The Entrance to the Otherworld - Hetty Pegler's Tump
The fairy folk were once believed to live inside hills. People
believed that those who were out late at night might hear
the sounds of revelry coming from inside fairy hills. Those who
went inside and feasted with the fairies might stay only for a
day, but when they came forth into the sunlight they found a hundred years had passed.
The central Cotswold area has seventy or so of these fairy hills, and they are hollow, and fairies do live in them, for it is no secret to those who study folklore that fairies were something other than beautiful winged sprites. Fairies were the ghosts of the long-dead.
One of the best examples of a fairy hill is Belas Knap (above left) in the Winchcombe area, dating from about 2000 BC. At a local high point of the Cotswold Edge, with a view for dozens of miles, neolithic tribespeople built a huge long barrow 178 feet long and 18 feet high and placed within it the bodies of 38 people. It represents a massive effort of labour (although one must remember the Egyptians were building pyramids at this time, and it is a molehill compared with the immense artificial mound of Silbury Hill at Avebury). The four, small internal chambers are formed and roofed by massive stones. The false entrance is formed by meticulous and very uniform dry stone walling. The purpose may have been burial, but doubt has been thrown on this by the placement of the bodies, which does not suggest reverence.
The local name for a long barrow is a tump, and if you
don't mind getting down on your hands and knees in the dirt then
you should visit Hetty Pegler's Tump near Uley. You will need a torch to see
the stonework inside the Tump. You should stay inside for
two minutes at the very most, otherwise you will find that the whole day has passed
you by and it is already tomorrow morning. Eat nothing, or the fairies
will never let you go.
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Copyright Digital Brilliance 1995