Sir Piers Shonks is the dragon-slayer of Brent Pelham in Hertfordshire, remembered as a benevolent giant, twenty feet tall, who was lord of the manor and rid the district of a monstrous serpent that lairing in a cave beneath an ancient yew. Riding out from his moated house with his hounds, he drove his lance down the dragon's throat and killed it.
The story
No sooner was the beast dead than the Devil appeared, furious at the loss of his favourite, and swore to have Shonks's soul whether he were buried inside the church or outside it. Dying, Shonks called for his bow and loosed a last arrow, vowing to be buried wherever it fell; it flew across the village and struck the north wall of St Mary's church, lodging in the stone — and there he was entombed, neither within the church nor without, so cheating the Devil of his claim. His coffin-slab, carved with a cross, a dragon, and an angel bearing up a soul, is set into the church wall at Brent Pelham to this day.