Continuing Gary Stocker’s Sunday series of posts on the folklore, ancient sites and legends of Britain. If you have similar stories to share from the area in which you live,  please read the footnote and send them in.

Meon Hill, in south Warwickshire, was said to have been caused by the Devil himself. He was watching the construction of Evesham Abbey from Ilmington Hill. In a fit of annoyance, he kicked a huge clod of earth at it to bury it. However, St. Ecguuine saw it incoming, prayed and it fell to the ground and became Meon Hill.

There is a prehistoric camp on top which goes from Neolithic times up until the Iron Age. Tacitus mentions it. There are legends of buried treasure. In 1800 a lot of Celtic currency bars were excavated. There are two legends about ghostly huntsmen. One is of a huntsman who even hunted on the Sabbath. So one Sabbath when he and his entourage were out hunting, the hill opened up, swallowing the whole, godless lot. Although their ghosts are still said to haunt there at midnight on Sundays (this probably had the same root as the Wild Hunt legend).

There is also a legend about a spectral black dog seen going down the hill. Meon Hill gained national notoriety in 1945 on St Valentine’s Day, when an agricultural labourer (Charles Walton) was found murdered there. It seemed to have all the hallmarks of a ritual killing. Charles Walton’s alleged brushes with the supernatural at different times seemed to confirm this. Fabian of the Yard, based at Scotland Yard even got involved. Although he had his suspicions, no one was ever arrested. When he was going up there once a black dog went running past him. A few minutes later a boy approached him. He asked the boy if he had lost his dog. When the boy asked if it was a black dog and Fabian responded yes, the boy ran off terrified. On the BBC TV series Nationwide back in the mid-1970’s, they did a programme about it, the murder in particular. They went to the local pub in nearby Lower Quinton and no one would speak to them. In fact, most finished their drinks and went.

I was in nearby Newbold-on-Stour Sea Scouts in the late 1970’s & early 1980’s. We used to borrow a Ford Transit van from Lower Quinton Community Group. As most kids of that age do, we all used to tell each other friend-of-a-friend stories about Meon Hill (probably all untrue or at best, grossly exaggerated!). A less sinister piece about it is some weather lore: “If Meon Hill be all mist and smoke, Men of Crimscot(e) look for a stroke.” Whatever a stroke is! There is a public footpath which goes around the hill, about halfway up. There is no public access to the summit, however, there is nothing to say that you cannot go up there either! The walks are quite well marked on the Ordnance Survey map and there are various walks encompassing it on the internet.

About the author

Gary Stocker graduated from Coventry Polytechnic in 1991 with a degree in combined engineering. He worked in civil engineering for nearly twenty years. For the last six years he has worked in materials science and currently works as a test engineer. His hobbies and interests include voluntary work, conservation work and blacksmithing. He is also interested in history, mythology and folklore and he says, “most things”.

How did your granny predict the weather? What did your great uncle Albert tell you about the little green men he saw in the woods that night? What strange creature stalks the woods in your area?

So many of these old stories are slipping away for want of being recorded. legendary creatures, odd bits of folklore, folk remedies and charms, and all the old stories that brought our landscape to life…

Tell me a story, share memories of the old ways that are being forgotten, share the folklore of your home. I am not looking for fiction with this feature, but for genuine bits of folklore, old wives tales, folk magic and local legends. Why not share what you know and preserve it for the future?

Email me at findme@scvincent.com and put ‘Living Lore’ in the subject line. All I need is your article, bio and links, along with any of your own images you would like me to include and I’ll do the rest.