Hidden East Anglia:

Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk

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Sotterley:

Duffin's Wood

A narrow lane called Mill Road runs from the hamlet of Hulver Street past the Sotterley Hall estate, and branching off from this is a rough track known as 'Round the Duffins', which leads to a small copse called Duffin's Wood (TM467867 area). Here there is said to be an old oak tree around which no grass will ever grow. Dancing round it three times at midnight will cause a ghost to appear.

Kate's Parlour

Just before reaching a tiny bridge on the edge of the Sotterley Hall parkland, Mill Road dips steeply down to form Jay's Hill. Towards the bottom of the hill, about 100 yards beyond a gamekeeper's cottage, is a sudden gap in the dense hedges on one side. One or two beech trees still grow on the low grassy bank, but the otherwise empty spot is known as Kate's Parlour (TM461862).

Here is where a young parlour maid named Kate vanished from the 18th century Hall one day, and was said to have committed suicide, or been killed after a fight between two rival admirers. She is buried at this spot too, and they say that no matter how many times a hedge has been planted there, it will not 'take'. Kate, dressed in shimmering white, is said to haunt this part of Jay's Hill at midnight. A Hulver man cycling this way one night saw her, and was thrown off his bike and into the bushes. Horses have been known to tremble and halt here. During World War Two, soldiers stationed at the Hall and airmen based at nearby Ellough airfield often claimed to have seen Kate, sometimes flying eerily out of a window at the Hall, or in one of the bedrooms.

Source:

'The Secret of Kate's Parlour', in 'Lantern' No.28 (Winter 1979), p.3.

Southwold:

The Fairy Hills

A. D. Bayne in the 19th century speaks of a hill called Eye Cliff here, on which could be seen "vestiges of ancient encampments, and in many parts of circular tents...most probably of Danish origin".¹ Another source says "even the 'Eye-Cliff Hill' and those called 'The Fairy Hills of Southwold', are still pointed at as the landmarks here".² Only Gun Hill (TM509759 area) remains of that location now, the rest having been claimed by the sea. Several burial mounds are certainly known to have stood there.

Sources:

1. A. D. Bayne: 'Royal Illustrated History of Eastern England' (Macdonald & Co, c.1873.)
2. Robert Wake: 'Southwold and its Vicinity' (F. Skill, 1839), p.372.

Hailsdune

Tradition says that King Edmund was martyred at 'Hailsdune', a name some have derived from 'The Hail', the local name for a raised knoll on the seabed just north of Southwold harbour. It's said that the scant remains of a chapel to the saint could once be seen there. See also 'Edmund of East Anglia'.

Secret tunnels

The old gaol was pulled down in 1819, but another built on the same site, and the 'mantrap' windows of the cells are still visible beneath a grocery shop in the market place. Barely 20 yards across the road is the Town Hall, once the court house, and a tunnel is said to link them. In fact, the tradition seems to have arisen from the existence of a deep alcove with a bricked-in arch which the owner of the shop showed me in the 1970s. But ironically, the alcove is actually on the opposite side of the old gaol to the Town Hall.¹

A passage is said to run from beneath the Lord Nelson Inn in East Street towards Centre Cliff, used to bring smuggled goods into temporary storage in the inn's cellars,² while a tunnel leading from the vicarage to the sea may also have had a smuggling connection.³

Sources:

1. 'The East Anglian Daily Times', 5/10/1977.
2. Leonard P. Thompson: 'Inns of the Suffolk Coast' (Brett Valley Publications, 1969), p.106.

3. 'The East Anglian Magazine', Vol.26, p.463.

Spexhall:

Secret tunnels

An anonymous ballad called 'The Pleasant History of the King and Lord Bigod of Bungay' tells how the rebellious Earl Hugh Bigod fled from King Henry's forces in 1174, towards his stronghold of Bungay. One verse in particular is of interest:

"When the Baily had ridden to Bramfield Oak,
Sir Hugh was at Ilk'sall bower.
When the Baily had ridden to Halesworth Cross,
He was singing in Bungay tower..."

