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Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk

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Secret tunnel

Tradition tells of a secret passage running under the moat from a turret of the castle which acted as a 'sallyport'; that is, an opening in the defences from which a foray could be made against attackers (although there's no record of any siege having happened here). Investigations, however, are said to have proved that the 'tunnel' went no further than the moat, being the normal arched sewer of the house.

See also tunnel legends at Gresham.

Sources:

Walter Rye: 'Norfolk Songs, Stories & Sayings' (Goose & Son, 1897), p.86.

Jennifer Westwood: 'Gothick Norfolk' (Shire Publications, 1989), p.6.

Bacton:

Butt Hill

Cromwell is said to have placed his cannon on Butt Hill (TG339334) to shatter the 12th century Bromholm Priory, after a mound that he built was found to be too close.

Also, Blood Slat (Bloodslade) Lane nearby (now the B1150, east of Butt Hill), is said to have been the site of a gory battle.

 Source:  

W. B. Gerish: 'Norfolk Folklore Collections' (unpublished, 1916-18), Vol.4, p.1415.

Secret tunnels

Bromholm Priory (TG347332) was founded in 1113 by William de Glanville for Cluniac monks, and in the following centuries its fame spread because of the miracle-working fragment of the 'True Cross' held there, which they called the 'Holy Rood of Bromholm'. 

From the ruins of the priory is said to run a tunnel to Gimingham Hall (TG279365, on the site of the ancient-cellared manor house), 4 miles further along the coast. Midway between the two, the tunnel is said to be divided by a huge pair of golden gates.

Another passage then leads from the Hall to the sea.

Sources:

'Eastern Daily Press', Dec.15th 1953.

'Norfolk Fair', Vol.2, No.10 (February 1970), p.20.

Bawburgh:

Secret tunnel

Hall Farm contains some remnants of the Hall built in 1634, and a tunnel is said to lead from here, across and beneath the river Yare, to Church Farm (TG153087). This latter building was said to have once been the residence of priests.

Source:  

W. H. Barrett & R. P. Garrod: 'East Anglian Folklore & Other Tales' (Routledge & Kegan Paul,  1976), p.91.

Walstan's Well

They halted finally where Bawburgh's church of St.Mary & St.Walstan now stands. The north wall of an earlier church on the site opened up to admit them, and a blocked-up archway is pointed out as being the spot. A much-frequented shrine & chapel to the saint existed on the north side of the church until the Reformation, when Walstan's bones were burnt & scattered.

That final spring, Walstan's Well (TG153088), still exists near the river in the orchard behind Church Farm, looking rather like a wishing well nowadays. Six chantry priests came to serve at the shrine and to tend the well, whose reputation for healing properties had brought pilgrims from far and wide. "Down to the Reformation", said M. R. James, "labourers came to Bawburgh once a year to obtain blessings for themselves and their beasts". 

Even in 1892, Mark Knights said that "in recent years pilgrims have gone to this well to drink at the water". Tradition says the well 'has never been drawn dry', even though it's only a few feet deep. Services are still held at Bawburgh every year on the anniversary of Walstan's death (May 30th), including a procession to the well, which is often dressed for the occasion.

Sources:

M. R. James: 'Suffolk & Norfolk' (Dent & Sons, 1930), pp.19-20.

Mark Knights: 'Peeps at the Past, or Rambles Among Norfolk Antiquities' (Jarrold & Son, 1892), p.68.

W. H. Barrett & R. P. Garrod: 'East Anglian Folklore & Other Tales' (Routledge & Kegan Paul,  1976), pp.92-5.

W. A. Dutt: 'Highways & Byways in East Anglia' (Macmillan & Co, 1923), pp.159-61.

Beechamwell:

Hangour Hill & Bichamditch

The Devil is credited with making the round barrow called Hangour Hill (TF752087), by scraping the earth from his spade after digging out the Saxon Bichamditch or Devil's Ditch.

Source:

L. V. Grinsell: 'Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain' (David & Charles, 1976), p.134.

Beeston Regis:

Secret tunnel

From the ruins of the early 13th century Augustinian priory here (TG167427), a tunnel is said to run to the Dunstable Arms Inn.

