In the times before the Vikings first came to Lindsey, and during a period of drought, a big sea captain known as Little Grim heard about two magic stones in the possession of the Danish king that, when hit with sticks of hazel, would make rain fall, cattle flourish, and crops grow. He set off to steal them with his confidante, Boundel. However, though they were not very large, the stones made Grim and Boundel’s ship start to sink, and they barely made the voyage home. Thereafter, only Grim and Boundel were able to carry the stones, so they set off, with one apiece, to give them to King Lud. As Grim crossed Grainsby Bridge, it gave way, and he nearly died. They struggled on to Audleby (now an abandoned village, and where we have dropped this pin), but then had to give up on the project because the stones had grown too heavy to lift. They told the locals, and indeed it transpired that hitting the stones with hazel made corn grow and rain come on demand.

Maureen James tells this tale in Lincolnshire Folk Tales (2013), collected from a nineteenth-century source in Caistor. The ‘Grim Stone’ is now beside the Havelok Stone (see entry ‘Havelok and Grim’) in Grimsby.

Words by RORY WATERMAN