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Hidden East Anglia: Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk
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Blood Field
The 1832 Tithe Award for the parish of Martlesham reveals a place called 'Blood Field', which in 1946 was said to be "on the east side of the Rotary Camping Ground". Local tradition says that here was fought the "last battle between the Saxons and the Danes".
Source: W. G. Arnott: 'The Place-Names of the Deben Valley Parishes' (Norman Adlard & Co, 1946), pp.12-13.
The Preaching Stone
The jagged Preaching Stone (TM103658) in Back Street near the town sign is where, it is said, mendicant friars used to gather to preach and bless in the 15th century, and 300 years later, the preacher John Wesley.
Source: 'The East Anglian Magazine', Vol.26 (Nov.1966-Oct.1967), p.350.
Mother Lumpkin's Hole
Mother Lumpkin's Hole (TM438677) is a deep hollow in the bed of the Minsmere River near Rackford Bridge in the parish, which, according to local rumour, teems with carp as big as pigs, and pike the size of baby sharks. Here, a complete wagon and horses is said to have vanished into the hole. One who lived nearby has recalled that he was often warned away from the Hole, for fear that he be dragged in by the baleful monster that lived there.
Source: Allan Jobson: 'Suffolk Remembered' (Robert Hale, 1969), p.158.
In the yard at the now-ruined Home Farm (near Fordley Hall, TM409669) is a huge boulder where children were once in the habit of placing pins in the various cracks and holes, running round it as fast as they could, then putting their ears against it in the hope of hearing the Devil speak.
Underneath it there is said to be buried a hoard of treasure that no one can retrieve, as the stone is immovable. A local farmer once attached a team of horses to it, but failed to dislodge it. In addition, the stone was held to have been the meeting-place for a coven of witches.
Source: Allan Jobson: 'An Hour-Glass on the Run' (Michael Joseph, 1959), pp.55-6.
The Three Hills
The Three Hills round barrows (TL744742 area) are in the heavily wooded Mildenhall Warren. Oliver Cromwell is said to have hidden his valuables, or 'some chests of silver' in them. When one was opened in 1866, a large number of local people are said to have gathered there because of a false rumour that one of the chests had been found.
Sources: J. J. Raven: 'The History of Suffolk' (E. Stock, 1895), p.12. L. V. Grinsell: 'Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain' (David & Charles, 1976), p.137.
The Boy's Grave
The Boy's or Gypsy's Grave (TL688662) is well-tended and ringed with a simple low chain-link fence (bent osiers or rattan cane hoops up to 1974), on the grass verge where the Moulton to Chippenham road crosses the old Newmarket to Kentford road. The legend tells of a gypsy lad who either lost some of the sheep he was watching, or was accused of stealing them, and hanged himself on a nearby tree, or who simply lost some of his flock and was executed for it. Either way, he was buried at this spot, from which some passing cyclists have claimed emanates a strange, compelling power which forces them to dismount.
At least until World War Two gypsies were alleged (wrongly) to tend the grave, and even now fresh flowers are often left here (by a Middlesex woman). It's said that if any flowers should appear on the grave during Derby week, then a horse from the Newmarket stables will win the race. And on any racing day, the colour of the flowers foretells the racing colours of the winning horse.
Sources: various, including www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba25/ba25feat.html www.grantham.karoo.net/paul/graves/gypsyboy.htm
Many local folk believe there to be a secret tunnel from the cellar in the oldest part of Moulton Rectory to the church of St. Peter (TL700641).
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