Illustrated Tales of Suffolk

The beautiful county of Suffolk is one of the most visited of English counties. Here is a collection of strange tales and local legends from the county.

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The historical county of Suffolk has a host of strange and mysterious tales ranging from ancient legends and stories of the supernatural to more modern documented cases. These strange and spooky stories include the Green Children of Woolpit, where a boy and girl with green-tinged skin, neither of whom could speak English, were discovered in a wolf pit in central Suffolk in the twelfth century, and the Wild Man of Orford who was a ʻmermanʼ captured off the Suffolk coast. The famous Black Dog of Bungay was a giant supernatural hound said to have killed parishioners in Bungay church during a thunderstorm in the sixteenth century, before killing again at Blythburgh church.

Many tales have been told of the ninth-century King Edmund of East Anglia, who gave his name to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Another royal connection is the casket said to contain Anne Boleynʼs heart that was found during the nineteenth century at Erwarton church. Other old tales include the Kessingland Sea Serpent – Suffolkʼs answer to ʻNessieʼ; the Beccles Rat-catcher Pipers, a story which has similarities with the Pied Piper of Hamelin myth; the lost city of Dunwich, sometimes called ʻBritainʼs Atlantisʼ; Suffolk witchcraft; and tales of hauntings and other supernatural activity. More recent stories include the 1980 Rendlesham Forest UFO incident dubbed ʻBritainʼs Roswellʼ.

These strange and spooky stories are accompanied by the authorʼs photographs of places featured in the text, both present-day and historical, in this hugely entertaining book.