| SHUCKLAND Introduction Alphabetical List of Locations | |
| Location: | Walberswick, SUFFOLK |
| Legend: | "...this monster [the ghostly black dog] which haunts...the road between the Bell Inn and the [old] vicarage'." (1) "Many claim to have seen the evil thing said to haunt the common at Walberswick, just by the Bell Inn [c. TM49957480]..." (2) |
| Source: | (1) A. A. MacGregor: 'The Ghost Book' (Robert Hale, 1955), p.67. (2) Ibid, p. 68. |
| Place Name: | Walberswick - OE 'Waldberht's or Walhberht's dairy-farm' |
| Other: | See further legend and encounters below. |
| Location: | Walberswick |
| Legend: | "...this monster which haunts the Green..." (1) "...Black Shuck, or the Hell Hound - that Monster on the Green, which would appear to be a local variant of the Black dog of Bungay..." (2) |
| Source: | (1) A. A. MacGregor: 'The Ghost Book' (Hale, 1955), p. 67. (2) Ibid, p. 68. |
| Location: | Walberswick |
| Encounter: | "'I experienced that dreadful fright...once, and only once, and that was quite enough.' Thus writes a Walberswick lady...It transpired that she and her sister in law once had [this] frightening experience on the common at Walberswick. She described the monster they saw as 'a phantom dog the size of a calf...'" |
| Source: | A. A. MacGregor: 'The Ghost Book' (Robert Hale, 1955), p. 68-9. |
| Location: | Walberswick |
| Encounter: | "...in 1940 a correspondent sent me some information concerning it [the ghostly black dog.] ' A coastguard coming up from the beach in the days when such people carried revolvers for protection against the violence of smugglers', he wrote, 'saw the strange thing in the dawn. As it crossed the road in front of him, he fired at it, but missed it'." |
| Source: | A. A. MacGregor: 'The Ghost Book' (Robert Hale, 1955), p. 68. |
| Location: | Walberswick |
| Encounter: | "'A friend of mine once saw it [the ghostly black dog] from the window of an old shed since demolished'." [Told to A. A. MacGregor in 1940.] |
| Source: | A. A. MacGregor: 'The Ghost Book' (Robert Hale, 1955), p. 68. |
| Location: | Walberswick |
| Encounter: | "...it was in this area, during World War Two, that he [the phantom black dog] gave an American airman and his wife a night they would never forget. The couple had rented a flat-topped hut on the edge of Walberswick Marsh
[Common] while the husband served at a nearby air base. One stormy evening they were startled by a violent pounding on the door. The airman peeped through a window and saw a huge black beast battering their home.
The terrified couple piled what little furniture they had against the door, then cowered as the attacker hurled his body against first one wall, then another, then leapt onto the roof. The ordeal lasted several hours before the noise faded away. The couple waited anxiously for daylight, and at dawn crept outside to inspect the damage. There was no sign of the attack, and no paw or claw marks in the soft mud around the hut." (1) |
| Sources: | (1) N. Blundell & R. Boar: 'The World's Greatest Ghosts' (Octopus, 1983), p. 76. (2) Ivan Bunn: 'Black Shuck' Part 3, in 'Lantern' No. 20 (Winter 1977), p. 3. |
| Location: | Walberswick |
| Encounter: | "...on more than one occasion, when walking with a friend toward the church at Walberswick, both [Miss Mildred Reynolds & a female friend] have been uncomfortably aware that this phantom [Black Shuck] was keeping pace with them behind the adjacent hedge. It was a relief to them to reach the spot opposite the churchyard, where sound of anything sinister ceased, and all fear vanished." |
| Source: | A. A. MacGregor: 'The Ghost Book' (Robert Hale, 1955), p. 70. |
| Location: | Walberswick |
| Encounter: |
"It is, however, the Common in Walberswick that is most beset by phantoms if all the stories I collected are anything to go by. Indeed, it was an account of one of these, by the author Penelope Fitzgerald [1916-2000], which first prompted my interest in the village and made me decide to visit it....She explains her own encounter in a very matter-of-fact manner.
'It happened while I was living in Walberswick. I was taking a pony across the common when it jibbed absolutely at passing what looked to me like four large milk bottles in the bracken. When we got closer, I saw it was a white dog like a very large pointer, and it was only later that I thought it strange that the dog could lope away through the bracken without a sound. When I made some enquiries in the village about what I had seen I was told that the dog was a well-known haunter. It was said to have been seen 'waiting for somebody' on the common for at least the past one hundred years'." |
| Source: | Peter Haining: 'The Supernatural Coast' (Robert Hale, 1992), p. 68. |