Black Shuck

On 4 August 1577, at Blythburgh in Suffolk, a large black dog with malevolent flaming eyes is said to have burst in through the church doors to a clap of thunder. As large, some say, as a calf, the dog was known as Black Shuck, the Devil's own dog.

He ran up the nave, past a large congregation, killing a man and boy and causing the church steeple to collapse through the roof. As the dog left, he left scorch marks on the north door which can be seen at the church to this day.

Another encounter on the same day at nearby Bungay was described in 'A Straunge and Terrible Wunder' by the Reverend Abraham Fleming in 1577:

"This black dog, or the divel in such a linenesse (God hee knoweth al who worketh all,) running all along down the body of the church with great swiftnesse, and incredible haste, among the people, in a visible fourm and shape, passed between two persons, as they were kneeling uppon their knees, and occupied in prayer as it seemed, wrung the necks of them bothe at one instant clene backward, in somuch that even at a mome[n]t where they kneeled, they stra[n]gely dyed."

Adams was a clergyman from London, and therefore probably only published his account based on exaggerated aural accounts. Other local accounts attribute the event to Satan himself (Abrahams calls the animal "the Divel in such a likeness". The scorch marks on the door are referred to by the locals as "the devil’s fingerprints", and the event is remembered in this verse:

"All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew, and, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew."

But the gigantic hound does not only terrorise churches.  W. A. Dutt, in his 1901 book 'Highways & Byways in East Anglia' has this to say about Black Shuck:

"He takes the form of a huge black dog, and prowls along dark lanes and lonesome field footpaths, where, although his howling makes the hearer's blood run cold, his footfalls make no sound. You may know him at once, should you see him, by his fiery eye; he has but one, and that, like the Cyclops', is in the middle of his head. But such an encounter might bring you the worst of luck: it is even said that to meet him is to be warned that your death will occur before the end of the year. So you will do well to shut your eyes if you hear him howling; shut them even if you are uncertain whether it is the dog fiend or the voice of the wind you hear. Should you never set eyes on our Norfolk Snarleyow you may perhaps doubt his existence, and, like other learned folks, tell us that his story is nothing but the old Scandinavian myth of the black hound of Odin, brought to us by the Vikings who long ago settled down on the Norfolk coast."

According to some legends, the dog's appearance bodes ill to the beholder - for example in the Malden and Dengue area of Essex, the most southerly point of sightings, where seeing Black Shuck is believed to mean the observer has less than a year to live. Other stories tell of death or illness in the families of those who see the malevolent beast. However, more often than not, stories tell of Black Shuck terrifying his victims, but leaving them alone to continue living normal lives.

It is also very likely that Black Shuck was the inspiration for literature's most infamous canine: Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Hound of the Baskervilles'.

In 1901 the author returned from South Africa suffering from typhoid fever. In order to recuperate, he decided to take a golfing holiday in North Norfolk. He was accompanied by his friend the journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson and stayed at the now demolished Royal Links Hotel in Cromer.

During their visit to Cromer, Conan Doyle and Betram Fletcher Robinson  had dinner with Benjamin Bond Cabbell at Cromer Hall. During dinner Cabbell told them about his ancestor, Richard Cabbell - Lord of Brook Manor and Buckfastleigh - who had been killed by a devilish dog. The story went that Richard Cabbell's wife had been unfaithful and that, after beating her, she had fled out onto Dartmoor. Cabbell pursued her and stabbed her - but while committing the murder his wife's faithful dog attacked him and  tore out his throat. The ghost of the dog was said to haunt Dartmoor and to reappear to each generation of the Cabbell family. It is clear that Richard Cabbell became the model for the evil Hugo Baskerville in Conan Doyle's classic tale.

There is also another fascinating Norfolk connection - namely that the  coachman who drove Conan Doyle to Cromer Hall was apparently called Baskerville. Conan Doyle often drew his character's names from real life.

Also, Conan Doyle would almost certainly have been aware too of the East Anglian legend of Black Shuck - the terrible Hound which terrorised parts of the county and was said to haunt Beeston Bump - which is not far from Cromer.

Interestingly, Conan Doyle's description of Baskerville Hall bears an uncanny likeness to Cromer Hall:

 "The avenue opened into a broad expanse of turf, and the house lay before us. In the fading light I could see that the centre was a heavy block of building from which a porch projected. The whole front was draped in ivy, with a patch clipped bare here and there where a window or a coat-of-arms broke through the dark veil. From this central block rose the twin towers, ancient, crenellated, and pierced with many loopholes. To right and left of the turrets were more modern wings of black granite. A dull light shone through heavy mullioned windows, and from the high chimneys which rose from the steep, high-angled roof there sprang a single black column of smoke."