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Summary

A pile of stones near the start of the lichroad at Churston Ferrers Church was believed to have been the site of a cross and where the church was to have been built. Tradition has it that funeral processions once made a circuit around the stones until the tenant of a neighbouring farm built a wall blocking access.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX95NW/10/4

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CAIRN (Early Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1750 AD (Between))

Full description

Doe, G. (ed), 1885, Eighth Report of the Committee on Devonshire Folklore, 123 (Article in Serial). SDV304128.

Funeral processions, up until about the 1840s, made a circuit around a pile of stones near the start of the lichroad near Churston Church. It was believed that a cross once stood here and that the church was to have been built here but for the devil's interference. The practice stopped when the tenant of a neighbouring farm building a wall and blocking access to the stones.

Amery, P.F.S. (ed), 1895, Thirteenth Report of the Committee on Devonshire Folklore., 64-65 (Article in Serial). SDV362513.

The current Rector of Highweek reported that as curate at Churston Ferrers from 1856-1861 he had been aware of the tradition of walking around the pile of stones but had been unable to verify the story. He understood from an elderly gentleman who had been resident in the parish for 65 years that the wall had been built many years ago as he remembered folk talking about it when he was a boy.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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