UK west country pagan sacrifice to promote fertility – Cock Robin?

1970s UK TV B&W film set in the English west country (Dorset, Somerset,..). I think it was called Cock Robin, but Googling for this mainly gives a Midsomer Murders episode. It is about a woman brought together with a younger man, has a child, the man is then sacrificed (not shown, but the executioner with a huge axe is shown) as part of a pagan land-fertility ritual. The intent is obviously that the child is then grown to be the next generation for the sacrifice. My other two recollections are of the man competing in arm wrestling in a pub, and his opponent introduces the ‘spurs’ – broken glasses set adjacent to each arm and upon which the loser has his arm impaled, and of the ending sequence where I think the woman gets free and looks back to see the locals dressed as witches/warlocks watching.
Any ideas?

6 thoughts on “UK west country pagan sacrifice to promote fertility – Cock Robin?

  1. Thanks Rachael. Wicker Man has similarities but there was no ‘wicker man’ in the version I remember. The location was different; no lord; etc. But perhaps one borrowed from the other.

  2. I’m sorry, that was meant to say ‘Robin Redbreast’ as well, my stupid bloody laptop is messing with me 🙁

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