Wilfred Middlebrook, in ‘The Changing Face Of Warminster,’ first written in 1960, updated in 1971, noted:
There is a legend that tells of Saint Thomas A’Becket coming through Southleigh Woods “dressed like a gentleman and going back dressed like a beggar.”
In the old days Crockerton held a Gooseberry Feast, about 7th July, which they celebrated by holding a revel. The story goes that Thomas A’Becket visited the revel after leaving Longbridge Deverill Church, and spent all his money, hence the expression “returning through Southleigh Woods dressed like a beggar.”
After that historic occasion the revel became known as the Feast Of St. Thomas Of Canterbury, and part of the revel was actually held in the woods, at a place called Robin Hood’s Bower; the revellers following an old trackway from Crockerton Green, crossing the river by a packhorse bridge that still stands there, and straight up to the Bower.