The 'Baily' was the king's officer or bailiff, always one step behind Bigod as they reached various local landmarks. Bramfield Oak was a mighty tree on the route, while Halesworth Cross was probably a market or wayside cross in that town. Bungay tower was Bigod's own castle, the ruins of which even now he is said to haunt in the form of a black dog - but what was 'Ilk'sall bower', and where was it?

'Ilk'sall' is actually a local contraction of 'Ilketshall', the prefix of four parish names south-east of Bungay, while a bower, according to the dictionary, is an arbour, "a shady retreat with sides and roof formed by trees, or lattice-work covered with climbing plants".

Driven out of his castle at Framlingham, and with the King's army hot on his heels, Sir Hugh would have headed north to Badingham, on the old road still known as the Earlsway, to Bramfield. Reaching Halesworth he would then have taken the Roman road (Stone Street or the Broadway) straight to Bungay. Logically then, the Ilk'sall Bower should have been somewhere along Stone Street. However, Alfred Suckling in his 'History of Suffolk' (1846) says that "of the Ilksall Bower, I believe no traces are visible, though it was known to schoolboys around half a century since; the most adventurous of whom were accustomed on birds'-nesting explorations to creep into a subterranean arched passage, which my informant (Mr. Thomas Page of Bramfield) tells me was then known by this name, and which he fancies to have been situated in the parish of St. Margaret, and not very far distant from the back of Flixton Hall".¹ However, Flixton is several miles south-west of Bungay, and well away from Bigod's probable route.

In the 'East Anglian Miscellany', Claude Morley collected tales told to him by Mr. F. C. Lambert of Halesworth, who in turn had the bower (in fact bowers, since there were three of them) described and pointed out to him by William Baker, an old man who was born at Stone Street in the parish of Spexhall in 1846.

A road from Redisham (Hog Lane) and a road from Rumburgh (Grub Lane) join Stone Street in a staggered junction about halfway between Halesworth and Bungay. The former junction is in Ilketshall St. Lawrence parish, and the latter in Spexhall. In each of these angles Baker described a bower, and he recalled another about 3 miles further north in the parish of Ilketshall St. John - and each had a supposed tunnel to a spot at South Elmham.

This is what Baker told Lambert: "On the Rood leding from Halesworth to Bungay on the Left hand side in the Parish of Spexhall is a Place called the Old Bowry. When I was a Boy my parents used to tell me it led to St. James, to the Old Monastery, where the Monks used to Go from one Place to another. The Place is to Be Seen Now But Not as it Was when I was a Boy. This is between 70 and 80 years ago. It was Large Enough for a man to Get into...There is another simly to the one mentioned in the Parish of St. Johns. I could Point them to any One..."

Of the Ilk'sall Bower (actually the one in Spexhall parish, TM382828) Lambert wrote that it was "a ruined archway in the bank or side of the road. It was of stonework, rubble and some slabs, under an earthen mound, backed by trees: possibly the remains of a pilgrim's or traveller's resting place, divided from the road only by a low bank". He added that the only similar place he had ever seen was the Lady's Well near Blythburgh. The site of the third bower, in St. John's, was never accurately known. No traces of the other two are now visible.²

The 'Old Monastery' to which the tunnels were said to extend is in fact the Moat Minster at St. Cross South Elmham, about 4½ miles to the west (TM307826).

Sources:

1. Alfred Suckling: 'History of Suffolk' (John Weale, 1846.)
2. 'The East Anglian Miscellany, or Notes & Queries' (1917-19), Notes 5597, 5609.

St. James South Elmham:

The Devil's escape

The Devil crept into the 13th/14th century church of St. James (TM323813) during harvest time many years ago, but was seen by some children who raised the alarm. The harvesters cornered him with their pitchforks in either the porch or the base of the squat Norman tower, and kept him at bay till the priest arrived. When he came, amid the pealing of bells and the chanting of prayers, the Devil let out a shriek, tore a hole through the wall and fled back to Hell. The black sooty marks that scorched the flintwork were washed away, but the plastered-over hole in the wall is still said to be there.

