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The Legend of the Head in the Wall


 If you walk Along Lincoln's Eastgate from Bailgate towards Langworthgate you will come across a high stone wall on the north side of the Cathedral.  Look up and you will see a stone head sticking out of the wall.

The "Legend of the Head in the Wall" is not very well known, even to the people of Lincoln.  If you go on the "Lincoln Ghost Walk" you will be told that the Dean of Lincoln had it placed there to remind those in holy orders that they must be temperate in their drinking habits.

The version I prefer is the one told me by my father many years ago:

"The husband had gone out for a drink at the White Horse Inn, across the road, (where the restaurant is now).  The wife became anxious when it was time for bed and he hadn't arrived home, so she opened the sash window and looked out.  While she had her head out of the window the sash failed and the window came crashing down and broke her neck.  The husband arrived home much later to find the lifeless body of his wife through the window."

The head was carved and placed in the wall as a memorial to the unfortunate lady.

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In my view the logical explanation for the head is that it came from the Cathedral when Cromwell's men decapitated many of the statues and some jolly fellow thought that it would be a wheeze to put it in the wall!

This and other stories about Lincoln can be read in: 

It's About Lincoln: Snippets of History