Witch
Mitchell's Sieve
A sieve under a cow that gives forever never fills.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Bronze Age stone circle on open hill
- Legend from
- Folk tale, recorded 1700s
- Tone
- Curious
She milked the fairy cow into a sieve. Now she stands in stone, ringed so she can never leave.
Mitchell's Fold is a Bronze Age stone circle on Stapeley Hill near Corndon. Burne tells how, in a time of famine, a fairy white cow appeared and let everyone fill one pail of milk each day. A wicked old witch called Mitchell milked her into a riddle, or sieve, until she ran dry. The cow vanished and, some say, went to Warwickshire to become the Dun Cow killed by Guy of Warwick. Mitchell was turned to stone, and the other stones were set round her so she could never escape. Burne notes the tale in Gough's Camden and in Hartshorne's account of 1840.