Source:

R. H. Mottram: 'East Anglia' (Chapman & Hall, 1933), p.226.

The gilded cuckoo

On a corbel in the church is the carved image of a gilded cuckoo. Once, a series of wooden panels could be seen there showing blacksmith, carpenter, wheelwright etc trying to build a hedge round a cuckoo sitting on top of a bush, to trap it and keep its song for themselves. Not far from the church is Cuckoo Farm, claimed as proof of the story.

Source:

R. H. Mottram: 'East Anglia' (Chapman & Hall, 1933), p.226.

St. Peter South Elmham:

Secret tunnel

St. Peter's Hall (TM336854) is a 13th century building, now a brewery, and those who lived there were often told of the secret passageway that led under the moat from the front porch of the Hall, to St. Peter’s Church about 500 yards to the south. The tunnel was supposedly used by the Tasburgh family who lived there in the time of Henry VIII, so that they could pursue their Catholic practices without persecution. Despite much digging and searching by the children of the Creasy family in the 1940s, no trace of a tunnel was ever found.

Source:

Found on: www.stpetersbrewery.co.uk/hall/

Stonham Aspal:

The Devil & the church tower

The church of St. Mary and St. Lambert (TM133596) is of the 14th-15th centuries, with the tall flintwork square tower of the 14th. The uppermost 20 feet of the tower is made of wood, weatherboarded and pinnacled (now a rebuilding of the 1990s). It appears that originally the tower was wholly of stone, and 60 feet high. In 1740 Theodore Eccleston of nearby Crowfield Hall offered to replace the church's 5 bells with a peal of 10, the first in the county. Two years later the bells were delivered, but no one had thought how a tower designed for 5 bells could hold 10. 

In 1743 the topmost level of stone was removed, used to resurface the churchyard path, and a specially-constructed upper stage of wood grafted onto the tower. 'Where do you have to walk over a tower to get into the church?' was a popular local riddle from that time. But legend says it was the Devil who stole the top of the tower.

Stonhams area:

The stone by the gate

Near what was a turnpike gate "somewhere around the Stonhams", on the A140 Norwich-Ipswich road, was said to be a "round, flat-topped stone a yard across". This was said to get up and turn round when the gate banged shut.¹

I wonder if this couldn't be the same large flat stone that an old roadman named John Moore set up by the roadside at Brockford Street, to measure off the length of highway that the adjacent parishes of Thwaite and Wetheringsett each had to repair.²

Source:

1. 'The East Anglian Miscellany', 1907-8, Note 2414.

2. 'The East Anglian Miscellany', 1907-8, Note 2452.

Stowmarket:

Danecroft

Between the Finborough Road and the Rattlesden River, at about TM403583, there used to be a spot known as the 'Dane Croft', which was believed to be the site of a Danish encampment during their battles against King Edmund, and from which they attacked the Saxons in 869 AD,  driving them out of their camp at Haughley. An old house called Danecroft, as well as the modern roads Danescourt Avenue and Danes Close still occupy the area. A few parishes west, the Danes are even supposed to have sailed up the little river and established the village of Rattlesden itself. See also 'Edmund of East Anglia'.

Sources:

Rev. A. G. H. Hollingsworth: 'The History of Stowmarket' (F. Pawsey, 1844), p.19.

'The East Anglian Miscellany', 1907-8, Note 2344.

Stowupland:

Columbine Hall

The Danes are said to have attacked Columbine Hall here (TM068608). Various overgrown trenches in the grounds were said to have been dug by the Danes when entrenched there for a siege, but are of course late Medieval works connected with the flint and timber-framed house (originally of the 14th century, but on an earlier site). The house looks down towards the alleged battle field of Stone Bridge at Old Newton. (See also 'Edmund of East Anglia'.)

