Dark Matters

The 800-year-old tower in a village with an enduring reputation for witchcraft, where - er - we used to live. It is overlooked by the Rollright Stone circle, 120M up on the ridge above. An outlying menhir there is known as the Kings Stone and the remains of a burial chamber as The Whispering Knights. The Macbeth-like myth is that a travelling minor 'king' met a witch from the village below who challenged him to take some paces (the number varies!) forward and "If Long Compton thou canst see, King of England thou thalt be". Of course, there is a depression in the ground, the village is hidden from sight, the aspirant king, his retinue and his treacherous knights were all petrified

The witchcraft legend was partly bolstered by a gory and tragic murder of an elderly woman in the 19th century by a man who claimed it was because she was leader of a coven who had bewitched him. It's quite possible he believed this to be true; he was eventually tried, found to be of unsound mind and detained until his death in a 'Criminal Lunatic Asylum'

This sombre background did not seem to deter the village from embracing its reputation. We knew one woman whe claimed to be one of the village witches, though she only practiced white witchcraft for the purposes of healing

The buccolic scene in the picture is the site of another occult myth: where a man conjured up the devil and a dozen imps for the purposes of selling his soul - I have not discovered for what price! The same man later sent the devil to Banbury fair in the guise of a black cockrell, so the deal may have been complex!

There are more credible mysteries here though. It is very obvious that the land in this field has been disturbed, with unnatural depressions and humps. There is speculation that it is the site of a former manor and its moat, but no firm evidence. Small digs have found stone rubble that is consistent with the idea, but nothing definitive. I hope someone decides to find out one day

A final macabre detail: the tower was refurbished in 1930, including repointing the stonework. When the old, soft mortar was scraped out, it was found to incorporate a number of human bones. I read this on an academic history web site that reports it without further comment! Feel free to build your own mythology