Read Folklore of Lincolnshire Online
Authors: Susanna O'Neill
Folklore of Lincolnshire (11 page)
The memorial stone to commemorate those who lost their lives during the Great Flood of Louth, 1920.
There was a time when the Fens were often flooded and after a few days the area looked as it had before it was drained. It happened so often that there were flood laws that everyone adhered to, which Katherine Briggs relates in Barrett’s
Tales of the Fens
. The laws stated that anything found floating in the flood waters had to be taken to Stack’s Hill at Southery, where the owners would be able to find it. If it had not been claimed after a certain time then those who had found it could claim it for their own. Also, if anyone was found robbing a house the penalty was quite severe; their boat would be smashed to pieces and the robbers left in the flooded house for a week, starving. They could try and swim away but, if not, a boat would come by in a week to pick them up, if they were still alive: ‘This law was kept so well that a man could leave his watch on the mantelshelf and know it would still be there when he went back for it.’
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It was also stated that no man should go out alone in a boat and this was a rule created after an unpleasant incident had occurred. A man had been flooded out and rowed back to his house, but when he arrived he disturbed two gypsies robbing his home. His boat was found the next day and when a search for him was organised, he was found sitting in his bedroom with an axe in his skull.
The tale goes, however, that the gypsies rammed a gatepost in their haste to flee the scene of the crime and ripped the bottom from their boat. They could not swim and so clung onto the gatepost shouting for help. The locals, finding the poor dead man, decided to teach the gypsies a lesson and tied his dead body on the gatepost with them for a day and a night!
Water, in whatever guise, is the stuff of life and Lincolnshire certainly has its fair share of both. The multitude of stories and legends connected to the Fens, marshes, rivers and the sea are colourful and varied and these tales, along with the beauty of the area, make it a wonderful place to visit.
B
LACK
D
OGS AND
S
TRANGE
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NCOUNTERS
The Black Dog is a frequently reported apparition in British folklore; an unusually large, jet black, dog-like beast, often with glowing eyes, appearing in solitary places. Every county has its stories of this sinister phenomenon, each with a differing name; in Lincolnshire they are called either Black Shuck or Hairy Jack.
It is said that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle took inspiration from tales of the Yeth Hounds, the beasts that are said to roam Dartmoor, when he wrote
The Hound of the Baskervilles
. Other famous authors have absorbed some of this folklore into their writings, such as Charlotte Brontë in
Jane Eyre
, showing the sightings and tales were well enough known to be included in popular writing.
The din was on the causeway: a horse was coming…In those days I was young, and all sorts of fancies bright and dark tenanted my mind…I remembered certain of Bessie’s tales, wherein figured a North-of-England spirit, called a ‘Gytrash’; which, in the form of a horse, mule, or large dog, haunted solitary ways, and sometimes came upon belated travellers, as this horse was now coming upon me…I heard a rush under the hedge, and [there] glided a great dog…It was exactly one mask of Bessie’s Gytrash – a lion-like creature with long hair and a huge head.
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Theo Brown identifies three separate types of Black Dogs but she does admit to there being some overlap:
A. That which is generally known locally as the Barguest, Shuck, Black Shag, Trash, Skriker, Padfoot and other names. These are not the names of individuals but of an impersonal creature which is distributed over certain areas… This type, which we may call the Barguest type, changes its shape, a thing that no true Black Dog ever does.
The only pond left visible along the road from Leverton to Wrangle.
B. That which is nearly always known as the Black Dog, is always black, and is always a dog and nothing else…It is always associated with a definite place or ‘beat’ on a road. It is always an individual. Sometimes it is associated with a person or a family…Another personal association is that with witches.
C. A third variety of Black Dog, which is rare, is that which appears in a certain locality in conjunction with a calendar cycle.
2
As well as the Barguest and other names she mentions above, the Black Dog is also known as the Gurt Dog, Dando Dogs, Wish Hounds, Moddey Dhoo, Pooka and Hooter, just to name a few. Some sources suggest that the creature known as the Shagfoal in Lincolnshire is another manifestation of the Black Dog.
