|
Hidden East Anglia: Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk
|
||
|
|
Kenninghall:
Candleyards Boudicca is said to have had a palace here at a moated site called Candleyards, which might be the moat (TM065855) just west of Kenninghall Place. Source: Arthur Mee (ed.) : 'The King's England - Norfolk' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1940), p.205.
King's Lynn: Secret tunnels Legend says that a tunnel once ran between Greyfriars Priory (TF621198) and the curious Red Mount Chapel (TF624199). Another tunnel, now bricked-up, was also thought to have connected the priory to the White Hart pub, both in St. James Street. The pub itself is supposed to be haunted by a monk. Nothing is left of the 13th century Franciscan priory except the lofty Lantern Tower, while the Red Mount Chapel is a unique and mysterious structure, about which opinion has always been divided. The structure itself is of red brick, octagonal and buttressed, with an inner rectangular core that projects above the roof. There are actually two chapels here, one possibly of the 13th century, and the other - the Chapel of Our Lady of the Mount - was set upon the steep-sided artificial mound in about 1485 by Robert Corraunce. This was probably to house a holy relic of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and tradition tells of pilgrims halting here on their way to Walsingham. Because of the other main story associated with it (set in the 1300s) it's possible an earlier edifice stood here - an idea even more probable given that the mound itself was once known as Guanock Hill - 'guanock' or 'gannock' being an old local word meaning a beacon. A tunnel is said to lead from the Red Mount to a door in the gatehouse at Castle Rising (TF665245), some four miles to the north-east. The castle was built in the 12th century by William de Albini, and considerable remains still stand of that and later additions. In 1331 Isabella, the widow of King Edward II, was brought to the castle by her son and allegedly imprisoned for her part in Mortimer's rebellion. However, she wasn't even under house arrest, as she travelled quite freely in this country and abroad. She was said to have been jailed here until her death in 1358, and buried in Rising church. Thus, Edward III was believed to have used the tunnel on many occasions to secretly visit his mother. However, she actually died at Hertford Castle and was almost certainly buried at Greyfriars in London. The historian of Lynn, Mr. E. M. Beloe, dug at the Red Mount and found that the supposed tunnel came to a halt after only a few feet, at an outer door which had long been buried beneath the soil of the mound. The door in the castle was likewise no more than one of two entrances to an inner stairway. As in other subterranean tales, a drunken fiddler and his dog are said to have tried to explore the tunnel, but were never seen again.
Another tunnel supposedly comes to Lynn from the site of the former medieval bishop's palace where Gaywood Hall (TF639200) now stands, in an eastern suburb of the town. A brick arch uncovered in a trench along Blackfriars Road was claimed by one old man to evidence of this, while another is said to have dug up a tunnel on the same line during the last century, but veering towards the Red Mount. Sewers and a covered-up reservoir may have been the basis for this any other such stories.
Sources: Walter Rye: 'Norfolk Songs, Stories & Sayings' (Goose & Son, 1897), pp.85-6. 'The East Anglian Magazine', Vol.2, p.461. http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/hotspots/kingslynn.php www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid=MNF14629
For some reason, the ramblings of the Yorkshire soothsayer Mother Shipton (c.1488-1561) used to be very popular with the country folk of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. And somehow, the old Fenmen reckoned that she was responsible for the prophecy and belief that, when royalty visited the Theatre Royal in St. James' Street, the Greyfriars Lantern Tower mentioned above would collapse onto it. Since the Theatre wasn't even opened until 1815, one has to wonder how Mother Shipton's name ever got attached to this myth. The slight lean that the tower had for years was corrected in 2006, while the Theatre Royal, which burned down in 1936 and was then rebuilt, is now a bingo hall. While the Queen has visited King's Lynn many times, it seems unlikely that she'll ever pop in for a game of bingo.
Source: Arthur Randell (ed. Enid Porter: ‘Sixty Years a Fenman’ (R & K P, 1966). P.102-3.
At about 12 feet from the ground, above the window of house no. 15-16 on the north side of the Tuesday Market Place (TF617202), is a diamond shape enclosing a heart set into the brickwork. This is said to be the spot where the heart of a witch called Margaret Read hit the wall when it burst from her body as she was burnt there in 1590. Some say that the heart actually bounced away down a lane and leapt into the river Ouse!
Source: Readers Digest Association: 'Folklore, Myths & Legends of Britain' (1973), p.240.
Somewhere along Devil's Alley, off Nelson Street, there is supposed to be visible a single footprint left by Satan himself.
Source: http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/hotspots/kingslynn.php
The friendly statues Only a couple of houses, a hall and a sewage works now remain of Whitlingham hamlet, close to the river Yare and reached by a long and winding road from Trowse Newton (or by the A47 Norwich by-pass, which now slices through the area). St. Andrew's church stood on a hill above the river, a small edifice with a round Norman tower. Around the parapet at the top there once stood four life-size statues, supposedly of the Evangelists, that were said to have originally come from some old manor house. At midnight on New Year's Eve, these figures were believed to march round the parapet, shake hands in greeting, then walk back again - but this could only be seen by unmarried people. The church fell into ruin by 1630, and the tower finally collapsed in 1940 (TG274079). Source: Ernest R. Suffling: 'History & Legends of the Broad District' (Jarrolds, 1891), p.187. |
|
