In the 16th century, the traveler John Leland told of the discovery of armor and the bones of countless dead while ploughing in the meadow next to Slaughter Bridge. In 1602 Richard Carew wrote that 'olde folke thereabouts will shew you a stone, bearing Arthur's name'; the stone was from then known as 'Arthur's Tomb'. The legend now was very much alive that 'Arture fowght his last feld' at Slaughter Bridge. Yet such an apt descriptive name is misleading. 'Slaughter' in fact most probably derives from an old English word for 'muddy', which would clearly suit this water-meadowed bridge. 'Arthur's Tomb' is actually a funeral stone for 'Latinus, son of Margurus' which was transported from afar to be used as a footbridge further up the stream. The bones and armor dug up by the plough were probably from a great battle in 823ad between the Cornish and the Saxon Egbert of Wessex.
Also See:  Burial At Slaughter Bridge