Does anyone remember this poem? It was kindly sent to me by my cousin who still lives in Shropshire, and was read to her by her Father as a child in the 1950's. She has given me permission to put it on this site hoping the people from the Stiperstones will remember it.
THE STIPERSTONES
T’was long ago the Ludlow people vexed the Devil very sore
He vowed to stone their homes and steeples until they were no more
On Cranberries Hill he then collected his apron full of rocks and stones
With these missiles he expected he could break the peoples bones
Swiftly crossing roads and rivers past the peasant people's homes
Through the land of peaceful livers till he reached the Stiperstones
O’er the mountain dark and dreare hurried satan on his way
Vowing war and strife and riot on the people miles away
Suddenly the strings were broken in a heap the stones all fell
And he left them as a token of his presence there to tell
Then cursed he Ludlow and it’s tower from the top of Stiperstones
In the fury of the hour built a chair of rocks and stones
And tis said at midnight hour when the moon is rising high
Satan sits in state and power while the ghosts of dead men cry
Then the spirits gather round him as the moonbeams light the sky
And rejoyce that they have found him sitting in his royal chair
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A new one to me, but perhaps not to locals. (Have sat in the Devil's Chair at midnight. Eerie, but that is from all the quartz shimmering in moonlight).