Folk Tales from the 1500’s

By: Alexis Rohrbaugh

Biddenden Maids• Every Easter Monday the village of Biddenden, the scene of an old story,

called the Biddenden Maids' Charity put tea, cheese and bread on local widows for the hungry. Biddenden Cakes, baked from flour and water, are given to the audience of hungry people. These cakes are so hard that they are not eatable. They bare a resemblance to the story of the Biddened Maids: two females whose bodies appear to be joined together at the hips and shoulders. According to local tradition the Bidden Maids were joined together at birth. The twins were born in 1100. Their names were Eliza and Mary Chulkhurst . They lived until the year 1134, until Mary fell ill and died. Eliza was asked if she wanted to be separated from Mary but she said "As we came together we will also go together". She died six hours later.

• No remain of the Biddenden Maids has ever been found or studied. Their grave has never been found nor will it probably ever be found. Nobody knows for sure if they even ever exist.

Croydon Hill

• Croydon Hill is the scene of an English Folktale, that may or may not have really happened. However whether it be true or not the tale says the hill has a reputation of being haunted by unearthly howls, especially on dark and stormy nights.

• One day, many years ago, a ploughboy who came from Croydon went to the smithy at Rodhuish to have a blade repaired. While he was there he was entertained with the story of the Devil of Croydon Hill, a local legend about a devilish creature said to haunt the hillside and frighten people travelling on the lane across the hill.

Croydon Hill

• The butcher's boy at Rodhuish thought it would be good fun to scare the ploughboy, so he took a bull's hide with horns, and ran ahead of the ploughboy to hide in the darkened lane. When the ploughboy was walking home he was frightened by a horned figure that jumped out at him, without thinking he lashed out at it with his blades and ran home. The butcher's boy was never seen again although a bull's hide with a gash through it was later discovered. It is said that the boy haunts the lane and was taken by the real Devil of Croydon Hill.

The Green Children of Woolpit• This story was told by medieval writers (Ralph of Coggestall and

William of Newbridge), about the discovery of fairy children in the South of England in the twelfth century. In Suffolk, at St Mary's of the Wolf Pits, a boy and his sister with green skin were have said to been found at the mouth of the old wolf pits. When they were first discovered they were both extremely frightened, and no one could understand their speech. They were eventually taken to the home of Sir Richard de Caine at Wilkes. They would not eat normal food, although it seemed that they were both starving. When some beanstalks were brought into the house, they made gestures to have them brought to them and proceeded to try and open the stalks to get at the beans. They were shown how to open the pods and ate beans and nothing else for a long time.

The Green Children of Woolpit 2• The boy remained depressed all the while, and soon succumbed to

illness and died. The girl remained in good health, and eventually began to eat other food and lost her green coloring. She was baptized and lived with a knight. When she had learned how to speak English, she related the story of how they had come to be at the entrance to the pits. She said they had come from a land where there is no sun, but light such as at our twilight all the time. She and her brother were following their flocks, when they came upon a cavern. They entered this cavern and heard the sound of bells and were so enchanted by the sweet music, that they stayed exploring until they came to the cavern's entrance. They passed through and into the bright sunlight of our world. They were blinded for a while and rooted to the spot by the sudden change in atmosphere and temperature. Eventually they were caught by the villagers and brought to the hall

Gormire Lake & White Mare Crag• Surrounded by the dense Garbutt Wood, Gormire Lake is the result

of glacial activity and is one of the few natural lakes in Yorkshire. One tale involves a witch who was being chased across the town. When she reached cliffs at White Mare Crag she took a running jump and landed in Gormire Lake, which according to legend is bottomless and hides a lost village in its watery depths. The witch was taken along in an underwater current and she eventually emerged from a well over nine miles away. There is a similar tale saying a goose that was dropped into the lake from the cliffs. It too was caught in an underwater stream and supposedly emerged in Kirkbymoorside, which is twelve miles east of Gormire. The goose however had been stripped of all its feathers during its journey.

Jack o' Legs• Weston churchyard is reputed to be the final resting place of the

Weston Giant: Jack o' Legs. Two stones mark his grave. One is positioned at his head and another at his feet, a distance of eight feet apart. Jack o' legs was fames both for his tallness and for his skill with a bow and arrow. It was said he could shoot an arrow for three miles, and take down a bird at a distance of half a mile away.

• Jack was a hermit roaming the outskirts of Weston and Gravely. He was considered a thief, but in the way of Robin Hood. This fame did not go unnoticed, and the wealthy tradesmen upon whom he took were not happy as he gave away their riches. One day a band of wealthy bakers from the market town of Baldock decided to be rid of Jack o’ Legs once and for all.

Jack o' Legs 2• They then took him to a field near Weston where they

planned to hang him from a giant oak tree. Jack regained consciousness just long enough to ask one last request: that he might shoot an arrow to mark the place of his burial. The Bakers allowed this one respite, and the arrow flew from his bow into Weston churchyard where his monument stands to this day. They waited to ambush Jack, and feared his giant strength they decided to attack him from behind. Before he could respond they smashed his skull with a long heavy pole, bound him tightly, and then cruelly burned out his eyes with a red-hot poker.

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Croydon Hill

Work Cited

Evans, Catherine, and Karolyn Jepson. "Mysterious Britain & Ireland." Mysterious Britain & Ireland | Mysteries, Legends & The Paranormal. Craig Y Nos Castel. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/about-the-site-and-authors.html