Local Stories in Odstock
Odstock is 3 miles to the south of Salisbury & in the south-east corner of Odstock's cemetery is the burial place of a legendary local figure, Joshua Scamp, a gipsy who was wrongfully hanged for horse-stealing in 1801. Scamp became a martyr among his people, & each year they gathered around his grave on the anniversary of his death, after first drinking extensively to his memory in the Yew Tree Inn nearby. One year, the rector & his churchwardens decided to stop the disorderly celebrations by locking the church door & uprooting a briar rose which the gypsies had planted by Scamp's grave. The gypsies who were very upset indeed, put a curse on anyone who should in future lock the church door, & after sudden death befell two who defied the curse, the rector threw the church key into the River Ebble, where it is said still to lie. Another briar rose has been planted by Scamp's grave, marked...
