Ghost
Margaret of the Fox Earth
She lived in a hole in the hill. The register remembered.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Sandstone cave in woodland on the Edge
- Legend from
- Parish register, 1617
- Tone
- Curious
In 1617 the parish clerk wrote down a death: Margaret of the fox earth. This was her cave.
Nanny's Rock is a cave cut into the sandstone of Kinver Edge, and it was once known as Meg-o-Fox-Hole. The old name is linked to a real woman. On 8 June 1617 the Kinver parish register recorded the death of 'Margaret of the fox earth', who is believed to have lived in this cave. She is the earliest documented resident of any of the Kinver rock houses, which were later home to whole families until the mid-20th century. Who she was, and why she lived in a fox's earth, the register does not say, and the read sources give no further story about her.