Two unremarkable and not very large stones are sunk into the grass verge
at TL811388, on the corner of North End Road and Church Street.
Apparently the taller of the two rocks is supposed to turn round at
midnight. The stones are visible either side of the tree on Google
Street View
HERE.
Source: Terry Johnson: ‘Hidden
Heritage: Discovering Ancient Essex’ (Capall Bann Publishing, 1996),
p.94.
Great Baddow:
Secret tunnels
As in many places, there are rumours of monastic buildings having once
existed in Great Baddow, but there’s no evidence for it. In this case,
they cluster about St. Mary’s church (TL729048), and various buildings
at the nearby junction of High Street and Bell Street. A ghostly figure
seen in the church was supposed to have been a monk who was trapped in a
tunnel beneath it and then bricked in.1 This presumably is
the passage said to lead from St. Mary’s to the 17th century White Horse
Inn (TL728048.)2
Two other old buildings at the junction, one housing a carpet shop, and
another called The Munnions, are believed to have a tunnel linking them.3
Sources:
1.
http://greatbaddow10.blogspot.com/
2.
http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/classic/F130046?thread=294892&post=4680191
3.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=4dcdb296-beac-4c58-965b-14ad67cb73b0
Deadman’s Lane & Well
This lane runs along the southern boundary of the parish, between
Beehive Lane and Galleywood Road. Deadman’s Well is a muddy pool beside
the road, at TL715037. The name of both road and well traditionally
originate with a duel at some point in the past, when two men met in
combat over a woman, and one was shot dead.1 As it happens,
there actually was a duel at Galleywood Common in 1806. Nowadays the
common is over a mile to the south-west, but perhaps in those days it
stretched as far as Deadman’s Lane. The duel was between two officers of
the 6th Regiment of Foot, who were barracked there. One of the men
received a fatal gunshot wound, while his opponent fled. An inquest
recorded the incident as ‘wilful murder’, but there is no record of the
cause of the duel.2
Sources:
1. Posted 17/9/2009 on:
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=48421&page=2
2. J. G. Millingen: ‘The History of Duelling’ (R. Bentley, a1841),
Vol.2, p.181.
Great
Chesterford:
The sunken church
“About two miles from the Town, close to the Road leading from thence to
Neumarket, is a place called Sunkin Church: of which I could never meet
with any account from any author. The Inhabitants are told (but it is
only Tradition) that there a church sunk into the ground: I have gone to
the place and could find stones and mortar; some building there has
been…perhaps a Crosse or fort, or mark for the bounds of the counties of
Essex and Cambridgeshire. I can’t think it a Church.’
So wrote Benjamin Orwell to the minister and historian William Holman in
1724. Holman’s correspondence, seeking information for the history of
Great Chesterford that he was preparing, is now preserved in Essex
Records Office.1 ‘Sunken Church Field’ on the border of
Hadstock and Linton may have once had a similar tradition, although now
only the name remains – but both have seen the discovery of the remains
of Roman villas.2 See also the sunken churches of
Dilham and
Oby in Norfolk.
Sources:
1.
http://www.recordinguttlesfordhistory.org.uk/gtchesterford/benjaminorwell.html
2. Janet Cooper: ‘The Battle of Maldon-fiction
and fact’ (Continuum, 1993), p.156.
Silver in the tunnel
A secret tunnel is said to run between the Crown House Hotel (TL505428),
the Old Vicarage (TL506427) and All Saints church (TL505427), and in it
legend says are hidden the church’s silver bells, secreted there to save
them from the Roundheads. Although the bells have never been found, it’s
said that traces of the tunnel have been disclosed in the past.
Source:
http://www.recordinguttlesfordhistory.org.uk/gtchesterford/grchesterford.html
Great Dunmow:
The Jumping Stone
A large recumbent stone, once hidden by undergrowth, sits on a low
grassy bank near the junction of Beaumont Hill, Lime Tree Hill and the
Causeway, at TL626227. See it on Google Street View
HERE. Known as the Jumping Stone, it’s said to be able
to leap over the nearby brick wall. Far worse for some, legend says that
if a maiden touches it, she will become pregnant!
Source: Terry Johnson: ‘Hidden
Heritage: Discovering Ancient Essex’ (Capall Bann Publishing, 1996),
p.103.
Great Leighs:
Secret tunnels
The present St. Anne’s Castle Inn (TL727171) at the centre of Great
Leighs is a 19th century building, but likes to call itself the oldest
pub in England, since it’s mentioned in Domesday Book. That’s not
strictly true however – what is true is that it stands on the site of a
Norman hermitage known as St. Annes, and was certainly an inn by 1636.1,2
Tunnels are supposed to start in the cellars here, leading to the church
of St. Mary the Virgin more than a mile outside the village, and another
heading for the site of the 13th century Leez Priory at TL701185, 1.6
miles in the other direction.3 (This allegedly-haunted inn
also features in the dubious tale of ‘The witch’s stone of Scrapfaggots
Green’ – see Little Waltham).
Sources:
1.
http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-112655-st-anne-s-castle-inn-great-and-little-le
2.
http://unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk - Great Leighs
3.
http://www.stannescastle.co.uk/main/index.htm
Great
Wakering:
Baker’s Grave
Baker’s Grave or Corner is a threeways at TQ935879, just on the boundary
with Little Wakering, at the junction of Barrow Hall Road and Little
Wakering Road. The legend here is that “many years ago, there lived near
Barling a somewhat eccentric baker. He prided himself upon his
professional skill : he could make and bake a loaf better than any man
for miles around, and Barling folk were wont to say that he would be a
baker for pleasure even if he came into a fortune. Now, this worthy man
either committed some great crime or imagined he had done so - local
tradition is not clear upon the point. His guilt, whether real or
imaginary, preyed upon his mind so greatly that one evening he wandered
out to a lonely spot and there hanged himself from a tree. It was a bad
day for Barling when he did this, for his perturbed spirit found no
rest, and the countryside was much troubled by his posthumous vagaries.
Sometimes, on windy nights, persons who passed near that tree would hear
his heels knock together as though his body still hung from the branch.
Or, when the moon shone brightly, you had only to run round that tree a
hundred times, and, lo ! there was the baker at his work, kneading his
dough energetically, with his back to the trunk, as plain as a
pikestaff!”1
The tree is long gone, at the foot of which Baker was buried. Apart from
Baker himself, some have said that the spot is haunted by “his big black
dog”, though this may be a confusion with the black dog phantom of North Shoebury, not far away. The name of the grave or corner is most likely
derived from the 14th century Clement de Bakere, rather than any baker
from Barling.2 See also
Great Wakering in the
Shuckland section of this website.
Sources:
H. W. Tompkins: ‘Marsh-Country Rambles’ (Chatto & Windus, 1904),
p.37-38.
Jessie Payne: 'A Ghost Hunter's Guide to Essex' (Ian Henry Publications,
1987), p.101-2.
Greensted:
Draper’s Corner
The junction of Greensted Road and Mutton Row at TL532027 is said to be
named after a man who was hanged on a tree there for stealing sheep two
centuries ago, and his ghost still haunts the spot.1 ‘Strange
feelings’ and the vision of a man hanging from a tree have been reported
in recent times.2
Sources:
1. Federation of Essex Women’s Institutes: ‘The Essex Village Book’
(Countryside Books, 2001), p.110.
2. Ongar Gazette, 20/8/2011. |