Tales abound in which the Devil, or a boggart, are duped in competitions involving the harvesting of crops. What follows is a local variant of a story that is commonly called ‘Bottoms and Tops’.

A boggart – in this case, ‘a squat hairy man, strong as a six-year-old horse, and with arms almost as long as tackle poles’ – visits a farmer who has just bought a plot of land, and announces that he is the rightful owner. The farmer says this should be settled by legal process, but the boggart ‘will have naught to do wi’ law’ and suggests they should share the produce from the land between them. The farmer agrees, and suggests one takes what grows above ground and the other what grows beneath. The boggart agrees, and chooses what grows above ground, so the farmer plants potatoes. The next year, he chooses what grows below ground, so the farmer sows wheat. The third year, the boggart suggests that wheat should be sown again, and that the two of them should each then start cutting from opposite ends and take home as much as he reaps. The farmer agrees, consults a wiseman, and then studs the boggart’s side of the field with iron rods, which wear out both the boggart and his blade. The boggart, thrice defeated, says he’ll have nothing to do with the land anymore, and thereafter he confines himself to scaring locals at night and stealing people’s dinner and tools when he gets the chance.

A version called ‘Man and Boggard’ is included by Bottesford (near Scunthorpe) native Mabel Peacock in Tales and Rhymes in the Lindsey Folk-speech (1886), from which the quotations above are taken. The story was also included by Peacock and Eliza Gutch in Examples of Printed Folk-Lore Concerning Lincolnshire (1908), where it is claimed to originate from Mumby (though in truth this is a common tale well beyond Lincolnshire). You can consult the original text here. It is retold with Lincolnshire twists  by Maureen James in Lincolnshire Folk Tales (2013), by Susanna O’Neill in Folklore of Lincolnshire (2012), by Polly Howat in Ghosts and Legends of Lincolnshire and the Fen Country (1992), by Michael Wray in 13 Traditional Ghost Stories from Lincolnshire (2003), and by Adrian Gray in Tales of Old Lincolnshire (1990). Jeremy Harte, in Cloven Country (2022), is one of several authors to discuss variants of the tale throughout Britain.

Words by RORY WATERMAN