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Lair of the Beasts: Hounds of Horror

Monster-Dogs

By Nick Redfern March 13, 2010

The Blythburgh Church
© Bob Trate

As some readers of Lair of the Beasts may very well know, the British Isles have a long and weird heritage of sightings – particularly in centuries long gone – of monstrous, phantom black dogs. Usually reported as being huge in size and sporting glowing red eyes, no less, the fiend-dogs were often perceived as being Grim Reaper-type entities, or as precursors to death, disaster and tragedy.

Notably, it was one such old legend of the hell-hounds of Britain that encouraged none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write his classic Sherlock Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. So much for the genre of fiction: but in the real world the stories are no less captivating than they were in Doyle’s superb tale.

One of the most infamous of all black-dog encounters in the British Isles occurred at St. Mary’s Church, Bungay, Suffolk, on the morning of Sunday, August 4, 1577, when an immense and veritable spectral hound from hell materialized within the church during a powerful thunderstorm and mercilessly tore into the terrified congregation with its huge fangs and razor-sharp claws. In fact, so powerful was the storm that it reportedly killed two men in the belfry as the church-tower received an immense lightning bolt that tore through it and shook the building to its ancient foundations.

According to an old, local verse on the mysterious affair: “All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew. And, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew.” Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the beast bounded out of St. Mary’s and was reported shortly thereafter at Blythburgh Church, about twelve miles away, where it allegedly killed and mauled even more people with its immense and bone-crushing jaws – and where, it is said, the scorch marks of the beast’s claws can still be seen to this day, infamously imprinted upon the ancient door of the church.

Even more intriguing is the fact that Bungay’s legend of a satanic black hound closely parallels that of yet another local legend: that of Black Shuck, a giant, spectral dog that haunts the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts of eastern England. And, such is the popularity of the Bungay legend, that, today, it has resulted in an image of the beast being incorporated into the town's coat of arms - and the Black Dogs is the name of Bungay Town Football Club, too.

And, now, I am very pleased to announce, there is a new development in the story of the monstrous hound of Bungay: nothing less than a full-length book on the subject has just been published, and which very much looks to be the definitive word on the mysterious, long-gone affair.

Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay – written by Dr. David Waldron and Christoper Reeve - is a brand new title that is sure to be of deep interest to anyone and everyone with a fascination for Britain's legends of phantom black-hounds. Indeed, as the blurb for the book says:

"The tale of the Black Dog of Bungay and the infamous attack on the church of St Mary’s in 1577 has inspired and fascinated residents and visitors to the town for centuries along with tales of Black Shuck the Ghostly Dog of Norfolk. To this day sightings of the Black Dog are common through the region and form an integral part of local folklore and myth. At the same time, the history of the legend itself tells its own tale of the town of Bungay and how the community has responded to crisis through local folklore and myth.”

The blurb continues: “This book, a collaborative effort between local historian Christopher Reeve and historian and anthropologist Dr David Waldron, traces the rise of this story from its origins in the trauma of the English Reformation to the contemporary era where it has become a central part of Bungay's communal and civic identity and a colorful and intriguing aspect of local folklore."

I’m very much looking forward to reading Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay; and you can expect to see a review from me right here just as soon as I have devoured its beastly pages.

Nick Redfern is the author many books on the paranormal, including the forthcoming Final Events; and Monsters of Texas.