The Devils' Boot

When the Devil came stomping through the Buckinghamshire countryside a few hundred years ago, terrifying the inhabitants and leaving destruction and chaos in his wake, a group of locals armed with clubs, pitchforks and an old sword gathered at the village of Soulbury to confront and stop him.

The Devil's Boot, Soulbury

In the ensuing battle, they succeeded in cutting off his foot. As the Devil fled from the scene his disembodied foot immediately turned to stone. They left the boulder where it lay and it became known as "The Devil's Boot".

Over time the village grew around it and today it lies embedded in the roadway in the middle of a T-junction.

In 2016 a motorist crashed into it and demanded £18,000 compensation from the local Council. The Council decided to remove the stone as a health and safety and risk mitigation measure.

But the local villagers, like their predecessors centuries before, took up arms against their modern day opponents and threatened to chain themselves to their special rock and fight the council through the courts if it tried to move the Devil's Boot from its traditional resting place in the village.

Like their predecessors they won the battle and drove off the enemy and the boulder still lies proudly in the middle of the road where it has been for centuries.

Less poetically inclined persons might try to tell you that it is a merely a "glacial erratic", a random boulder originating from Derbyshire and deposited by the Anglian Glacier as it retreated up the Vale of Aylesbury 11,000 years ago, but we know better.

Witch Marks

Three intriguing images are carved into the stonework of the doorframe of St Michael's, a well-preserved Norman church in the village of Stewkley.

They look like partial wagon wheels, each the size of a saucer or side plate. 

The one at the top at head height is a "mass dial". It's a miniature sundial; in medieval times the priest would place a small rod on the centre dot to form the gnomon and as its shadow fell onto the various radial lines it would tell him the correct times to conduct mass. 

The other two - one half way up on the right and one near the bottom at knee height are very different. They are witch marks. 

Something strange must have happened in the church or local area, and the superstitious villagers carved their rough versions of the priest's "magic" symbol to protect the church from evil spirits and ward off witches.