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’ss 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.
At the time of placing the cache I found the church locked. I have no details of its opening time. There are two curious looking childs graves to the left of the path from the gate to the church entrance door.