The Devil's Jumps are a series of three small hills near the village of Churt in the county of

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

in southern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. In the 18th century, the hills were known as the Devil's Three Jumps.Westwood & Simpson 2005, p.713. The Devil's Jumps are linked to a body of folklore relating to the surrounding area. The highest of the three Jumps, lying to the west, is High Jump with an elevation of . Middle Devil's Jump has an elevation of and once supported an observatory built by 19th century British astronomer

Richard Christopher Carrington Richard Christopher Carrington (26 May 1826 – 27 November 1875) was an English astronomer whose 1859 astronomical observations demonstrated the existence of solar flares as well as suggesting their electrical influence upon the Earth and it ...

. Stony Jump, the easternmost of the jumps, has an elevation of . The hills are outcrops of an

ironstone Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be c ...

variety of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

of the Folkestone Beds of Lower Greensand set among acidic

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

. The three hills are formed of an

known locally as carstone, marginally distinct from

Bargate stone __NOTOC__ Bargate stone is a highly durable form of sandstone. It owes its yellow, butter or honey colouring to a high iron content. In some contexts it may be considered to be a form of ironstone. However, in the context of stone buildings local ...

, strongly cemented with iron making it resistant to erosion by the elements. The first mention of the Devil's Jumps appears to be on a map by

John Rocque John Rocque (originally Jean; –1762) was a French-born British surveyor and cartographer, best known for his detailed John Rocque's Map of London, 1746, map of London published in 1746. Life and career Rocque was born in France in about 1704 ...

, dating to 1765.

William Cobbett William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) was an English pamphleteer, journalist, politician, and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey. He was one of an Agrarianism, agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restr ...

mentioned the Devil's Jumps in his '' Rural Rides'', first published in 1830. Of the hills he says:

Folklore

The Devil's Jumps are linked to a variety of local landmarks by folklore, including Mother Ludlam's Cave near the ruins of

Waverley Abbey Waverley Abbey was the first Cistercian abbey in England, founded in 1128 by William Giffard, the Bishop of Winchester. Located about southeast of Farnham, Surrey, it is situated on a flood-plain; surrounded by current and previous channels ...

, the Devil's Punch Bowl at Hindhead, the village of Thursley and the parish church at Frensham. The folklore includes various tales. One states that the

Devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

used to amuse himself by leaping from the top of each hill to the next. This annoyed the god

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

who picked up a boulder and threw it at the Devil, causing him to flee and leaving the boulder at the Devil's Jumps. This same story is told of the Devil's Jumps near Treyford on the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills in the south-eastern coastal counties of England that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, but it is likely to have originated at the Devil's Jumps in Surrey. The inclusion of the pagan god Thor in the tale is likely to have taken place in the early years of the 20th century, since local historian George Clinch mentioned the Jumps and the pagan derivation of the Thursley placename without linking either when he wrote in 1895. Two divergent, possibly linked, narratives were collected in the 19th century: #Mother Ludlam (who was a witch) had her cauldron stolen by the Devil, who made off with it, with the witch following behind on her broomstick.Alexander 1986, 2003, pp.29-30. Every time the Devil took a great leap he kicked up a hill, and these hills are the Devil's Jumps. He left the cauldron on Kettlebury Hill, from where it was recovered and put in Frensham church for safekeeping. When the Devil disappeared, he left the valley of the Devil's Punch Bowl. #A great boulder was on one of these hills, where a person needing any tool, even a

yoke A yoke is a wooden beam used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, used in dif ...

for oxen by prayer and touching the boulder would receive it, provided they promised to give it back. Later a cauldron was requested, kept in Frensham's church beyond its use and so the mystical loan facility came to an end.

Elevation and Prominence

High Jump has an elevation of above sea level and above the col (nearest notch/gap). This places the Devil's Jumps 32nd among Surrey Hills and narrowly among the 34 Surrey Hills above above sea level with only 36 hills in the county listed by the national hill-climbing database.Database of British and Irish Hills
Retrieved 2015-03-06

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * {{coord, 51, 8, 52.86, N, 0, 45, 53.06, W, type:landmark, display=title Surrey folklore Hills of Surrey