The Roaring Bull of Bagbury

  

Legend tells of an evil squire who once lived at Bagbury, near Hyssington, a few miles east of Montgomery. He was such a tyrant to his tenants, it is said, that when he died his soul could find no rest and he came back in the form of a monstrous bull. It haunted the lanes with flaming eyes and great, fearsome horns, and its loud roaring caused such reverberations that shutters, boards and tiles flew off buildings.       Villagers sought the help of the parson of St. Etheldreda's church, Hyssington. He confronted the monster, reciting prayers and reading aloud from the Bible, and the creature began to shrink.

People from miles around assembled in a great circle around the beast, gradually drawing in upon it and manoeuvring it into the church.       The parson went up into the pulpit, where he continued preaching at it until nightfall, by which time it was no larger than a small dog.        But when the parson's candle burnt out, he was forced to stop preaching, and the bull began to grow again. It got bigger and bigger, filling St. Etheldreda's until cracks started to appear in the walls.

But it was now so huge that it could not escape through the church door, so the parson and villagers felt they could safely leave it until the following morning.       Next day the process was repeated, but this time the villagers made sure there was a plentiful supply of candles. Once again, the bull began to diminish in size until, by midnight, it was smaller than it had been at the end of the previous day. The problem then arose about safely disposing of the creature. A receptacle of some sort was needed in which it could be secured. The story goes that one of the villagers offered his boot, into which the tiny bull was placed, the laces then being tied tightly to prevent its escape. It was then carefully buried beneath the doorstep of St. Etheldreda's, the parson making many prayers and signs to bind it there.

       Such is the legend of the Roaring Bull of Bagbury. Cracks in the walls of the old St. Etheldreda's church, Hyssington, were seen as corroboration of the story. In fact, there is a known history of earth tremors in the area which, apart from causing the cracks, would have been responsible for the other damage to buildings and for the noises that resembled the creature's bellowing. The church was rebuilt in 1875.
      It is believed there was an ox worshipping cult in ancient Britain before the arrival of Christianity, and that this area was populated by a farming, cattle-based community. Stone circles here also testify to it being a place of some religious significance. Many of them have been destroyed, but there still exists the fourteen stones of Mitchell's Fold on the end of Stapeley Hill.
      And so the Bagbury Bull story may be a folk-memory of the confrontation between Christianity and the Old Religion, the pagan ox/bull being overcome and symbolically buried by the new faith. Like many other Christian churches, St. Etheldreda's would have been erected on an existing site of religious significance to ensure continuity of worship at a particular place. Another interesting point is that certain poisonous toadstools, dried and ingested in very minute doses by prehistoric shamans, could induce the feeling of growing and shrinking, such an important feature in the legend itself.

      Around the turn of the century, it is said, some revelers were drinking one Saturday night at an Inn in Churchstoke, Powys. Night drew on, and the beer began to flow more freely. One of them suggested they go to nearby Hyssington and dig up the Bagbury Bull. They made their way drunkenly to the church, spades in hand, only to be forcefully turned back at the churchyard gate by a body of Hyssington men. "Go home and forget what you had intended! It is well we heard in good time of your intentions. This wilful act of desecration would have unleashed upon us a terrible power that has been safely kept under control these good many years."
      This says something about the regard locals had for their legend. But whether or not the episode really took place depends on the extent of the rebuilding. Was the doorstep of the church lifted and replaced, giving the demon its chance to escape? If it was, then legend says the Bull will grow to an enormous size and terrorise the parish once more. One would like to think it remains undisturbed. But I am recently told of a man who swears he met the Bull one winter night in Bagbury Lane...

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