Devil
The Devil's Six Clods
Six grassy mounds by the road, flung here by a bad-tempered Devil.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Six grassy Roman burial mounds beside the road
- Legend from
- Roman mounds, undated tale
- Tone
- Light-hearted
On your left soon are the Six Hills, six earth clods the Devil is said to have flung at travellers on the Great North Road, and missed every time.
Beside the old Great North Road at Stevenage stand six grassy mounds, really Roman burial barrows. Folklore gives them a livelier origin. The Devil, sitting idle and watching travellers pass along the road, decided to amuse himself by pelting them with clods of earth, which he dug out of Whomerley Wood. His aim was poor and all six throws missed, landing in a line beside the road as the Six Hills. In a temper he hurled a seventh clod over his shoulder; it flew to Graveley and struck the church, which is how the spire came to be knocked askew. The pits in the wood mark his digging.