Hidden East Anglia:

Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Walberswick:

 

Deadman's Cross

 

The 1683 perambulation record for Walberswick takes the local boundary "through the park to Deadman's Cross, by the heap of stones", so-called from a suicide's grave.

But there is also Deadman's Corner, allegedly the same spot as the above, named from the rumour that once a man had been burnt at the stake there. Local people would hurry up past the spot, and refused to even pass it after dark.1

 

Source:

1. 'Suffolk Fair', Vol.1, No.11 (March 1972), p.29.

 

 

Secret tunnels

 

When the old Anchor Inn, long known as a smuggling haunt, was pulled down in the 1920s, workmen are said to have found a bricked-up doorway in the remains of the cellar. A new pub of the same name was then built, a little further back from the original, and when the water supply was being laid on, traces of an underground passage were discovered, leading from the cellars towards the beach.1

"Bell Cottage was said to be connected to the old vicarage near the ferry by a tunnel, part of which was discovered when building work was being carried out".2

 

Sources:

1. Leonard P. Thompson: 'Inns of the Suffolk Coast' (Brett Valley Publications, 1969), p.95.
2. Jean Carter & Stuart Bacon: 'Walberswick Suffolk' (Segment Publications, 1979), p.31.

 

 

The mound of the Heath Horse

 

One bracken covered burial mound (TM472748) is all that remains of a group that used to stand near a spot called the Heronry, not far from the Walberswick to Blythburgh road. On certain moonlit nights the ghostly Heath Horse is said to emerge from the unexcavated barrow and gallop silently over the heath.

 

 

Dead Man's Gully

 

Dead Man's Gully is the name given to a disused railway cutting. It's said to be the haunt of an 'evil presence', and a number of local riders say that their horses have shied at the spot and refused to proceed.

 

Source:

Joan Forman: 'Haunted East Anglia' (Fontana, 1976), p.69.

 

 

Walsham le Willows:

 

The protected tree

 

Apparently a beech tree here was under the protection of a curse, and when a farmer actually cut it down, the chainsaw cut him and he died.

 

Source:

Found on: www.hoap.co.uk/aatf1.doc

 

 

The gypsy's grave

 

A 'gypsy's grave' is found at the meeting-place of the parishes of Walsham le Willows, Badwell Ash, Westhorpe and Wyverstone (TM025696). Here a green lane forms a crossroads with Hundred Lane, and a gypsy is said to be buried at the foot of a nearby oak tree.

 

Source:

Shirley Toulson: 'East Anglia - Walking the Ley Lines & Ancient Tracks' (Wildwood House, 1979), p.159.

 

 

Wangford:

 

Summoning the Devil

 

Running three times round a particular oak tree in the graveyard of St. Peter & St. Paul's church at Wangford (TM466792) was said to be a sure way to summon the Devil.

 

 

Wattisham:

 

Wattisham Stone

 

Wattisham Stone is a tiny, detached hamlet about half a mile south-west of Wattisham itself, and seems to be named after the sandstone boulder at a threeways (TL003512). This is about 2˝ feet x 2 feet x 3 feet high, and according to a former local resident, the stone turns round when the clock on the tower in Bildeston market place chimes.

wattishamstone.jpg (135458 bytes)

Source:

Information from Nigel Dernley of Wattisham, 1979.

 

 

Wenhaston:

 

Druid Stone

 

In September 1930, a Mr. Claude Morley reported the discovery by himself at Wenhaston of a "mammillated erratic stone of 44 inches high x 33 broad and 21 deep, of the stratum of the celebrated Hartest Stone". This "hitherto-unrecorded rock" was found deep within a wooded copse that obscured a clay pit in Bartholomew Field, just south of Mill Heath. Both he and a Mr. Fowler of Beccles believed this to be the "final remnant" of St. Bartholomew's Chapel, which was thought to have occupied the site (at about TM417762). However, I was informed that the boulder was generally held to be a 'Druid Stone'.1

 

Source:

1. From details on a sketch map sent to me anonymously.

 

Secret tunnel

 

A tunnel was alleged to run from St. Bartholomew's Chapel, though no destination was ever stated.

 

Source:

'The Pocket History of Suffolk Parishes' (1936), details unknown.

 

 

Westleton:

 

The Witch's Stone

 

St. Peter's is a little church of about 1300, with no tower (it fell through natural causes in 1776), but a small brick bell-cote erected on the west end to house the single bell (TM439691).


Tradition says that the Devil lives below a small grating at the base of the wall, just to the right of the priest's door. In front of this is the Witch's Stone, a simple 14th century gravestone fallen and flush with the ground. Legend says that grass will never grow over it.


