Fascinating Tales in an this old Parish.
Perhaps the most notable tale in our parish is "The Deerhurst Dragon." It has been told over the centuries in many different ways - it has even been sung about so it`s not surprising that it needs a mention here.
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A WORLD OF FANTASY in DEERHURST CHURCH!As you enter Deerhurst Church open the large wooden door and then look either side of the stone uprights - as you close the door these 2 stone "Beasts Heads," of the Deerhurst Dragon or Serpent as it is sometimes called are still attached to the wall. They were once painted in bright colours and if you look closely there is still evidence of fragments of paint.
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THE OLDEST ACCOUNT THERE IS!There lived in the vicinity of Deerhurst a serpent of prodigious bigness.
It poisoned the people and the cattle and ravanged the land. The King issued a decree " Whoever could rid the land of this menace would receive a grant of Land, the estate of Walton Hill." The task was undertaken by one "John Smith," a labouring man. He went to the serpent`s favourite resting place where he found the beast asleep in the sun. With a mighty blow of his axe he cleaved the head of the serpent from its body so ridding the land of the beast for ever! |
1600 and "Robert Atkyns."Sir Robert Atkyns wrote the earliest account in the 1600s but unfortunately he gives us no idea how old the legend is.
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