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Hidden East Anglia: Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk
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The sunken church
Oby is a tiny hamlet that forms part of the parish of Ashby with Oby, in the Norfolk Broads just north of Acle. 'A General History of the County of Norfolk', published in 1829, says that "the church is on the road side leading from Thurne to Yarmouth". But by the time of the First World War, the folklore writer W. B. Gerish recorded that "the parish church here has vanished and is said to have sunk in the ground". It's possible that this is just a fragment of a tale similar to that of Dilham's 'sunken church', further north in the Broadland.
Source: W. B. Gerish: 'Norfolk Legends' (unpublished notes, c.1914.)
Cromwell's men
A slight legend here tells that some of Oliver Cromwell's men are buried in the churchyard at St. Peter and St. Paul's (TG136285) - though why they're here, and exactly where, isn't known.
Source: Found on: http://www.broadland.gov.uk/leisure_and_tourism/1262.asp
The running stone
A stone here is said to run across the road when it hears the Caldecote church bells strike midnight. But of the church of St. Mary the Virgin (TF744034), near Caldecote Farm, virtually nothing now remains.
Secret tunnel
"According to local residents, a 'secret tunnel' is said to go from Oxnead Hall, Norfolk, to the parish church" (TG229240).
Source: From Radio Norfolk 3/1/82, noted in 'Lantern' 36, p.5. |
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