Our Shropshire Stories
The Goblin of Pontesbury, by Charlie Flynn,
Market Drayton Junior School
winner!
Once upon a time, there was a young boy called Charlie. He lived in a village called Pontesbury in Shropshire. It was a very quiet and peaceful place to live. This did not always please Charlie as there was not very much to do. Whenever he could, he always went outside playing with his friends. Their names were: Ruben, Finley and Connor. Their favourite thing was to walk through the woods and fields making up stories as they went. This particular morning, knowing how bored the boys were becoming, Old Tom, the old man who lived at the end of Charlie's road,
gave him an ancient map. It had all the field names on it: Sorrow Furlong, Old Cross, Calves Close, Woodfoot….he told them to keep the map very safe and to follow the route that he had marked on it… The boys looked forward to this new adventure and talked about maybe finding lost treasure! As they followed the route Old Tom had drawn, they came across a small field which they had never seen before. It was called Goblin Styles Field. They saw a stile in the rusty, old fence, they joked about finding goblins over the stile. As they climbed over they spotted a small, bright green creature, running through the long grass. The boys ran
back to the village screaming “Goblin, goblin!” They told their parents but they didn’t believe them. Charlie was frustrated and angry so he went off to see Old Tom. Charlie took the map and pointed out the field called Goblin Styles Field. Old Tom told him that when he was a boy, the village legend was that goblins lived over the stile, but in all his years nobody had ever seen one. He told Charlie he was an extremely lucky boy! Charlie ran off to find his friends to go back to the field. They took the old map with them and closely followed the route once again. Soon they
this story was inspired by the place-name goblin styles field, in pontesbury - to find out more, click here.
came across the stile in the rusty fence. Once again, they climbed over the stile and looked for the little goblin. In the distance, they spotted the little, bright green goblin running through the grass. Some days they would leave biscuits as treats, the next day they'd all be eaten. The little goblin was a timid creature, never coming too close to the boys. They spent every day that summer goblin spotting. They told their tales to everyone that would listen. No longer did they think their little village was boring. What a great summer it was! Old Tom smiled
to himself as he settled down for the night. He was very tired. Every day he liked to go for a long walk through the woods and fields. He always took with him his faithful companion, his shy little dog Rusty. Rusty was also tired, after all that running around in the fields, he was still wearing his favourite bright green jumper! He loved biscuits too :)