Sources:

Rev. A. G. H. Hollingsworth: 'The History of Stowmarket' (F. Pawsey, 1844), p.20.

Allan Jobson: 'Suffolk Villages' (Robert Hale, 1971), pp.118-19.

Stradbroke:

Secret tunnel

Until it fell down, a large mansion house known as the Broadices or Braddocks east of Stradbroke was said to have a tunnel running from a ground floor room to 16th century Thorpe Hall, 2 miles away at Horham (TM212738). This is supposed to have been another escape route for Catholics during their persecutions in Tudor times.

Stuston:

The Plague Stone

An object called the Plague Stone (TM136768) used to be seen on the Roman highway between Norwich and Ipswich, at the corner of a turning between Brome and Stuston, and close to the Swann Inn. The hollow base, on a parish boundary, was said to have been used as a receptacle for either water or vinegar during a plague. As this seems to be the only place in England called Stuston, it seems likely that Alfred Watkins was talking about this object when he spoke of a 'plague stone' at Stuston called the 'White Stone'. This supposedly indicated by its name "that it was an ancient mark stone, not a more recent boundary stone, which was thus made a market point for the time being".¹

There was a legend that the stone turned round when the clock struck twelve.² W. H. Spanton wrote in 1885 that "until within, perhaps two or three years time the square stone socket, as supposed, of the old Wayside Cross remained in situ, at the turning towards Stuston. It is said to have been removed in consequence of a complaint that it was an object likely to cause an unbroken colt to shy; and to be now in the courtyard at Brome Hall".³

The Hall, a 19th century house, was mostly demolished in 1963, though one or two of the buildings still remain and are occupied. When I visited, the occupants had never heard of the stone. A visitor to this site has pointed out that the area near the turning from Brome to Stuston is now known, and marked on the O. S. map, as 'The Devil's Handbasin' - though where the name comes from, and whether or not it has any connection to the stone and its legend, I have no idea.⁴

Sources:

1. Alfred Watkins: 'The Old Straight Track' (Methuen, 1925), p.97.
2. 'The East Anglian, or Notes & Queries', 1907/8, Note 2458. 
3. 'The East Anglian, or Notes & Queries', Vol.1 (1885-6), p.75.

4. Information from Nick Pye.

Sudbury:

Holy Water

A. D. Bayne in 1873 remarks on a mineral spring near Sudbury which may be the spring that once existed beside the A131, near the turn into Woodhall Road: "About half a mile from the town is a spring of pure water, which, from its supposed efficacy in curing many diseases, is called by the inhabitants 'Holy Water'."

Source:

A. D. Bayne: 'Royal Illustrated History of Eastern England' (Macdonald & Co, c.1873), p.365.

Sutton:

Saxon's Bottom

Near the famous mounds of Sutton Hoo there is supposed to be a spot called Saxtead Bottom, but the locals know it as 'Saxon's Bottom', and say that here was another of those ubiquitous battles between the Danes and the Saxons.

Source:

W. G. Arnott: 'The Place-Names of the Deben Valley Parishes' (Norman Adlard & Co, 1946), p.74.

Edmund's mound

Despite the fact that all other legends place the body of Edmund, king, martyr and saint of East Anglia, firmly in his own shrine at Bury St. Edmunds, there's one tradition (of uncertain origin) that makes him yet to be discovered under one of the unexcavated mounds at Sutton Hoo. (See also 'Edmund of East Anglia').

Source:

Nicholas Comfort: 'The Lost City of Dunwich' (Terence Dalton, 1994).

Syleham:

The church the Devil moved

The isolated church of St. Mary (TM205790) stands at the end of a long causeway next to the river Waveney. The Devil supposedly stopped it being built anywhere else, by removing each night the stones that had been laid at its original site.

Source:

W. A. Dutt: 'The Ancient Mark-Stones of East Anglia' (Flood & Sons, 1926), p.21.