Piers Shonks, the Dragon Slayer who cheated the Devil

Coming up is Brent Pelham church, where a dragon-slaying lord is buried inside the wall itself, neither in the church nor out of it, to cheat the Devil.

Set into the north wall of the nave is an ancient black marble tomb carved with the symbols of the Evangelists and a cross driven into a dragon's jaws. Local tradition says it holds Piers Shonks, lord of the manor, a giant of a man who hunted down a dragon living beneath an old yew outside the village and killed it by thrusting his spear down its throat. The Devil, furious at losing his favourite beast, swore to claim Shonks whether he was buried inside the church or out. When Shonks lay dying he fired an arrow that struck the church wall, and he was buried within the wall itself, beyond the Devil's reach.