History legend
Gaveston's Cross
Hear the bells on Blacklow Hill.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Stone cross among trees
- Legend from
- Leek Wootton tradition
- Tone
- Dark
Bells with no church on a dark hill.
Piers Gaveston, favourite of Edward II, was killed on Blacklow Hill on 19 June 1312. Warwickshire World says a memorial has been on the hill since at least Dugdale's time (1656), first as words cut into the rock, and a cross now stands there. Visit Warwickshire adds a legend that his head rolled under a furze bush and that faint bells are heard there; only it tells that part.