| SHUCKLAND Introduction Alphabetical List of Locations | |
| Location: | Blakeney, NORFOLK |
| Legend: | 'Old Shuck' is said to haunt Long lane, which runs south over Ruberry Hill, starting out as Saxlingham Road. |
| Source: | W. A. Dutt: 'The Norfolk & Suffolk Coast' (T. Fisher Unwin, 1909), p. 232. |
| Place Name: | Blakeney - OE 'black island' or OE 'Blaca's island' |
| Other: | See other legends and encounters below, also near Langham. |
| Location: | In Little Lane, Blakeney |
| Legend: | "...the legend of 'Old Shuck', the famous huge black ghost dog associated with Norfolk. He has reputedly been seen in Little Lane..." (1) "I have always understood that he [Old Shuck] runs between Wells and Sheringham taking a short cut down the Little Lane TG026437-TG029438] outside my garden wall here [at Blakeney.]" (2) |
| Source: | 1) Peter Brooks: 'Have You Heard About Blakeney?' (Poppyland Publishing, 1981), p. 17. (2) Letter from Iris Portal in 'Eastern Daily Press', 2/3/1953. |
| Location: | In Back Lane, Blakeney |
| Legend: | 'Black Shuck' is said to pass down the 'Back Lane' at Blakeney, and then go across the marsh banks. |
| Source: | Letter from Mrs. A. P. Marcucci to Ivan Bunn, 22/4/1976. |
| Other: | See relevant encounter below. |
| Location: | On the B1388 road, Blakeney |
| Legend: | "They spell him [the ghost dog] Chuen here it seems, and he is to be seen only on the Langham Road [B1388], where our first Council Houses are. He is said to have two heads and catches a rat. [He] bites [it] up but it comes out and gets away out of the other mouth." |
| Source: | Letter from J. Wallace to me, 13/12/1983. |
| Location: | On the A149 road between Blakeney & Morston |
| Encounter: | A man saw 'Old Shuck' on the Blakeney-Morston road, "undulating off ground level, at about the height of a bicycle." |
| Source: | Letter from witness' neighbour in the 'Eastern Daily Press', 2/3/1953. |
| Comments: | The Blakeney/Morston parish boundary crosses the road about halfway along, and the road itself is said to be on the route of a (probably) Iron Age track. There is a tumulus about 140 yards south of the road halfway between the two villages. |
| Location: | Between Cley and Blakeney |
| Encounter: | At about midnight in the Summer of c.1968, a woman was walking home from Cley to Blakeney along the A149 road when, at about the bottom of 'Cley Hill' [Howe Hill?], she heard the "light dragging and tinkling of a chain." She saw nothing, but whatever it was followed her closely up the hill. At the crossroads [TG03154365] on the top was a street light, and there she stopped and waited to see it pass, but again could see nothing. She then heard it pass away down the 'Back Lane', and knowing the legend [given above] that 'Black Shuck' was said to pass down this lane and then "go across the marsh banks", realised that it was probably 'Shuck' himself, and fled away home down the High Street. |
| Source: | Letter from Mrs. A. P. Marcucci (witness) to Ivan Bunn, 22/4/1976. |
| Place Name: | Cley - OE 'clay, clayey soil' |
| Other: | The Blakeney/Wiveton parish boundary runs across the road at the top of the hill. |