Here is a rather odd story from Macclesfield – from Doug Pickford`s “ Macclesfield Mysterious and Macabre”
PART ONE
`Pexhill Road is now a charming leafy lane containing some handsome homes. It leads out to Henbury, Siddington and open countryside, and has, for many years, been a charming lane along which to take a pleasant stroll, especially in the summer time. Indeed, it was one of the lanes along which Macclesfield people used to amble at Easter, countless hundreds of them taking advantage of the first holiday of spring to walk away from the smoke and grime of the town and fill their lungs with fresh clean air.
Yet how many of them were aware at the time, and how many are aware at the moment, that the name `Pexhill,` the area that the road passes , means quite simply ` the hill of the pixies`?
It may be that superstitious people once living around that spot believed that fairies, or pixies, lived in that area, and so it was called Pixy Hill, and the name was gradually changed to Pex Hill. Indeed, this was a common belief at one time. I know of a Wincle farmer who still leaves bread and milk out for `the little people` when he is ploughing his fields or it is harvest time; a sacrifice to the gods, if you like, a remnant of the Celtic practice of making a sacrifice, probably of an animal, to ensure a good crop. Today, perhaps, the little people, or `brownies` as they are sometimes called, cannot get to the bread and milk before the hedgehogs or pet cats living nearby….(1)
To be continued….
1. D.Pickford Macclesfield Mysterious and Macabre p. 185
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