For generations kids have performed a custom here: First place a handkerchief or piece of straw in the grating, then using the Stone as your base, run round the church either 3 or 7 times anticlockwise, but never look at the grating till the end. Back at the stone, either the object will have vanished, or you'll hear the Devil rattling his iron chains below the grating. The Rector told me he thought it a smuggler's tale, to keep people away while loot was being hidden in the crypt or under the roof.

 

Source:

Allan Jobson: 'Suffolk Villages' (Robert Hale, 1971), p.52.

 

 

Wetherden:

 

The cursed field

 

In 1556, Robert Rosier, a yeoman of Mutton Hall at Wetherden and staunch Protestant supporter of Mary, was taken for burning at the behest of his former friend Sir John Sulyard, then High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was led to a field on a hill beside the main road between Wetherden and Woolpit, and there lashed to a post and burned to death. Some say he chose the spot himself so he could see his home, though others say it was Sulyard's choice, to make his suffering worse. According to locals, the field is under a curse, and no crops have ever grown there since that day.

 

 

Whepstead:

 

The Baal Stone

 

Although situated by the roadside at Stonecross Green, and marked on O.S. maps as "Cross, remains of", this boulder could never have had any timber or masonry cross-shaft inserted into it (TL823578). Known as the Baal Stone, it is locally believed to have been a sacrificial site, with the rough worn channel on its upper surface being used to drain away the victim's blood. The stone is very wrinkled and pitted all over, and stands 4 feet x 3 feet x 3 feet high.

baalstone.jpg (153207 bytes)

 

Wissett:

 

Cole's Arch

 

A female ghost perches at midnight on the railings of a bridge at Cole's Arch (TM358798) on the Rumburgh road.

 

Source:

Patricia Willis: 'The Wraiths of Wissett', in 'The East Anglian Magazine', Vol.41, No.9 (July 1982), pp.392-4.

 

 

The grey lady's pond

 

The garden of Paradise Cottage in Lodge Road is haunted by a 'grey lady', who passes through the hedge, crosses the road, and vanishes into a small pond on the other side.

 

Source:

Patricia Willis: 'The Wraiths of Wissett', in 'The East Anglian Magazine', Vol.41, No.9 (July 1982), p.392-4.

 

 

The ghost on the tree

 

Grey's Lane is where a Mr. Grey hanged himself, and his ghost swings from a tree here on certain nights.

 

Source:

Patricia Willis: 'The Wraiths of Wissett', in 'The East Anglian Magazine', Vol.41, No.9 (July 1982), p.392-4.

 

 

King's Danger

 

Near a bridge in Mill Road is an area called King's Danger (TM381782). Here, and close to the bridge, is a bare patch where nothing grows, said to mark the spot where a man once committed suicide.

 

Source:

Patricia Willis: 'The Wraiths of Wissett', in 'The East Anglian Magazine', Vol.41, No.9 (July 1982), p.392-4.

 

 

The Hallelujah Pond

 

The Hallelujah Pond, a large pool surrounded by trees and bushes in a field near Hallelujah Cottage is haunted by the phantom horse and cart that once careered into it (TM374798).

 

Source:

Patricia Willis: 'The Wraiths of Wissett', in 'The East Anglian Magazine', Vol.41, No.9 (July 1982), p.392-4.

 

 

Woolpit:

 

The Lady's Well

 

St. Mary's church had an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary - 'Our Lady of Woolpit' - that attracted pilgrims, and close by it, the Lady's Well (TL977626). The waters were very good for eye afflictions, and weak and inform children were brought there to be cured by dipping in the water. The well is now little more than a damp trickle emerging from a low mossy green modern brick surround on the edge of a square moat on a plot called the 'Palgrave', a private garden beside the lane a little north-east of the church.


One source1 says that the well gained its name because of a legend that Queen Elizabeth 1st came here with an eye problem, which was cured after she bathed it in the well water. In gratitude she gave to the village the image of a golden eagle, which can still be seen today in St Mary‘s church.


I've also heard of another spring in a field at Woolpit called the Lord's Well.

 

Source:

1. Found on: www.woolpit.org/

 

 

Woolverstone:

 

Wulf's Stone

 

"Viking King Wulf apparently sacrificed a local maiden on a monolithic stone here".1

"The name Woolverstone is thought to come from ‘Wulf’s Stone’, Wulf being the leader of a Viking group which raided the village (between 400 and 900 AD) and Stone referring to the stone upon which he sacrificed one of the natives!"2

 

Sources:

1. Gill Elliott: 'Hidden Suffolk' (Countryside Books, 2000), p.185.
2. Found on: www.stourandorwell.org/visit/woolverstone.htm