Guy of Warwick and the Dun Cow

The tales of two of Warwickshire’s most famous legendary figures and their calamitous clash on Dunsmore Heath

- Kirsty Hartsiotis

With the lockdown ongoing at the time of writing, this is once more a virtual journey. It’s a story that involves many places and could suggest quite a number of walks when the lockdown eases.

THE STORY

Our tale starts many, many years ago with a giant in Shropshire, and his shining white cow. This cow was enormous, as big as a house, with 18 teats – just right for a giant – and her milk was ever-flowing. The cow traveled the length and breadth of Britain, giving away her milk for free. The giant didn’t mind – so long as she came back now and then to give him some! The cow had only one rule: people were only allowed one pail of milk per household. Sounding familiar? Most people respected the rule. Back in those days, without fridges or freezers, you couldn’t hoard milk.

But there’s always one, isn’t there? There was a woman who only had small pails. When she saw families lugging huge bucketfuls away, it felt almost unfair. One day, she took two small pails and decided to try her luck at getting more milk. But the cow had a sixth sense. She knew exactly when the first pail was full, stopped the flow of milk, and no matter how much the woman tried to get milk into the second pail, that was that.

The woman knew it might be months before she saw the cow again. She began to plan her revenge. When the cow, at last, came back, the woman was ready. The queue of folk with pails kept the cow going all day; it was near sunset when the woman came forward. She sat down and began to milk. And how she milked! On and on it went. The cow could sense nothing to say the pail was full, so she kept on giving milk. Until there was none left.