Halloween Article/Documentary Sketch: The Devil Went Down To Devizes

There are many English locales associated with Old Nick aka Satan aka The Horned One, including the church where he moved the tower, another where his demonic scratches are still to be seen on the doors and many others (Devil's Punch Bowl/Dyke/Bridge/Quoits,?The Devil's Nine Stones,?The Devil's Lapstone,?Toenail, Hell Gill Beck, etc). Plus other place names associated with The Fallen One - Hob for example (Hob Hole, Hob on the Hill, Hobhole Spinney, Hobgrumble Gill etc).

The discovery at Hobb's End tube:

With Halloween approaching (kinda), a look at the Lucifer's favourite places to hang - or cause mischief in English shires.

Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire -?The tower of the church is not connected to the main building, because, according to legend, the Devil tried to nick (sic) it.

Nearby - The Devil's Toenail...legend states one Sunday Satan jumped down from the church and joined some local kids who were desecrating the sabbath by enjoying a cheeky game of leapfrog. The Prince of Darkness enthusiastically joined in and all were having a jolly time until he opened a hole in the ground, into which they leapt and were never seen again - Pied Piper-stylee. The stone is said to indicate the place they vanished.

Rudston, Yorkshire - Britain’s tallest standing stone, Satan chucked the stone at the nearby church but missed.

All Saint's Church, Odell, Bedfordshire; when the Devil shook the building in a rage he left his claw marks on the church porch -? but these were recently removed during church renovations. Un-bloody-believable.

Odell All Saints - The Ghost of Sir Rowland Alston And The Devil's Mark

But marks of his talons are still available to see in Holy Trinity Church Blythburgh, Suffolk:

Silbury Hill, Wiltshire: Satan was on his way from Devizes and wanted to drop an bag of soil on the people of Marlborough, but was stopped on his way there by a priest of Avebury and dropped it there instead. Alternatively, he went there to bury a gold statue in the hill. As you do.

St Leonard’s Forest, West Sussex - where in the 1720s, for some reason, the Devil raced a local hayseed and left a narrow clearing such was the heat generated in their sprint. They continue to re-run the race on an irregular basis. Hmm.

Shebbear, Devon - where the ceremony of Turning the Devil’s Stone takes place?each November.

Totnes: The Devil's Footprints - this spooky occurrence happened in February 1855 around the Exe Estuary in East and South Devon, England. After a heavy snowfall, trails of hoof-like marks appeared overnight in the snow covering a total distance of some 40 to 100 miles (60 to 160 km).?

And 5 minutes from me, the petrified cloven hoof of Satan at Soulbury:

Current appearances? The St Mary the Virgin, Clophill - the abandoned Bedfordshire (again!) church that's 'one of the county's most haunted buildings' and a haven for Devil worshippers - and it also 'faces the wrong way':

Satanism, Bedfordshire style

England - home to countryside devilry in the movies...

Terence Stamp is a dapper Devil in COMPANY OF WOLVES - "Waste, not, want not,"

And there's more bucolic Devil-worship:

On a lighter note:

? Stephen Arnell 2023