Surrey Live, drawing on the Paranormal Database, describes the Red Adder as a snake the colour of burning coals whose bite meant death. Another listing places the snake in the countryside around Leith Hill in the nineteenth century, where it struck fear into the locals.
Real adders are Britain's only native venomous snake, but they are not a plain red colour and a bite is not usually fatal to an adult, so the legend as told does not match the animal. Whether it grew out of a colour variant of the common adder or is pure invention is not something the sources say.
No witness, year or place more precise than Leith Hill is recorded in the sources found, so the pin is on the hill and approximate, and the story is classed as a traditional legend.
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