Inside the church the tomb of the dragon-slayer Piers Shonks can be seen. He was Lord of the Manor and the earthworks at the site of his moated house can still be seen to the east of the village. Some time during the thirteenth century Piers Shonks slew the fiercesome dragon which lived in a cave beneath an ancient yew tree. He killed it by thrusting his spear down its throat, but this act greatly enraged the Devil, whose favourite the dragon was. He vowed to have Shonks’ body and soul when he died, whether he was buried inside or outside the church. Shonks said that he would choose where he lay after death, and when he was dying he shot an arrow at the church to locate his burial place. 'I'he arrow struck the north wall of the nave, and the tomb was placed inside the wall - out of reach of the Devil, for it is neither inside nor outside the church. Another hero. Jack o’ Kent, cheated the Devil in a similar way, by ensuring that he was buried in the thickness of the wall at Grosmont church (Gwent).
'I'he carvings on Piers Shonks’ tomb show an angel carrying a soul away (which may have initiated the story of the Devil taking Shonks’ soul) and a dragon with a cross in its mouth (which may have initiated the story of the dragon killed by a spear thrust into its mouth). verse above the tomb is thought to have been added in the seventeenth century by the vicar of the time. It is in Latin and English, the English part reading:
O PIERS SHONKS WHO DIED ANNO 1086
Nothing of Cadmus or St George, those names Of great renown, survives them but their fames;
'Pime was so sharp set as to make no Bones Of theirs, nor of their monumental Stones.
But Shonks one serpent kills, t’other defies.
And in this wall, as in a fortress, lies.
World History
