{"id":339,"date":"2022-06-06T16:48:52","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T16:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triskelepublishing.com\/weirdstonewalk\/?page_id=339"},"modified":"2022-06-06T19:57:26","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T19:57:26","slug":"thieves-hole","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/triskelepublishing.com\/weirdstonewalk\/thieves-hole\/","title":{"rendered":"Thieves Hole"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Approximate Location<\/strong>
OS Grid Reference: SJ 8590 7730
Latitude: 53.29.27N Longitude: 2.21.09W<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The location of the meeting point of the farmer and the wizard in\u00a0The Legend of Alderley<\/em><\/a>. The wizard initially appears at Thieves Hole and offers to buy the farmer’s milk-white horse on the latter’s journey from Mobberley to Macclesfield. Then, after a luckless day at market, the wizard once again makes an offer on the farmer’s return journey – again appearing at Thieves Hole before conducting the journey<\/a> to the Iron Gates<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The area known as Thieves Hole lies to the south of the track which leads from the Wizard<\/a>, via Seven Firs<\/a>, to Goldenstone<\/a>. It is a small area of woodland which has grown up within a shallow mineral extraction site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Holloway at Thieves Hole, looking south-west (Credit: James Wright)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In an article entitled By Sevenfirs and Goldenstone: An Account of the Legend of Alderley<\/em>, Alan Garner<\/a> has noted that the place-name Thieves Hole may have grown up from from Anglo-Saxon “hola” meaning “holloway” or a track worn and sunken into the earth. Furthermore, he has noted a reference in a mediaeval charter for Rolleston (Staffordshire) dated 1008, which describes a section of a manorial boundary on Alderley Edge: ‘to the thorn where the thieves lie’.<\/em> He has then interpreted this as a place of execution at a possible crossroads of the lane between the Wizard and Goldenstone<\/a> in one direction and a farm track leading towards the Beacon<\/a> in the other. As such Thieves Hole may have been a liminal zone where the boundaries with the supernatural world were historically considered to be at their thinnest – just the sort of place for a farmer to meet a wizard!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Locations<\/a><\/blockquote>