Source:

Found on: www.norfolkcoast.co.uk/

Farmer Reynolds' stone

Within the churchyard (TG174431) is a large stone being used to cover a grave. It's approximately 4 feet long x 2 feet x 18 inches high, being a rectangular block of granite, with circular depressions on the uppermost surface. One side is inscribed with the names of the grave's occupants. This is originally one of a pair which stood at TG167428,  either side of a pathway in the yard of a now-derelict farmhouse, in the grounds of the ruined Beeston Priory. The path itself led to what is now known as the Abbot's Freshwater Spring Pond. 

A local tale says that about 1938-43, when both boulders were in situ, the farmer (whose name was Reynolds) often drove his horse and cart along this pathway. Several times, a grey hooded figure would leap out from behind one of the stones at sunset, and try to grab the horse's reins before vanishing. This, although terrifying the animals, seems not to have perturbed the man unduly. However, he ordered that the stone in question be laid upon his grave after his death, in an attempt at 'laying' the apparition.

Reynolds died in 1947, and in accordance with his wishes, the boulder now lies atop his grave, his wife also being interred there in 1967. There is no record as to whether or not the 'exorcism' was successful, and indeed, a local woman who knew the Reynolds could not confirm the story. The other stone of the pair, though now fallen, still occupies its original site.

Source:

Ivan Bunn & Dennis Fletcher: 'The Ghost & the Stone', in 'Lantern' No.4, (Winter 1973-4), p.4.

Bergh Apton:

The White Heath mounds

A battle is said to have happened here, connected with the allegedly Roman or pre-Roman mound on which St. Peter and St. Paul's church stands, and with three round barrows a little further east. These stood very near the boundary with Thurton on White Heath, but have been ploughed away (TG323008)¹.

According to a 19th century source, the battle was between the Romans and the native Iceni, with one side occupying White Heath, and the other encamped on Barnes Heath².

Sources:

1. L. V. Grinsell: 'Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain' (David & Charles, 1976), p.134.
2. White's 'History, Gazetteer & Directory of Norfolk', 1883.

Billingford:

Town of the battle

Legend says that a battle was fought here in the Roman period, for which proof is offered that the village (near Diss) was once known as 'Pirleston' - 'town of the battle'.

Source:

David Butcher: 'Waveney Valley' (East Anglian Magazine Ltd, 1975), p.32.

Binham:

Secret tunnel

A Norfolk dialect tale told in the 19th century tells of a secret monks' tunnel that runs from the priory at Little Walsingham (TF935367) to the Benedictine priory (founded 1091) at Binham, a part of which still serves as the parish church (TF979399). The tunnel was supposed to be seen above ground as a "grate green bank" running over the meadows, and a hollow sound could be heard on the roads that it passed under.

It also tells that the ghost of a monk dressed in black used to walk along the green bank every night, shaking his head and peering, as if looking for something, but he hadn't been seen since the fiddler went down the tunnel.

Once, part of the bank near Binham Priory caved in, and people went to investigate. But only old Jimmy Griggs the fiddler would go in, with his dog Trap. As he played, they followed him along the bank till the music suddenly stopped, and the dog shot out of the tunnel shaking in fear, and with his tail between his legs. In the night there was a dreadful storm which broke down the entrance and filled it in, and Jimmy was never seen again. Ever since, that bank with the entrance has been known as Fiddler's Hill, and mysterious music is sometimes heard at midnight.¹

Other variants say the fiddler was actually a travelling player who stopped at Wells-next-the-Sea and was told about the tunnel legend, or that the dog vanished with the fiddler. There is no trace of any 'grate green bank'. Presumably any tunnel would run in a straight line, and it's just under 4 miles from Binham Priory to Walsingham Abbey as the crow flies, but Fiddler's Hill (TF961410) is actually about 1½ miles north of this line. In truth it's a much-eroded round barrow (now a scheduled ancient monument, with a picnic place close by) in the angle of a crossroads at the edge of Binham parish, and in 1933 Norfolk County Council workmen 'rounding-off' the corner here found the skeletons of a man and a dog.²

Walton Dew in 1898 wrote that "to have attempted to convince a Binhamite that a small door in the south aisle of the Priory leads into the crypt or nave, and not to Walsingham Priory...would have been a tough job..."³

Sources:

1. 'East Anglian Handbook', 1892, p.223-4.
2. 'Norwich Mercury', April 15th 1933.

