The Odstock Curse

Noah Lee and Mary Scamp brought the two local Gypsy families together with their wedding, but tragedy followed. Noah was a light-fingered lad and had made the mistake of stealing from his mother, who cursed the thief before she knew it was her son. The curse began when Noah stole the coat of Joshua Scamp, Mary’s dad’s. Because of that, Joshua was arrested for horse thieving when it was Noah who’d done the deed. To save his daughter grief, Joshua went to his death and was buried in Odstock churchyard. Every year the Lees and the Scamps came to honour his grave, with cider, yes, but also planting flowers and a yew tree on the grave. The sexton, the vicar, and the churchwarden grubbed up the tree, thinking it unsightly, and locked the church against the Gypsies. Mother Lee cursed them all, calling out, ‘Any person who locks the church will die before the year is out.’ Sexton, vicar, and churchwarden – the curses caught them. No one locked the door till 1900, and the man who did so he died. Two more died after this. In the early 2000s a special church service was held by the Bishop of Ramsbury to lift the curse, and a rose bush now blooms on Joshua’s grave.