The Giant Childe of Hale

In March of 1985 I was freelancing photos to magazines and was particularly successful with those of things that had a story attached. In the trade they were called curiosity photos.

This is the cottage of a certain John Childe. He was born in 1578 and lived in this cottage in Hale in what is now Merseyside. He was a giant of a man. He grew to an incredible nine feet and three inches tall (2.82 metres).

When he was inside the cottage he could only stand up in the very centre of it with his head up in the eaves.

He was taken to Court to see King James I where he fought and broke the thumb of the King's Champion. James wasn't too pleased at that, but gave him half a crown and sent him home!

In later years his height was thought to have been exaggerated but, when his grave was opened, the bones proved the height of nine feet three inches. The local pub is named The Childe of Hale in his honour.

Hale also has this row of thatched cottages opposite the village green and a lighthouse on the shore.

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Stretford Great Stone

Back in March 1983 I'd come across a reference to this curiosity whilst researching for a book I was writing on the King Arthur legend. The book was written but has remained unpublished until I get some real time to revise it and sort out a few unrealistic time frames! Probably a retirement project, but seeing as it has waited almost 30 years a few more won't make too much difference!

Let me introduce you to the Stretford Great Stone. Probably dropped here by mischance by some ice age glacier, it's a sizeable chunk of millstone grit. For ages it rested alongside Great Stone Road - wonder where they got that name from... but it was moved in 1925 to a small park nearby. I must go again someday but from photos I've seen it is almost hidden by undergrowth now.

It may have been the base of a cross shaft at some time, but there are two indentations, not one. Perhaps someone made a hash of the first one? There is a strong tradition that it was used as a plague stone in the 14th century, the holes being filled with either holy water or (far more effective) vinegar to disinfect coins passing in and out of the village during time of plague.

So what is the link to King Arthur? In the later Arthurian tales Lancelot fights a giant, Tarquin, at Castlefield in Manchester. There is a legend that Tarquin threw the stone from there, several miles away. The holes are the marks made by his thumb and finger!

Lancelot was invented in Norman times, 700 years after Arthur - if he existed - would have lived. I rather suspect that this tale may have been similarly invented...!

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