The Night of Knights

Ingham Church is magnificent, isn’t it? And when you walk inside there, its great lofty roof and space, it’s absolutely wonderful. Then you walk up towards the altar, and on the left you will see recumbent Sir Oliver de Ingham.

But it’s said that one day a year, a particular night, the clock gets towards midnight, his monument becomes whole again. And in fact Oliver de Ingham, the stone armor, turns to metal, and the stone turns to flesh. And he lives once more, and he sits up on his tomb, oooh! Well you’d make a noise like that if you’d lay on stone for a year or two.

He swings his legs up, and he walks up the aisle. And as he walks up the aisle there’s a great box tomb which he passes. And there is Roger de Bois, and his wife is there. And he is too a full-length knight, and his eyes are still painted. And he would have looked magnificent, as if in life when he was painted. But that night, when he is touched by Oliver de Ingham, he becomes flesh, and his armor becomes armor, and he too whips his legs off the tomb, and side by side these noble knights walk out of the church. And out they go to Stalham Dyke, and out from Stalham Dyke comes a Saracen, out from the marshes with a great scimitar sword. And they fight. And they fight to the death. And Sir Oliver and Sir Roger have to defeat the Saracen. Only once they have defeated him can they shake each other’s hand. And solemnly they will walk back to Ingham Church, lay on the stone and once more go to eternal rest. And they too will turn back to stone knights.