Walk – Hell Hounds and Hair-raising Hauntings
A morning walk around Bungay’s historic blackspots and an afternoon recovering with poetry. Make a day of it… ? Saturday 23 September.
Walk
The most notorious legend connected with Bungay was in 1577, when the phantom hell hound Black Shuck crashed into St. Mary’s church during a terrifying thunderstorm, killing two people and injuring others, before flying off to Blythburgh to commit similar attacks.
But this ancient market town has many other horrible hauntings to tell, including Rex Bacon who hanged himself from the landing in the Three Tuns in the 17th c. after murdering his wife and her lover, and the same pub in 1787 exhibited the murdered body of Henry Scarle, the public paying one penny to view the gruesome sight.
A young nun is reported to haunt the ruins of the mediaeval Priory, having escaped from her cell in 1376, and reported as wandering around the country in secular clothes and with a male companion – ‘to the manifest scandal of the order of Saint Benedict’. The Market Place was the scene of grisly public punishments in the Georgian and Victorian periods, and there are ghost tales connected with the Bigod family at Bungay Castle. The two central churchyards have more hair-raising horrors to reveal.
The Tour is led by local author and historian Christopher Reeve, 11 – 1pm. Saturday Sept 23rd, meet at Bungay Butter Cross in the town centre. Older children welcome accompanied by an adult.
Poetry workshop
Celebrate spooky Suffolk in the afternoon by exploring some ghostly prompts for your own writing. We should produce the makings of two or three poems in the course of the session for you to refine at home. We will meet in a room at the Three Tuns from 2-4pm.
The workshop will be led by local poet Beth Soule. Her poetry has been published in several anthologies and she has led poetry workshops for The Suffolk Walking Festival, Waveney and Blyth Arts and Stradbroke Writers. Older children are welcome, accompanied by an adult.
The walk and workshop are designed to work together to make for a spookily creative day out. Book on both for £15 (£12 for WBA members) or individually at £8 (£6). Maximum numbers 16 for the walk and 12 for the workshop. Book early…