Sunday 3 October 2010

Dead Maids' Green-Grocer's

Oh, all right then, here's the 'real' story.

For years, I have been driving through the area near Upton Scudamore (yes, I really did work in Shaftesbury for a few months) called 'Dead Maids', and wonder why it was named so. I have only just got around to finding out.

The explanation which involves the two virgins who assisted a highwayman from The Black Dog and were hanged for their pains, is a 19th century story regarding an 18th or 17th century myth, it seems. What is probably the real reason is more to do with the poor standard of English amongst Department of Transport sign-makers, who were desperate not to be lumped in with green-grocers in the eyes of the public, when it comes to the misuse of apostrophes.

It seems that the area of land was owned by a spinster of the parish who died intestate, and - over the years - people came to refer to this place as 'Dead Maid's Land, rather like 'No-Man's Land'.

Why Cro should choose to believe that I had unearthed a dead monk, but not believe the rest of it is the real mystery. Oh, and by the way, the 'Thoulstone' you can see in the sign above, used to be 'Ghoulstone'. Do you believe me?

11 comments:

  1. And I don't think a dead walled-up monk was ever found at my old school either!

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  2. 2 parts interest + 4 parts skepticism. A healthy recipie for your stories Tom...and you too Cro, so it turns out!

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  3. They all have a grain of truth in them, and most of them are 100% true. I've come clean about this one (not that I needed to) so trust me as far as you could throw me.

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  4. Your story writing skills are second to none, I wasn't totally convinced but not far off. What about your comment for me about you as a child, what that true?
    Be careful, your nose might grow...:)

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  5. Remind me, Suzanne - what what that true?

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  6. P.S. - thanks for the writing compliment, Suzanne - I am forgetting my manners!

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  7. "What that true", oops - was it true about the woman you saw as a child when you were ill, or was that another leg pull?

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  8. The motherly woman at my bedside is true, Suzanne. She appeared in the darkness at the height of my fever and smiled at me. I knew all was going to be well, and went to sleep.

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  9. Thanks. I'm glad it was true. Don't know why, just am.

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  10. We all have a guardian angle, Suzanne. It's only mad people who think that theirs is an Egyptian King or Native American... but then again...

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  11. Angel - not Angle! (Julius Caesar said the same thing when he first arrived in Britain and was presented with a little, British boy...)

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