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THE RUINS of St Peters church lie to the north eastern edge of Stanton Low Country Park, near Great Linford in Milton Keynes. The church itself dates from at least the early twelfth century, and was originally built for the village of Stantonbury (including Stanton Low and Stanton High).
In or around 1485 the Stanton Low locale was gripped by a ‘werewolf panic’. Throughout much of continental Europe werewolf epidemics (and subsequent persecutions) were relatively common at this time, and generally went hand in glove with witch trials and purges. In Britain, however, where wolves had long been exterminated and were no longer a credible threat, it was generally witches and not werewolves which were seen as the only real and present evil.
Never the less, the village was gripped by primitive fear of the lycanthrope, and with livestock being slain left right and centre, and children going missing – people began to leave. The depopulation of Stanton Low began in earnest in 1487, and by 1516 the exodus was complete.
In 1520 one Thomas Pipe – a seasonal farmhand – was captured by a militia and accused of shape-shifting. He was taken into St Peters Church and restrained by the mob as two priests attempted some kind of exorcism-cum-interrogation. During the ordeal, in which Pipe was blamed for the demise of the settlement and the scattering of its families, the holy men attempted to cast the demons from his body. Pipe was said to have writhed and snarled, cursing that Stanton Low would never again thrive as a homestead, and that the church building would ‘crumble to dust.’ He emitted a long, wolf-like howl, then died.
Over the next 400 years the area was repopulated at least twice, but each attempt was doomed to failure, and the village was mysteriously deserted again on every occasion. The only constant throughout this time was the church, but by 1950 – after seven hundred years of religious service - this too was abandoned, and quickly fell into disrepair.
Whether the curse of the werewolf was to blame for the subsequent desertions, and what this means for the current housing plans is a matter of some speculation , but even now – nearly 500 years after Pipe’s untimely demise – there are occasional reports of eerie howls coming from the empty fields and ruins of Stanton Low on the night of the full moon.
http://mysteriousmiltonkeynes.com/2013/07/09/st-peters-church-and-the-curse-of-the-werewolf/
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