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"Fairy Loaves and Snakes' Eggs"


Echinoid or fossil sea urchin
Echinoid or fossil sea urchin

Things i find Woodlarking.

Echinoids. The fossil remains of a sea urchin.

Or rather around here "Fairy Loaves and Snakes' Eggs".

Folklore says that people would place an Fairy Loaf near the oven or in the kitchen in the hope that it would ensure the household would always have bread. If the household went without bread for more than a week it was thought witchcraft had stopped the Fairy Loaves' protective powers. In olden times they were seen as potent charms in the kitchen.


In the countryside they also had the name Shepherd’s crowns and Pixies’ helmets’.

They were once a frequent sight on the windowsills of cottages too, regarded as harbingers of good luck and some believed that they prevented the cottage from being struck by lightning. Used in this manner they were known as "Thunderstones" and it was believed that the fossil echinoids originated from the heavens, delivered to the ground in a lightening bolt.

They were said to be able to predict rain or storms, as the fossils were said to sweat before bad weather. The last of these beliefs may have a basis because any moisture present in the atmosphere might condense on the fossil first.

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