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The Pottle o’ Brains
A foolish lad tells his mother he would like to buy a pottle of brains because he is tired of being stupid, and she gives him permission to see the wisewoman of the village. The wisewoman asks him to bring the heart of what he loves best, and he decides…
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Slash Hollow Boulder
A boulder near Winceby, on the site of the Battle of Winceby (1643) – in which Oliver Cromwell was almost killed but eventually proved triumphant – is said to mark the location of buried treasure, but whoever tries to move the rock is destined to fail.
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Yallery Brown
A feckless farm labourer, Tom, is walking to the farm when he hears what he thinks is the cry of a baby. He discovers Yallery Brown, pinned down by a big flat rock. Tom removes the rock, and Yallery offers to do him a favour in return, but demands never to be thanked. The lad…
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The Fonaby Sack Stone
In one legend associated with this stack of rocks that apparently used to be one large boulder shaped like a sack, the seventh-century Roman missionary St Paulinus rides through this area and sees a farmer sowing corn. He asks whether he might have some for his ailing ass, but the farmer refuses…
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Crowland Abbey & the Devil
It was 869, and the monks of Crowland Abbey – then on an island in the Fens – had allegedly taken to debauchery and blasphemy, despite the protestations of Abbot Theodore. Suddenly, the walls shook…
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The Melton Ross Gallows
The remains of a (fairly modern) gallows, which looked like an unpainted and overly square football goal, was visible just North-west of Barnetby le Wold, in layby on junction of Coskills and A18, until 2020, when they mysteriously disappeared…
Lincolnshire Folk Tales Project 