The Devil went down to Shropshire

Writing in the new Fortean Times, Francis Young notes that the Devil of English folklore

is a considerably less threatening figure than the Devil of theology and often becomes the dupe of saints in folk-hagiographies. While the Devil of folklore is a foil for saints and serves to explain landscape features and prehistoric monuments.

There aren't many saints in Shropshire these days, but Owd Scratch (as the Devil is known in the county) remained a presence there until recently. 

Amy Boucher has collected some tales of his interventions, including one from her own grandfather, who was convinced he had met him one Sunday in Ironbridge when bunking off church to play cards.

Fear of the Devil is said to have killed a boy as recently as 1915, but the for the most part his interventions seem random and rather trivial for him to spend his time on.

When it comes to explaining Shropshire landscape features, it's the outcrop called the Devil's Chair on the ridge of the Stiperstones that gets most attention. Amy Boucher has discussed these legends too, in a Shropshire Star article that includes a 1958 photograph that captured some members of Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine Club.

Talking of the Lone Piners reminds me that in Seven White Gates the Morton twins claimed to have met Owd Scratch in his chair:

"Well - comin' up the mountain, Dickie and me swore a deadly oath that we'd dance in that old Devil's Chair, and we would have done that only his curse must have come upon us..."

"Just as we were scrambling and fighting our way up inch by inch..."

"An' the vultures were screamin' around our heads..."

"An' just as we came to the last and worst bit. then the old Devil said, 'No, you don't, Dickie and Mary..."

"'Just get out o' my throne,' he said."

"And then, before we could do anything else, and I could leap up there and dance like we said we would in our oath, there was an awful crash and blue lightning..."

"Goin' bang, crackle, BANG all around us..."

"Gosh! It was awful, but we were brave, and then the rain came and more lightnings came out of the throne."

It's hard to decide who must have been more frightened: the Devil or the twins.

And if you listen to Amy Boucher's audio drama The Best of Men (part 1 and part 2) you may find that Owd Scratch has not finished with Shropshire yet.