Hidden East Anglia:

Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Icklingham:

 

Deadman's Grave

 

Here is a mound called Deadman's Grave (TL777745 area), which is traditionally the burial place of an executed highwayman, who in revenge at being denied a Christian burial, then haunted the mound on his horse, scaring passing horses and cattle. Both horse and man are said to be buried in the same grave. Although the location was once thought to be a burial mound, it's now thought to be simply a rabbit warren.

 

Source: Former weblink: www.theoldbell.me.uk/icklingham/and%20some%20history.htm

 

 

Ickworth:

 

The Golden Pond

 

A pool in the park grounds of 18th century Ickworth House is known locally as the Golden Pond (TL811612), from a story that one of the abbots of Bury had thrown his gold into it for safekeeping. The rumour is that a chest of valuables was dredged up from the pond's bottom many years ago, but slipped back in as it stood on the grassy bank. However, in 1856 a chest was still being shown at the House as the very one that came out of the pond.

 

Source: A. C. Hervey: 'A paper read before the Archaeological Institute of Suffolk, at their meeting held at Ickworth, Oct. 2nd 1856', p.109.

 

 

Iken:

 

The hill of devils

 

The church of St. Botolph (TM412566) at Iken, on its little hill projecting above the surrounding marshland, is believed to stand on the site of a 7th century minster, the first Christian mission site in East Anglia. When Botolph first arrived, he had to cast out the various marsh devils and monsters that infested the area, and so he became renowned for his sanctity and power. According to Suffolk Coastal District Council however, in their Heritage Walks booklet, things went a bit further than that. Apparently there were deaths, reported ghosts, and that old folklore motif of materials for the building of the minster being moved mysteriously at night. How much of this is genuine tradition, and how much supposition, I do not know.

 

Source: Suffolk Coastal Ebb & Flow

 

 

Ipswich:

 

Secret tunnels

 

In 1740 Thomas Cartwright excavated beneath Stoke Hall a vast series of wine cellars, 18 in all, and a total of 180 feet in length. The house itself later decayed and was pulled down, but the cellars remained (and still exist, beside Stoke Hall Road). Having no idea as to their origin, people began making up tales about these underground workings, that were used as air raid shelters in World War Two. A tunnel was said to lead from there to the 'folly' called Freston Tower (TM178397), on the banks of the Orwell. Probably built between 1550-1560 by Edmund Latymer, this red bricked six-storey building was perhaps a 'standing' or look-out tower of some kind.


A second passage from Stoke Hall ran to Greyfriars Priory, near where the ring road (here Franciscan Way) crosses Prince's Street. The priory was founded sometime before 1236, and only a segment of flint walling now remains (TM160446), incorporated into the Greyfriars Concourse.1
 

On the north side of the river, the Woolpack pub (TM167451) in Tuddenham Road is said to have had smuggler's tunnels running south to the dock area.2


There are allegedly deep (and supposedly haunted) cellars beneath the Fore Street site of the wine merchant Hayman Barwell Jones, which are said to form part of a system of tunnels. They are rumoured to link up with the Ancient House (see below), the 19th century Old Custom House in Key Street, Christchurch Mansion to the north, and the site of Holywells manor to the south-east.3

 

The Coach and Horses Inn used to stand in Lower Brook Street. On the opposite side of the road were the premises of Messrs. E. L. Hunt, that were on the site of a mansion house owned by Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk and husband of Mary Tudor. A tunnel was said to connect the two.4

The Ancient House (or Sparrowe's House) stands in the Buttermarket, at the corner of St. Stephen's Lane. The decorative pargetting and wood carving dates generally from about 1670, but a heavy hammerbeam roof within is of the 15th century. In 1801 a workman falling thru the roof came upon a hidden room, supposedly part of a pre-Reformation chapel. It has long been believed that Charles II was secreted in that room after the battle of Worcester in 1651, and thus has arisen the tale of his escape by secret tunnel from the Ancient House to Alnesbourne Priory in Nacton parish, about 3 miles away. Now Priory Farm (TM191404), the only part remaining of this Augustinian house, founded around 1200, is a part of the wall of a barn.5

 

Not too far away from the Buttermarket is Paddy McGinty's pub in Northgate Street, where a bricked-up entrance into Ipswich's vast tunnel system is to be found in the cellar. The ghostly monk that haunts the pub is said to have helped someone come from 'the monastery' through the tunnels, and for his pains was murdered by being drowned in the old well that can be seen in the lower bar.6

 

Sources:

1. 'The East Anglian Magazine', Vol.5 (1940), p.132.

2. www.paranormaldatabase.com/hotspots/ipswich.php

3. Information gratefully received from John Wragg.
4. L. P. Thompson: 'Old Inns of Suffolk' (East Anglian Magazine Ltd, 1946), p.24.
5. Allan Jobson: 'Portrait of Suffolk' (Robert Hale, 1973), p.60.

6. http://www.lostexpedition.co.uk/ipswich.html

 

 

Ixworth:

 

Alecock's Grave

 

Alecock's Grave (TL954724) is a crossing of five ways between Ixworth and Stanton, and is on a parish boundary. There is only a vague tradition of a suicide's burial here, and the spot is marked on some early maps as Ape's Cross.