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Devil's Stone

A Devon village turns a one-tonne rock every November to keep the Devil under it

At 8pm on the fifth of November the bell ringers of Shebbear ring the church bells wildly to scatter evil spirits, walk to the village square, and lever a one-tonne stone over with crowbars while the crowd cheers. The Devil dropped it on himself during a fight with the Archangel Michael and is pinned underneath; local reckoning gives him exactly a year to dig through, hence the annual flip. Visit any other day and the proof is still there — the dent in the ground where the stone sat last year.

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