There’s them that’s seen a headless horseman riding out of it. They shared a flagon of ale to give them courage. In Southwood the story was the same, and two men of the village – two brothers – tired of seeing their children going to bed with their bellies aching with hunger, decided to try their luck at the Callow Pit. Many families struggled to keep their bellies filled. Of one thing the good rectors of Southwood were certain: it was not Christian gold, and anyone meddling with it was putting his immortal soul in peril.īut times were hard in the years that followed the English Civil War. It was certainly gold, but whether it was a smuggler’s fortune, a viking’s trophy, an Iceni hoard or an offering made to the spirits of the water in some deep forgotten past … no one knows. Tradition is vague as to what the treasure might have been. It was a pit that, according to local legend, held a treasure deep in its dark waters. In the enclosure maps there is a pit marked on the border between the parishes of Southwood and Moulton that is called ‘The Callow Pit’. The latch of the north door is turned by an iron ring that was brought from the nearby church of St Edmund at Southwood when it fell into ruin. The association between door and Devil is doubly strong in the church of St Botolph at Limpenhoe. At the touch of holy water to the head he makes a swift exit through the north door. According to Medieval belief the Devil resides in a child’s soul until the moment of baptism. The north door of a church is commonly known as the Devil’s Door.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |