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.
Sources:
Walter Rye:
'Norfolk Songs, Stories & Sayings' (Goose & Son, 1897), pp.85-6.
'The East
Anglian Magazine', Vol.2, p.461.
paranormaldatabase.com
The witch's
brick
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.
The
Devil's footprint
Somewhere
along Devil's Alley, off Nelson Street, there is supposed to be visible
a single footprint left by Satan himself.
Source:
paranormaldatabase.com
Kirby
Bedon:
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.
