An Old Norfolk Saying… “And a dreadful thing from the cliff did spring, And its wild bark thrill’d around, His eyes had the glow of the fires below, Twas the form of the Spectre Hound”
There are so many myths, tales, legends and sighting’s of this fearsome apparition that it is hard to know where to begin. Black Shuck is said to be one of the oldest phantoms of Great Britain, with the name deriving from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘scucca’ meaning demon or devil, or possibly from the local dialect word shucky meaning “shaggy” or “hairy”. The legend may have been part of the inspiration for the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. Other historians say that the hound has its origins in Norse mythology based on the huge dog of war of Odin and Thor ‘Shukir’ who came over to Britain thousands of years ago along with the Vikings long-ships.
Local legend tells of a huge hound, the size of a small calf with blazing eyes, who regularly prowls the coastal path between Sheringham and Overstrand. Unsuspecting night walkers will first become aware of the pad pad sound of the hounds heavy paws. Out of the corner of their eye they may see a gathering darkness, which slowly forms into the outline of a huge hound. Lurking in the night shadows the beast is said to track the steps of its victim, drawing ever closer. Anyone unfortunate enough to turn around and meet its fiery gaze is said to die within a twelve month period.
The hell hound of Norfolk has had many documented sighting. In 1890 a young boy was rescued from the North Sea who told a tale of being forced to swim further and further from the shore by a huge black dog who had chased him into the sea. Even during the 1920′s and 1930′s there were reports from the fishermen of Sheringham of hearing a hound howling on the cliff tops during stormy nights. As recently as 1970 a sighting of Black Shuck made the headlines when a huge hound was seen pounding over the beach at Great Yarmouth. In 1980, a young woman claimed to have met the hell hound, whilst out walking with her young son. This sighting took place near Wisbeach, though the woman said that this hound had yellow eyes, rather than red, but all of the other details were the same as that of Black Shuck. In the village of Overstrand the old Village Sign used to show a picture of the legendary Black Shuck and to this day there is still a lane in the village which is called locally after the Norfolk hell hound.
One of the most notable reports of Black Shuck is of his appearance at the churches of Bungay and Blythburgh in Suffolk. On 4 August 1577, at Blythburgh, Black Shuck is said to have burst in through the church doors. He ran up the nave, past a large congregation, killing a man and boy and causing the church tower to collapse through the roof. As the dog left, he left scorch marks on the north door which can be seen at the church to this day.
The encounter on the same day at Bungay was described in “A Straunge and Terrible Wunder” by the Reverend Abraham Fleming in 1577:
This black dog, or the divel in such a linenesse (God hee knoweth al who worketh all,) running all along down the body of the church with great swiftnesse, and incredible haste, among the people, in a visible fourm and shape, passed between two persons, as they were kneeling uppon their knees, and occupied in prayer as it seemed, wrung the necks of them bothe at one instant clene backward, in somuch that even at a mome[n]t where they kneeled, they stra[n]gely dyed.
Other accounts attribute the event to lightning or the Devil. The scorch marks on the door are referred to by the locals as “the devil’s fingerprints”, and the event is remembered in this verse:
All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew, and, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew.
The appearance in Chignal St James/Chignal Smealy, small villages near Chelmsford, Essex are said to have occurred many years ago. All those said to have seen the devil dog are rumoured to have met an untimely end within a year of seeing the red-eyed devil dog, matching the legend that all that see Black Shuck will perish within a year of looking into his eyes. These are of course all rumours and superstition, however, many websites exist acting as directories of sighting of Black Shuck, and these can easily be found on the popular search engines. In recent times, sightings of Black Shuck in the Chignal area have been put down to sightings of black dogs that belong to resisidents roaming the village, such as The Three Elms pubs large black dogs and the Gardening Express nursery terrier cross.
Scorch marks on the north door at Blythburgh church said to be left by Black Shuck. The marks are still visible on the church door to this day.
The picture above was apparently taken by a Mr. Potter out on the coast at Dunwich in Suffolk in December 2003.
Is it Black Shuck? Just a large dog? A hoax even? You decide.
