Grooves on St. Mary and All Saints' Church, Checkley

Description:Grooves on one of the buttresses on the south side of St. Mary and All Saints' Church, Checkley. Grooves such as these are to be found on many churches and are often said to have been caused by local medieval bowmen sharpening their arrowheads. In 1581 Henry VIII passed a law that obliged the inhabitants of all towns and villages must make and maintain archery butts and exercise there on Sundays and Holidays.

However, there is very little evidence to support this theory. Not only were archery butts usually sited some distance from churchyards, but archers were also unlikely to practice with valuable metal tips, and the soft sandstone such as that at Checkley would not effectively sharpen a metal point. A more likely explanation may be that the grooves were caused by villagers scraping powder from consecrated stone for protection against evil or bad luck, or to use as as an ingredient in folk medicine.