Hell

   There is no particular 'entrance to Hell' in English topographical lore, only a general, and sometimes humorous, assumption that Hell lies underground. *Bottomless pools allegedly go right down to Hell. At Tunstall (Norfolk) there is a boggy pool called Hell Hole, which often has bubbles rising in it; it is said that after Tunstall church burned down, the vicar and churchwardens quarrelled over who would have the bells, so the Devil carried them down to Hell, and the bubbles show they are still sinking. Near Darlington (County Durham) are three 'bottomless' pits called, since the 16th century, the Hell Kettles or Devil's Kettles, supposedly filled with scalding water to boil the souls of sinners. Legend claims the owner of the field where they lie was once carting hay on St Barnabas's Day (11 June), and when someone rebuked him for impiety he retorted:

   Barnaby yea, Barnaby nay!

   A cartload of hay, whether God will or nay!

   At this blasphemy, 'instantly he, his carts and his horses, were all swallowed up in the pools, where they may still be seen, on a fine day and clear water, many fathoms deep!' (Denham Tracts, 1892: i. 79).