DevilFamous
The church that moved uphill
Build it below, and it walks up the hill by night.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Hilltop medieval church above thatched village
- Legend from
- Local legend
- Tone
- Curious
Every night the stones crept uphill, and every morning the builders found them laid out again.
Godshill church stands on a knoll above one of the island's prettiest villages. The parish council's own telling says the villagers marked out a church in a field below and built all day. Every morning they found the stones, pegs and tools moved up the hill and laid out perfectly. At last they gave in and built it on the hilltop. Notes from the Isle of Wight Folk Archive, drawing on Long's 1886 dialect book, add that the field below is called the Devil's Acre. One version blames the fairies instead.