Witch · Long Compton / Little Rollright · Famous
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Seven strides. Then stone.
See it clearly
Roadside site on a minor road off the A3400; the Rollright Trust asks a small fee for the stone circle. Check before you go.
Seven strides to a crown. On the seventh, the ground rose up, and a witch had her king.
On the ridge between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire a lone, leaning stone stands across the road from a ring of weathered stones. The story says a king marching with his army met a witch, who told him: 'Seven long strides shalt thou take, and if Long Compton thou canst see, King of England thou shalt be.' On his seventh stride a mound rose and hid the view. The witch turned the king to stone, and his men too. She became an elder tree, still said to be in the hedge. Cut it, and the spell breaks.