No one seems very sure as to why they materialise; some suggest they are portents of death, others that they appear in order to carry dead souls away, but some believe they are benevolent creatures sent to protect people, especially women on their own, in lonely places.
There was apparently a sighting by a woman at Blyborough, who was followed by a Black Dog along the road by the village pond. She hit out at the creature with her umbrella, but the object passed straight through it. We do not know what happened to the dog but can assume the lady made it home safely, as her story survives.
3
The church at Algarkirk, although no Black Dog was to be seen here this day.
Briggs adds that with the three types of dog Brown mentions, there can also be added demon dogs, ghosts of dogs and even ghosts of humans taking dog form.
4
She believes there are equal numbers of stories of the Black Dog being benevolent as there are of it being malevolent – a guardian or a devilish creature.
There were so many sightings of the Black Dog in Lincolnshire that folklorist Ethel Rudkin dedicated an entire book to the field. Writing in the 1930s, she claimed to have seen the Black Dog herself in the county, and talked to many others who had shared her experience. According to Rudkin, more often than not the Lincolnshire Black Dog is benevolent.
She talks of a man who used to cycle home from Leverton to Wrangle and often saw the Black Dog appear near a long, deep pond. It would run so far along the road then turn down an adjacent lane each time it appeared.
One Mrs B was reported to have seen the Black Dog at Algarkirk, where she lived, near the trees that grew near to the church. ‘It is tall and thin, with a long neck and pointed nose. It leaps into the road and runs before the spectator, leaping back over another gate farther on. It always comes and goes on one’s left.’
5
Another regular sighting was in and around Bourne Wood. Many people said they saw the dog and that it seemed quite friendly but would never allow anyone to stroke it, always leaving them at the same place every time, a gate in the corner of the wood.
The little bridge that crosses the stream near Manton, where the Black Dog was reportedly seen.
Rudkin says the road up to Moortown Hall was also haunted by the dog. It apparently appeared in the exact same spot in the hedge every time and some people claimed they felt it brushing past their legs.
One of the indoor sightings of the Black Dog was within a house in Brigg. It was converted into a shop later on, but during the time of the Reformation, a Catholic family was said to live there, with a private chapel hidden away in the roof. The house was allegedly haunted, with strange noises being heard and doors opening and closing for no apparent reason. The spectre of a large Black Dog with huge, glowing eyes was often reported; and the rumour was that it was the spirit of a woman who had been murdered in the house, appearing in the form of this dog. It was said to never leave the house, adopting guardianship of the old altar.
An additional sighting was along a green lane at Manton, where the Black Dog was seen near the bridge that crosses the stream.
Also at Bransby, where the River Till flows, the Black Dog has supposedly been spotted walking down Bonnewells Lane. This is apparently a very haunted place. Rudkin mentioned the ghosts of a lady in a rustling silk dress, a sow with her litter and even Oliver Cromwell. She reproduced a poem of the lane, written by Muriel M. Andrew, entitled ‘The Legend of the Ghost in Bonny Wells Lane’:
’E set off down owd Bonny Wells lane
At just a fairish paace,
When summat big an’ grey ’e seed,
He tonned ’im round in ’aaste.
It sure unnerved ’im, that it did,
To be theer by ’issen,
Until ’e thote about the Dog,
He warn’t so freentened then.
He couldn’t see the big Black Dog,
What should be i’ the Laane,
Protectin’ all good foalks, they say,
(The bad ’uns look in vain).
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The poem implies that the Black Dog in this lane was seen as something of a guardian, especially as the lane was haunted by other spectres, and the dog helped protect the good people. The fact that it was mentioned in the poem shows the legend was a long-standing local belief. The poor fellow in this particular tale, after running home for help and coming back with some other men, was shown to be a fool, as it transpired that the large grey creature he saw was none other than a braying donkey.
