The name Digging Tim is said to derive from the Stoke-on-trent area in the county of Staffordshire and refers to a type of Brownie or Pixie, however unlike normal types of entity that guard buried treasure this one was said to go out and attempt to find it by digging in various locations.

It is said that he lived beneath an ancient oak tree in some sort of chamber on a farm in Stoke-on Trent, he would use this as a base camp and from here he would go out searching for buried treasure using a mattock to dig the holes. It is said that local children would follow him and then hide when he started to dig at a suitable site, the children would then wait for him to exhaust himself and wait for him to return home, then they would carry on excavating the site removing the last few inches of earth to reveal the buried coins that had been placed there in the past.

The only problem was that Digging Tim was no fool and to throw the treasure hunters off the trail he would dig more than one hole so people following him would not know which hole to dig in. There is a story of a Farmer following Digging Tim by tracking him from the footprints he left in the dew on the wet grass one morning. The trail led the Farmer to a standing stone in a nearby wood, he then hid and watched Digging Tim dig a hole next to the standing stone to such a depth that only his cap was visible above ground. When he had reached this stage he was so thirsty he climbed out of the hole and went to a nearby stream for a drink, while he was doing this the Farmer jumped into the hole and started digging in the hope of revealing some treasure. It is said that a Fairy that had befriended Digging Tim saw what was occurring and using some sort of magic was able to make the standing stone speak, it said, ” cursed be him that takes the gold, of one who laboured it to hold”. As the Farmer looked up to see where the words were coming from he saw that the standing stone was starting to lean precariously in his direction, he leapt out of the hole and escaped returning home, vowing never to return to the spot again. From that time onwards the stone has always leant at an angle. It is said that Digging Tim returned to the spot and carried on with the excavation and shortly after revealed a cache of gold coins and it is said that he lived with the Fairy happily for the rest of his life.

It is a commonly held belief that digging at standing stones brings bad luck and misfortune, this maybe the belief that many standing stones were once said to have been people who were turned to stone or petrified by a Saint or Wizard.