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Mapperton: the Posy Tree

From this angle, this tree bears the appearance of a face looking skywards, open-mouthed.

Mapperton had its own church but the ground was unsuitable for burials, so they used the churchyard at nearby Netherbury. However, when the bubonic plague struck, killing 80 Mapperton villagers, in 1582, the parishioners of Netherbury came to this point, armed with posies – superstitiously meant to ward off the plague – to halt the Mapperton people's progress. Thus the name of the Posy Tree.

A plaque that was by the tree until fairly recent years suggested incorrectly that it was 1666 when the plague struck Mapperton.