The Devil's Chimney is a freestone limestone column on the edge of Leckhampton Hill, south of Cheltenham. Wikipedia says it was probably left standing by 18th century quarrymen, who quarried around it, and that evidence suggests it existed before 1795 to 1803. An incline cut behind it is what isolated the pillar from the hillside.
The folk story says the Devil was angered by the local churches and hurled stones at people going to church on Sundays from the hill. The villagers' stones were turned back against him, driving him underground, and he is trapped there still. The pillar is the chimney through which his smoke escapes.
A custom is said to have grown up of leaving a coin on the rock as payment to the Devil, to keep him in his underground home and out of mischief. The pillar was in danger of collapse from erosion by the 1960s and was repaired in the 1980s.
The legend itself has no early written source in the pages found, so it is tagged traditional. A directory of Cheltenham hauntings also lists it as a legend without reported sightings.
Comments