| SHUCKLAND Introduction Alphabetical List of Locations | |
| Location: | Palgrave, SUFFOLK |
| Encounter: | "My young days were spent at Scole. I went to school there, and was apprenticed at Young's foundry at Diss. When 18 or 19, I was keeping company with a young woman a few years older, from Palgrave. We often met in Diss and I would accompany her home. We would go by way of the public footpath from Victoria Road over a footbridge (now in Suffolk) and some marsh and over a style. The path was beside an open field on the left, on the right a hawthorn hedge, at the top of the field another style. It was there we had this experience.
We had stayed a few minutes talking, and were facing Palgrave when something caused us both to look behind us the way we had come. There quite close was a large black shaggy coated dog, his large brown eyes looking up at us. We both thought he wanted us to move so he [could] come on over the style. We both got down and turned round, expecting the dog to come over the style. There was no dog in sight. He certainly did not come over the style. We could see down the path to the other style. The hedge was too thick to hide [in], nor was he in the open field. After a few minutes we continued on our way, doubting if people would [believe us.] Our story seemed so impossible and so silly. When we arrived and told the tale, someone said that [it had] been Old Shuck. I had never heard the name and asked for an explanation. I was told the story of the old Norfolk dog." The male witness was then aged 18 or 19, in 1897 or 98. (1) |
| Sources: | (1) Letter from Mr. Ernest A. Gardener (witness) to me, 27/9/1983. (2) Letter from Mr. Gardener to Ivan Bunn, 29/3/1976. |
| Place Name: | Palgrave - (Poss.) OE 'grove where poles were got', or (Poss.) OE 'Palla's grove' |