Blakeney, Norfolk

Blakeney, during the Middle Ages, was once one of the richest, most prosperous commercial ports on the north Norfolk coast. Between the 14th and 19th centuries trade turned gradually into smuggling. It is claimed that the neighbouring port of Cley a few miles along the coast was run by organised gangs of pirates and, to stop the smuggling, a Customs House was built - and still stands, which is visible from the harbourside of Blakeney. In the village of Blakeney is claimed there is a network of smuggler tunnels under its streets, used to smuggle contraband. These tunnels, apparently with many secret entrances, are also the home of the long-limbed fairy ‘hyter sprites’ - and a legendary ghostly fiddler and his dog. These hyter sprites have abnormally long 'spider-like' limbs, sandy coloured skin, and piercing green eyes. Some say the hyter sprites kidnap badly behaved village children who stray on to the saltmarsh - a warning to others to beware of incoming tides. Others simply shrug and reflect the stories are a good way of keeping the children safe. Some claim that they have a benign purpose - they change into Sand Martin birds to guide lost children from the marshes when the tide turns. A more tangible example of ghostly happenings features in the figure of a fiddler and his dog. The pair appear on the Blakeney village sign sited by Blakeney quay. The story of the fiddler is that he volunteered to explore with his dog while playing the fiddle so villagers can chart his progress, a smugglers' passageway leading from Blakeney Guildhall, which is built into Mariner’s Hill to the east of the quay. The fiddler entered with his dog into the tunnel. The villagers listened hard. Suddenly the music stopped. The fiddler and his dog were never seen again. Nearby Binham Priory has a similar story of a fiddler and his dog entering a tunnel under the Benedictine ruins. However, in this tale the fiddler is tracing the footsteps of a ghostly monk - maybe the ‘mad monk’ who was buried in chains. In a strange coincidence, the music stopped; it is said that only the dog emerged - terrified and shaking. In 1933, workmen unearthed the skeletons of two men and a dog from a tunnel between Blakeney and Binham. There is also the ghost of Blakeney Point which, when seen, leaves you with a sense of foreboding and feelings of sadness and loneliness. She has been seen a few times mainly when it is misty on the seashore, walking through the mist. The haunting began in the late eighteenth century. A young couple, deeply in love and engaged were to be married. He was a sailor and one day his ship sailed with him onboard. Days and weeks passed by with the bride-to-be eagerly awaiting his return so they could marry and make a home together. Sadly he never returned as his ship was lost at sea. She never recovered from the loss and died of a broken heart. Since the ship sank, her ghost haunts the shoreline as she searches and waits in vain for her lover to return. It comes as no surprise that 'Black Shuck' (or 'Old Shuck') has been regularly seen in Blakeney whose name means ‘Black Island’. That the much-feared devil dog has been spotted quite so often, however, is quite another matter – and then there’s the not inconsiderable consideration that in some tales, Shuck has not one, but two heads, and in other a single, red eye or two red eyes. Since the 16th century there have been numerous sightings of Black Shuck in the county, especially along the coast at locations that include Blakeney. A dark figure “as big as a calf and as noiseless as death” stalking the unwary traveller. Black Shuck takes many forms and has many purposes, a true manifestation of everyone’s fear, a creature you definitely do not want to see on a dark and stormy night. Whether he has eyes like saucers or hot breath like a lick of fire, whether he foretells your impending death or is some kind of guardian spirit, whether he roams the coast or woodland, heath or roadside, one thing is for certain: he is not of this realm. Has he come to the coastline though a portal from another realm? Back to Blakeney, where there is the recurring tale of ‘Old Shuck’ who haunts Long Lane which runs south over Ruberry Hill – which is mentioned in W.A. Dutt’s "The Norfolk and Suffolk Coast", published in 1909. The otherworldly creature has also been spotted in Little Lane in Blakeney as he runs between Wells-next-the-Sea and Sheringham: Iris Portal (amazingly not a made up name, she was the Norfolk County Commissioner for the Girl Guides), writing to the Eastern Daily Press in 1953 suggested that Shuck regularly ran past her garden wall in Long Lane, Blakeney. A few days after Mrs Portal’s letter, another appeared from Geoffrey Booty, of West Runton. It read: “I read with interest your article on ‘Old Shuck’ and would like the following on record. “He travels between Blakeney, Sheringham and Overstrand and is supposed to be searching for his master who was shipwrecked on the coast. ‘Shuck’ is a large black retriever with a chain attached to his neck. Shuck has been seen on the B1388 at Blakeney where, in a letter to Hidden East Anglia’s Mike Burgess from J. Wallace in 1983, he was described as having two heads – when he catches a rat, it escapes through his other mouth. And in another letter to Ivan Bunn, editor of the Borderline Science Investigation Group’s Lantern, a Mrs A.P. Marcucci recalled hearing something strange on the A149 between Cley and Blakeney at around midnight in the summer of 1968. She heard the “light dragging and tinkling of a chain” but could see nothing – whatever made the noise, however, followed her as she walked. At the crossroads, where there was a street light, she paused to see if whatever was behind her would pass by, but saw nothing. Then, suddenly, she was aware that her invisible walking partner had passed and made its way down Back Lane. Knowing the legend of Black Shuck and realising he would be making his way to the marsh banks, she fled home down the High Street and away from the beast that was so frequently believed to foretell disaster. These tales have been told in Blakeney for well over a century: in a feature about the village in the EDP in September 1896, “Old Shuck” was mentioned: “It is perhaps not generally known that ‘Old Shuck’ has one of his walks in Blakeney's Little Lane, where also an even more wonderful spectral appearance has been seen, according to local legend, nothing less that a ghostly wagon with two ghostly horses wandering through the air,” the article claims. “There are men now in Blakeney who could not be induced to walk down that haunted lane after dark.” Some believe the tales of Black Shuck were spread by smugglers who realised that the fear of "a devil dog who could condemn you to death with a stare" would keep people off coastal lanes at night while they got up to no good. On the website which accompanies Richard Platt’s book "Smuggling in the British Isles: A History", there is the following passage: “If convoys of wagons and horses rolling along these roads attracted too much attention, old superstitions provided plenty of ways of discouraging further interest: Old Shuck the ghost dog is a persistent Norfolk legend that, like the cannibals of Clovelly, the smugglers exploited. “Shuck is an enormous black dog with one glowing eye, and fiery breath. Anyone who sees Old Shuck is sure to die within a twelve month. “Norfolk smugglers took advantage of the gullibility of the villagers and tied a lantern round the neck of a black ram, sending it running off to frighten nosey locals when a smuggling run was due…” The Lowestoft band The Darkness wrote a song "Black Shuck", and there is also a craft beer of the same name. Whatever the readers' thoughts of these stories, Blakeney is worth a visit; the Guildhall is open during the summer (push the unlocked door), and by request during the off-peak season. The Two Magpies cafe, opposite the harbour, is near to the Guildhall and serves fantastic pastries, including the famous Marmite Swirl.