| SHUCKLAND Introduction Alphabetical List of Locations | |
| Location: | Clopton (near Woodbridge), SUFFOLK |
| Legend: | "There is also a story that a mysterious white dog called the Padfoot is occasionally seen in the village, as a prelude to a great personal disaster. It is said that the last person to have seen the ghostly hound was an American airman during World War II, the night before his plane was shot down." |
| Source: | Susanna Gregory: Historical Note in 'A Wicked Deed' (Kindle edition, 2010). |
| Comments: | I suspect that the name 'Padfoot' applied here has been mistakenly transplanted from elsewhere, as it's usually an epithet known only in the north of England, being a shape shifting bogy, often taking the form of a white dog with saucer eyes. |
| Place Name: | Clopton - OE '(prob. lump, hill-homestead/village' |
| Other: | See other legend below. |
| Location: | Clopton |
| Legend: | "According to local tradition, St. Felix buried near Clopton Hall some treasure, to guard which he placed a huge dog and a monk. So the vicinity is supposed to be haunted by something half dog and half monk - an enormous hound with a monk's head. Up Whitefoot Lane [in Burgh parish] (named, incidentally, after this phantom) the villagers are loath to pass in the dark. In the old Hall there's a priests' chamber which, as they say, must not be disturbed, if one would wish to avoid...[the creature] being seen." (1) One later source says that the Clopton Hall referred to is that in Rattlesden parish, and the creature guarding a hoard of gold is the reverse of that above: "At Clopton Hall, Stowmarket, where he ['Black Shuck'] guards a hoard of gold, his appearance is especially frightening for he has the body of a monk and the head of a hound." (2) |
| Sources: | (1) A. A. MacGregor: 'The Ghost Book' (Robert Hale, 1955), p. 71. (2) 'Folklore, Myths & Legends of Britain' (Reader's Digest, 1973), p. 229. |
| Other: | The Hall (near Woodbridge) was built c.1500. |