The Egg Pudding Stone

  It is a cold, clear December night. There is a full moon, though in the low lying areas and along the rivers and streams a dense mist has gathered, giving an eerie feel to the night. A small crowd of six people have gathered at the crossroads just north of Broughton Lodge, in an area known as Saint Andrews Moor. All the gathered company are young and unattached, perhaps mid teenagers, three girls and three boys. Two of the boys are kneeling at the edge of the road, staring intently at a large egg shaped rock, approximately three feet long and two feet high. This rock is unlike any other in the Cartmel area, being green in colour, and of course the egg shape distinguishes it from any others. The year is 1820, and the country is going through a period of great change, though old traditions and superstitions still exist. In by-gone years many of these cross roads would have a stone cross erected, a focal point for religious ceremonies before any of the churches had been built. It was also a tradition at that time for executed criminals to be buried at these religious cross roads, after a wooden stake had been driven through their hearts in an effort to drive off any evil residing there, and this tradition had created an atmosphere of fear and dread at such places, particularly after nightfall.  It is almost midnight, and the tradition has it that at the precise moment that the Cartmel Church clock strikes twelve midnight, the egg shaped stone, known locally as the “Egg Pudding Stone”, would turn over!  The group of youths studying the stone are in high spirits, their visit to the “egg pudding stone” is in response to a “dare” made by friends, friends who at this moment were safe and sound in their parents homes, sleeping soundly most probably. One of the crouching boys was casting a made up on the spot spell upon the stone, encouraging it to do its turn so to speak. “Oh egg shaped stone of colour green, please turn over for - - - for King and Queen!.” All the girls who were giggling and laughing, though at the same time fully aware of the ghosts and ghouls that haunted this spot, looked all about them with a feeling of excitement and fear in their stomachs, a feeling that we have all felt at some time or other.  The church clock began its midnight strike, and at that precise moment a nearby owl gave a loud ear piercing screech, and a flock of geese flew across the moon. The two crouching boys fell forward in shock, rolling the egg pudding stone over as they did so. The girls gave a head shattering communal scream, and shot off down the road in the direction of Cartmel, as fast as their legs could carry them. The boys followed the girls closely on their heels, they too yelling out in fear as loud as they possibly could. This terrible screaming almost sparked another legend; everyone in the village of Cartmel almost two miles away heard it. “What on earth could it be? Are we being invaded?”, asked one lady of her husband as she hurriedly began to hide the family valuables.

  The story of the nights visit to the egg pudding stone soon got around though, in fact it spread like wild fire, everyone sighed a sigh of relief, and knowing nods and winks were extremely common. Of course the story fully explained the inhuman screaming heard that terrible night. This one nights work would assure the continuation of the “egg pudding stone” legend for years to come. After all, the stone had turned in front of their very eyes. The owl and the geese were magically transformed into the fearsome ghost of a long dead highwayman, who– “Screamed the most ghoulish scream.” “After all, why else would we run all the way back to Cartmel ?”… The above story is mine, but the legend is recorded in the Annals of Cartmel. There is good evidence that the “egg pudding stone” existed, and indeed still exists. The cross roads are not far from Cartmel, just north of Broughton Lodge, and were known as “four lane ends”. (I believe one of these lanes is known locally, to this day, as “Egg Pudding Lane.”) The nearby moor surrounding Broughton Lodge was named Saint Andrews moor, and Mr Stockdale in his Annals Of Cartmel suggests that it was the shape of the cross roads, being roughly formed in the shape of the Saint Andrew’s Cross, that gave the moor it’s name. Mr Stockdale also suggests that in earlier times there could possibly have been a stone cross at “four lane ends”, dedicated to Saint Andrew, similar to the one at “Headless Cross” in Cartmel. He continues, and here I quote:- “According to Dr. Whitaker, the personal ministry of Paulinus was not immediately followed by the erection of churches, in England, or even chapels and oratories; but stone crosses were set up in the first instance, particularly where any remarkable event had occurred, or at any remarkable places, and at these crosses the people and clergy assembled for the purpose of devotion, and where, even the communion was celebrated. 

  Afterwards chapels and oratories were at such places erected, and ultimately, but not at every one of them, churches were built. Large as the parish of Cartmel is, there are not many cross-roads in it; that is, four roads crossing each other. At these places, in former days, criminals executed used to be buried, a stake being driven through their bodies; and this may, in superstitious times, have caused well known dread many persons felt on passing these places in the night, as has been stated was the case at Egg-Pudding-Stone, it having ever had the reputation of being haunted or uncanny.” As stated, originally the “Egg Pudding Stone” lay by the side of two tracks where they crossed, near Saint Andrews Moor, but when these tracks were fenced at the time of the enclosure of common lands, it was incorporated into one of the walls as a foundation stone, and presumably lost it’s magic?

  Once again, circa 1850, the road was widened and improved, after a Mr Edward Burton, auctioneer, of Kendal, his “gig” having rolled over at this place, broke his leg, and the “Egg Pudding Stone” for a second time found a new home in the foundation of one of the new walls. We are assured in the “Annals Of Cartmel” that a Mr Gray Rigge, of Wood-Broughton, took great care to see that our famous stone was “replaced as nearly as possible in a similar position in the foundation of the new wall.”

England’s Last Wolf and The Egg Pudding Stone  - Alan James Gilpin