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The Urban Legends of Devil's Arch

Places of eerie legend aren't all ancient or even that old...this is "Devil's Arch" in Worcester. A simple walkway under a railway line that leads to a residential suburb then on to a canal, built in the 1950s but has some curious lore attached to it.


As a boy I was given the warning that if one was to stand in the middle of the tunnel at midnight and recite the Lord's Prayer backwards - Satan himself would appear at one end. When whomever conducted this litany turned round to run he would appear at that end too, gradually closing in on his victim.


I was fascinated to hear my teenaged son repeat the tale to me, having heard it from one of his friends, demonstrating the power of oral myth and how it continues through the generations. That's almost 40 years between each of us hearing it.


Devils Arch has even more strangeness about it though. Walk from one end to the other and the tunnel gradually decreases in height, forcing the very tall to lower their heads before emerging from the other end...yet walk back the other way and this happens in the opposite direction...made even stranger by my measuring each entrance and finding they are the same height!


A fascinating place of urban legend which I hope continues to chill future generations...are their any strange places like this where you live?







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Lucy dew
Lucy dew
20. 7.
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Interesting! I’m from Worcester, do you know any more local legends? Would love to read them!

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