WitchFamous
Scrapfaggot Green Witch Stone
Move the stone, wake the witch, or so the papers said.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Village crossroads and a reputed witch stone
- Legend from
- Second World War
- Tone
- Eerie
Great Leighs ahead, where in 1944 a bulldozer moved a witch's stone and, people said, the whole village went haywire.
In October 1944 the Sunday Pictorial reported chaos at Great Leighs. Sheep strayed, haystacks moved without wind, bells rang at midnight and tools were scattered. The blame fell on army bulldozers, which had widened a lane to a military base and shifted a boulder at a crossroads called Scrapfaggot Green. The boulder was said to cover a burned witch. The ghost-hunter Harry Price was called in, the stone was put back, and the trouble stopped. Records do show local witchcraft cases, but the Anne Hughes often named was acquitted and died in 1669. Locals later admitted the events were tricks played on the London journalist.