Piers Shonkes in the wall

In the north wall of the nave at Brent Pelham is a tomb said to be that of Piers Shonkes, lord of a manor in the parish. The local tradition was that by killing a serpent he so angered the devil that the devil swore to have his body whether he was buried inside the church or out. Shonkes had himself laid in the wall, neither inside nor outside, and an old inscription over the tomb boasted that he had killed one serpent and defied the other.