3. Walton Dew: 'A Dyshe of Norfolke Dumplings' (Jarrold & Sons, 1898), p.109.

The guns on the hill

On an unnamed hill near Binham Priory (TF979399), Cromwell is said to have "planted his guns to shatter that edifice".

Source:

Walton N. Dew: 'A Dyshe of Norfolke Dumplings', (Jarrold & Sons, 1898), p.108.

Blakeney:

Secret tunnels

Near the north end of the High Street is the 14-15th century Guildhall (owned by English Heritage and open to the public), timbered and Flemish-bricked. A tunnel is said to go from the brick-vaulted undercroft here to the remains of a friary (TG032440) north of St. Nicholas' church. This was founded in 1296 for the order of Carmelites, or White Friars. Here an intrepid fiddler (some say with his dog, or according to the village sign, his white cat) ventured into the tunnel and failed to emerge the other end.

Another tunnel leads from the friary ruins to Wiveton Hall (TG039441) about ½ a mile away. A member of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society reported in the 1920s that one of these passages had been uncovered a few years before, but that from its size, it was probably a drain.

Allegedly there is also a tunnel here that runs for 8 miles from the Guildhall to Baconsthorpe Castle (TG119383).

In 1924, a man working on Mariners Hill dug down about 12 feet and found "the barrel roof of a tunnel". It was covered over again, but he said it went "right under the houses on top of the hill." 

The 'Eastern Daily Press' on 4/2/1976 said a tunnel had been exposed in the yard of the White House Hotel.

Sources: various, including:

Peter Brooks: 'Have you Heard about Blakeney?' (Poppyland Publishing, 1981), p.22.

Walton Dew: 'A Dyshe of Norfolke Dumplings' (Jarrold & Sons, 1898), p.109.

W. A. Dutt: 'The Norfolk & Suffolk Coast' (T. Fisher Unwin, 1909), p.231.

'Norfolk Archaeology', Vol.21 (1919-23), p.lxi.

Bodham:

The Round House

As at Langley, the Devil used to turn up every night to tear down the four walls of a building that was being constructed, but he was thwarted when it was decided to build it in a circular form.

Source: paranormaldatabase.com

Bunwell:

Nonmete Hill

"In 1645, according to the finding of a jury impanelled by the King's escheator for Norfolk, John Cans and Robert Hikkes called up a spirit of the air at Bunwell, and promised to sacrifice to him 'the body of a Christian man' if he would disclose the whereabouts of a hoard. Consequently the spirit showed them a 'vast treasure' buried in Nonmete Hill". I've so far been unable to locate this hill.

Source:

George L. Kittredge: 'Witchcraft in Old & New England' (Harvard University Press, 1929), p.206.

Burgh St. Peter:

The Devil & the church tower

St. Mary's church (TM493938) has a brick tower built in 5 stages, each smaller than the one below it. A local tale asserts that the tower can fold up like a telescope, shutting down at the end of the yachting season, and opening up again at the start.

Legend says a poor man made a deal with the Devil for money, and spent some of his wealth on building the church. Years later the Devil came back for payment on his loan, with the man's signature on a parchment, but too late, for the man had died just hours before and been buried in the new graveyard, out of the Devil's reach. It's said that on the anniversary of the man's death, a skeleton haunts the churchyard, trying to reclaim his soul.

Source:

B. Granville Baker: 'Waveney' (Philip Allan & Co, 1924), p.216.

The Devil's Stile

The Devil sits one night a year on the Devil's Stile, on a field path into the main road near the Rectory.

Source:

W. B. Gerish: 'Norfolk Folklore Collections' (1916-18, compiled by William de Castre), Vol.4, p.52.

Burnham Norton:

The wishing wells

"From the friary the monks walked to the 'wishing wells' nearby to drink the cool water, which is claimed to make wishes come true." The Carmelite friary, founded in 1241, still has significant remains among the surrounding farm buildings (TF838428).

Source:

'Norfolk Archaeology', Vol.25, Proceedings 1933, p. lxx.