Return To The High Street

It was forecast that lots of little businesses would go to the wall because of lockdown, but it just doesn't seem to have happened. We walked down Rochester High Street yesterday morning- and all the odd little shops were open and flourishing- and if there were gaps in the array I didn't spot any. Covid monitors were strolling about in high viz jackets- with labels saying "Medway Greeter" on their chests- basically doing the job that affable local police used to do before they were swept off the streets and into offices and squad cars.

We'd gone to Rochester to visit Baggins Book Bazaar- because if anyone has a nice secondhand edition of the complete works of Charles Dickens for sale it should be the very big bookshop in Dickens' home town. And indeed they had such an edition displayed in the window, only...only... only they don't open on a Tuesday. Rats! But never mind, we'll book time off on one of the days they do open and try again.

The Devil's Stone, Newington, Swale

There are various versions of the legend.

One of them tells how the Devil, annoyed by the ringing of the bells of St Mary's church in Newington, decided to steal them and, jumping from the tower, left his footprint on the stone where he landed.

And it must be true because here's the stone and here's the footprint- not a hoofmark as you might expect but the outline of a very large brogue- and not so much an imprint as a raised mark- but that's the Devil for you, always has to do things differently...




The story continues that the Devil dropped the bells- and they fell into a nearby stream. A passing witch told the villagers that the only way they'd get them out was if they hitched them to a couple of pure white oxen- so they found the oxen, hitched them to the bells and all was going swimmingly until a little boy pointed out that one of the oxen had a black spot behind one of its ears- whereupon the bells tumbled back into the stream and were never seen again....

There were originally two stones, sited in or on a bank- probably the remains of a neolithic burial chamber. One of them was broken up in the 1930s and incorporated in a wall (it was noted with much wagging of heads that the two councillors who ordered this done died shortly afterwards.) The other stone, this one, was relocated to a site just outside the churchyard, in what is now a car park.