Dragon
The Deerhurst dragon
Wait till the scales lift.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Saxon church in flat river meadows
- Legend from
- Gloucestershire folk tale
- Tone
- Dramatic
A labourer, a pail of milk and an axe.
A dragon at Deerhurst near Tewkesbury poisoned the villagers and ate their cattle. The crown offered an estate in the parish to whoever killed it. Gloucestershire Archives says a labourer, John Smith, left milk at its lair. When it lay down full in the sun with its scales lifted, he cut off its head with an axe. The Smiths still had the estate and the axe in the 18th century. Carved dragon heads can be seen at the church.