The Lambton Worm

Young John Lambton skipped church to go fishing in the River Wear and pulled out a small, ugly worm, which he threw down a well. It grew. By the time he came home from the Crusades it was coiled around a hill, eating sheep, draining the cows of their milk and tearing apart every knight who came against it.

He killed it in the end, in armour studded with blades, standing in the river so the current could carry the pieces away. But he had sworn to kill the first living thing he met afterwards, and when that turned out to be his own father he broke his oath, and the Lambtons were cursed for nine generations. Our worm is shown before any of that, coiled around its hill, with the county still to itself.