Hidden East Anglia:

Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Necton:

 

Secret tunnel

 

A local man told me of a tunnel said to run from the restored 14th century church of All Saints (TF879098) to the Hall, in possession of the Mason family since the time of Henry VII.

 

 

Newton by Castle Acre:

 

Winchester Hill

 

Cromwell is said to have stood his guns on Winchester Hill (TF837156 area) in order to demolish either Castle Acre castle, or the priory. An old rhyme says "Had it not been for Winchester Hill, Castleacre Castle would ha' stood still".

 

Source:

'Norfolk Fair', Vol.2, No.II, p.23.

 

 

Norwich:

 

The king under the mound

 

Dating from the Norman period, the keep of Norwich Castle (TM232085) sits on a pre-existing mound that was heightened and fortified in the 12th century. In legend, a king named  Gungunt, Gungant or Gurgunt was said to have built the castle 'before Roman times', and when he died was buried under the huge mound raised for him. He sits there still with sword in hand, along with a huge table piled high with gold and silver treasures. I've lately come across a (rather dubious) theory that the king in question was in fact Boudicca's husband, Prasutagus of the Iceni.

 

Source:

W. B. Gerish: 'Norfolk Folklore Collections' (unpublished, 1916-18, compiled by William de Castre), Vol.4, p.136.

 

 

The cracked castle

 

In Richard Gough's 'Anecdotes of British Topography' of 1768, there is said to be a picture by Mehaux showing a south-west view of Norwich Castle (TM232085), under which is inscribed the following: "This castle was built by Julius Caesar, and the crack is supposed to have happened at the Crucifixion..."


No crack is visible nowadays, the whole exterior having been completely refaced between 1833 and 1839.

 

Source:

'The East Anglian, or Notes & Queries', Vol.8 (1899-1900), p.237.

norwichcastle.jpg (171763 bytes)

 

Secret tunnels

 

The first of a whole host of legendary tunnels under Norwich leads from the Castle (TM232085) to the Guildhall (TM231085) near the market-place, erected 1407-13 on the site of the old tollhouse. It still has a 14th century vault below it, that was the crypt (and prison) of the former building.


A second tunnel (in which a pig was once lost) heads from the Castle for Carrow Priory (TM242073 area), a Benedictine nunnery whose scant 12th century remains on the outskirts of Norwich are incorporated into a residence of the Colman family, near the junction of King Street and Bracondale.1


The third tunnel from the Castle ran to the Norman cathedral to the north-east (TM235089), begun in 1096 by Bishop Herbert de Losinga, and finally consecrated in 1101.2

 

Yet another subterranean way links the Castle with the Crown Derby near the Guildhall.

At the cathedral another tunnel begins, running for about nine miles to the ruins of St.Benet's Abbey (TG383157) on the marshes at Ludham. A much shorter one, allegedly used by monks, was said to run from the cathedral to Samson & Hercules House (see below).

Smugglers are held responsible for a passage between the Compasses in Upper King Street and Pull's Ferry by the riverside.

The Anglia Restaurant (originally the Prince's Inn) in Prince's Street has a splendid groined crypt for a cellar, and two tunnels from here are said to lead to the cathedral, and to St. Andrew's Hall.


From the Hall a tunnel extends under St. George Street to the Red Lion Opposite.


In Lower Goat Lane is the Raven pub, with a supposed underground link to St. Giles' Gate.

 

Monks supposedly used a tunnel from the cellars of the Shrub House at the corner of Charing Cross Street, to the site of St. Benedict's Gates.


A tunnel runs from the White Lion to nearby Whitefriars Bridge, while another goes from the Mischief tavern in Fyebridge Street to the crypt of the redundant St. Clement's church, less than 100 yards away.3

In early January 1644, Cromwell sent his forces to Norwich to demand the surrender of a small group of Royalists, whom he heard to be presently at the Maid's Head Hotel. According to legend, as the Parliamentarians entered the hotel, the Royalists retreated through a secret tunnel, stretching steel ropes across the way behind them. Many of Cromwell's men (and their horses) were beheaded as they raced through the tunnel in pursuit, and this incident is used to explain the sound of ghostly hoofbeats often heard emanating from under the ground around the Cathedral Close,4 especially about midnight near the end of January.5

"Further North of the city, but still not far away from the river, is a place called Kett's Cave Park. I used to play there as a child. One day I had met an old lady who was sitting on one of the swings, we got talking and she also used to play there as a child, I would suppose around 1900. She had advised there used to be a tunnel in the hill which led to the old brewery, on which now stands the chamber of commerce in Barrack Street. She pointed out were the tunnel was, and as kids you need to find adventure and my friends and I went to find the tunnel ..... only to find it had been sealed many years ago by the council..... It is also reported the tunnel from the brewery led to the cathedral.... that one we never found found because building work had started on the brewery site to make way for the chamber of commerce. A few years later the houses that stood around Kett's Cave had to be demolished due to underground tunnels.... most likely old chalk workings had caused the damage as they had collapsed".6

 

Tunnels created during mining for flint and chalk, at least as far back as the 13th century, certainly exist under Norwich, but mostly around the outskirts of the medieval city.7

 

Sources:

1. W. B. Gerish: 'Norfolk Folklore Collections', Vol.4 (unpublished, 1916-18, compiled by William de Castre, ), p.13.

2. 'The East Anglian, or Notes & Queries', Vol.2, p.340.

3. John Riddington Young: 'The Inns & Taverns of Old Norwich'.
4. www.edp24.co.uk/Content/Features/SpookyNorfolk/

5. David Chisnell: 'Haunted Norwich' (Tempus Publishing, 2005), p.39.

6. www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/england/norfolk/

7. Malcolm Atkin: 'The Tunnels of Norwich', in 'Norfolk Fair', May 1975, pp.6-7.

 

Samson & Hercules

Gog and Magog are the lesser-known names of two plaster statues in Norwich. Generally called Samson and Hercules (TG233088), they stand either side of the entrance to the 17th century house (once the site of a plague pit and now a night club) of that name in Tombland. Tradition says when they hear the clock strike twelve, they step down from their pedestals. The original statues were of timber, but were replaced when Samson lost an arm.

"The figures date from 1656....According to legend, when the clocks strike midnight, the figures belabour each other with their clubs".1

Source:

1. 'Norfolk Archaeology', Vol.28 (1938-43), p.68.

samson&hercules.jpg (114767 bytes)

 

The dragon's mouth

"...All that is in print is not necessarily genuine, e.g. I much misdoubt me of - 'When (the) Dragon drinks, Heigham sinks' - said to be the warning given by a stone dragon's mouth, forming the keystone of the arch of a Norwich bridge".1

"It is said that there was once a dragon's head on St. Miles' Bridge, and that it bore an inscription, 'When dragon drinks Heigham sinks,' meaning that when the water got so high as to run through the dragon's mouth Heigham was sure to be flooded".2

Heigham itself has all but disappeared today under the Norwich ring road and later developments.

Sources:

1. Walter Rye: 'Songs, Stories & Sayings of Norfolk' (Agas H. Goose, 1897), p.17.

2. Walter Rye: 'History of the Parish of Heigham in the City of Norwich' (Roberts & Co, 1917), p.3.