Country Lore and Legends

Country Lore and Legends gathers English tales rooted in particular places, drawing on the larger county-by-county work The Lore of the Land by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson. Its entries bring together local myths, legends and reports of supernatural happenings passed down through generations.

The selection ranges from stone-throwing giants in Cornwall and a haunted Northumberland mine to Oxfordshire’s ghostly Mistletoe Bride and the bloody hand associated with a Kent church. These varied accounts show how landscapes, buildings and remembered events become attached to stories of ghosts, monsters and other uncanny figures, offering a concise introduction to England’s place-based folklore.