Giant of the Wrekin

The Wrekin rises 1,335 feet from the flat Shropshire plain near Telford — an isolated, unmissable hill that has attracted legend since at least the Iron Age, when it was crowned with a major hillfort. The folk explanation for its existence involves a Welsh giant of malicious intent.

The giant had conceived a grudge against Shrewsbury and set out from Wales with an enormous spadeful of earth, intending to dam the River Severn and drown the town. Near Wellington he met a cobbler making his way home, recognised as such by the enormous bundle of worn boots on his back. When the giant asked how far it was to Shrewsbury, the cobbler — suspecting mischief — showed him the pile of boots and said he had worn all of them out walking from there. The giant, dismayed by the distance, threw down his spade-load where he stood and went home. The mound became the Wrekin; the smaller heap of earth scraped from his boot became the nearby hill of the Ercall.

Versions of this legend attach to several other Shropshire and Welsh hills, but the Wrekin's version is the best known, and the phrase 'all friends round the Wrekin' remains a Shropshire toast.