The small town of Bungay in Suffolk and the larger town of Farnham in Surrey have a number of things in common. The two are surrounded by pleasant countryside and both were major centres in mediæval times. Each possesses a castle, formerly the seat of a powerful local baron, a fine antique church and a reputation for being well haunted. And now both towns have decided to celebrate their ghosts with special festivals.
Really it was inevitable the once dreaded Black Dog of Bungay, more widely known as Black Shuck, “against which the hound of the Baskervilles was no more than a playful puppy” to quote veteran East Anglian writer Ronald Blythe (Word from Wormingford, 1996) would eventually receive the honour of his own carnival.
Thus the crowds turned out on 4 August 2022 in Bungay to celebrate this once feared canine portent of death and disaster, infamous for having wreaked havoc inside St Mary’s Church some 445 years earlier. According to an antique pamphlet, A Straunge and Terrible Wunder, on Sunday 4 August 1577 a frightful thunderstorm erupted during the morning service. In between flashes a huge black dog or “the divell in such a likeness” appeared racing down the aisle of the church and attacking members of the congregation, killing and grievously maiming a number of people.
The story has been one of fascination and even local pride ever since. It was not a one-off performance (assuming it ever happened at all), for the Black Dog mounted a similar assault upon Blythburgh church the same morning (see Clare Stubbs, “A Straunge and Terrible). According to folklore, the creature has haunted Bungay and Blythburgh and the surrounding heaths and coastline ever since, with people periodically seeing a mysterious black dog further afield across Norfolk and East Suffolk, and occasionally in Cambridgeshire and Essex (see ).
