Hidden East Anglia:

Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk

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East Bergholt:

The Devil and the church tower

The bells of the towerless church of St. Mary (TM070344) are housed in a unique timber bellcage in the churchyard, dating from 1531, and they have to be rung by a strong hand pushing on the wooden headstocks. Work on the west tower began in 1525, traditionally at the expense of Cardinal Wolsey, but his death five years later halted the flow of funds.

The legend says that the Devil each night pulled down what had been built in the day, so eventually they gave up and hung the bells in the bellcage. Actually the cage once stood the other side of the churchyard, but the ringing irked a nearby wealthy landowner so much he had it removed to its present position so the church would muffle the sound.

Source:

White's 'History, Gazetteer & Directory of Suffolk' (1885), p.124.

Elveden:

Marmansgrave

On the line of the Icknield Way is Marmansgrave (TL840797), where the road between Elveden and Barnham meets the New Barnham Slip, and is also on the boundaries of the two parishes. Mar or Marman is thought by some to have been a suicide, but the usual tale has him as a gamekeeper who was shot or beaten to death by poachers who had threatened him in the past. Here he was buried, in an area referred to in the 16th century papers of the 'Court of Augmentation' as Deadman's Grave and Deadman's Lands. Modern tracks have obscured the site, and the exact spot is now unknown.

Source:

W. G. Clarke: 'In Breckland Wilds' (Robert Scott, 1925), p.164.

The fairies' den

Although the name derives from Old English elfetdenu, meaning 'swan valley', locals assumed it to mean the elves' or fairies' den. One old lady in the 1800s recalled having heard, as a child, fairy music coming from that magic dell by the roadside. It supposedly still exists today, in a wood called the Milestone Slip (TL829804 area), next to the lane leading to Redneck Farm. She added that passing horses were liable to be snared by the enchanted music, and dragged down into the fairies' parlour.

Exning:

St. Wendreda's Well

St. Etheldreda, sister of Withburga (see East Dereham), was traditionally born at Exning in 630 AD, has been called 'the most revered of all Anglo-Saxon women saints', and died of plague at Ely on June 23rd 679 AD. Like her sister, her body was found to be incorrupt long after death, and performed miracles which drew many pilgrims. She is said to have planted her staff in the ground outside Ely, where it promptly took root and burst into flower. 

Her baptism was believed to have taken place at Exning, 'in a wood with 3 springs'. This would be St. Mildred's - then Mindred's - now St. Wendreda's Well (TL620645). (Wendreda is supposed to be yet another saintly daughter of King Anna, but she seems to have been invented in the 19th century). The Well was one of a group of 'Seven Springs' "good for ailments of the eyes", welling up in pools on a steep bank in a wood in the grounds of the Hamilton Stud - a spot marked on old maps as Favin's Head, and said close to the site of a 'Saxon palace'.

A small stream runs from the Well through Exning village, and tradition says that, even in the harshest winter, the part that runs past the vicarage has never frozen.

Sources:

M. R. James: 'Suffolk & Norfolk' (Dent & Sons, 1930), p.14.

Allan Jobson: 'Portrait of Suffolk' (Robert Hale, 1973), p.31.