Outlaw
Wild Humphrey's Leap
The bridge was broken. His horse did not care.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Sandstone cave cut in a wooded cliff
- Legend from
- Tudor outlaw tradition
- Tone
- Curious
They pulled the planks from the bridge to catch him. His horse simply jumped the gap.
Humphrey Kynaston, son of a High Sheriff of Shropshire, was outlawed after being found guilty of murder in 1491. He moved into a cave cut in Nesscliffe Rock, which Burne says carries the inscription H. K. 1564, and lived like a Shropshire Robin Hood, fed by local people. His horse, called Beelzebub, was said to be shod backwards to fool pursuers. When the sheriff pulled planks from Montford Bridge to trap him, the horse leapt the gap over the Severn. Other leaps are pointed out across the county. He drank at the Old Three Pigeons inn, and may have been pardoned in 1493.