Have you seen Black Shuck? 🐺

Alright?

From a boa constrictor visiting Chapelfield Gardens to a wallaby spotted in Norfolk last month, Norwich and Norfolk are no strangers to curious animals roaming the land.

But the most curious of them all - the one that has captured the imaginations of everything from gin brands to The Darkness - is Black Shuck. AKA, this cuddly fella:

The story of Black Shuck dates back a surprisingly long way, and creeps up on modern day much like the beast itself might. It’s what we’ll be gassing about today.

What is Black Shuck?

Black Shuck is a dog. Right, see you next week.

But seriously, it is a dog. You can call it a hound if you think it makes you sound more literary, but it’s a pooch. A ghostly pooch, but a pooch nonetheless.

Black Shuck is typically described as being about the size of a big calf, with fiery, red eyes and shaggy fur. Although one account, found in the 1901 classic Highways & Byways in East Anglia, describes him as being a cyclops, with an eye “in the middle of his head” (this book assumes Black Shuck is a male, so I will too for brevity).

Crucially, Black Shuck isn’t a city slicker. He stalks the quiet pathways of the East Anglian countryside. There have been no reported sightings of Black Shuck in Norwich itself.

Seeing Black Shuck can mean different things to different people. Typically, he’s considered an omen of death and a harbinger of doom, which must make going out for dinner or popping to Aldi a real challenge for him. The aforementioned Highways & Byways in East Anglia warns that seeing him will result in your death before the end of the year.

Other accounts suggest Black Shuck is actually just misunderstood, like an angsty teenager. For example, instead of ominous stares and threatening body language, maybe he’s just trying to warn people away from danger.

A tale as old as time…almost.

The first account of “devilish black hounds” in England dates back to around 1127. Take a moment to breathe that in: It’s nearly 900 years ago.

It was recorded in the Peterborough Chronicle, which is essentially an old-fashioned Wikipedia page for the history of England, recorded by the monks of Peterborough Abbey.

It describes witnessing a hunt led by “huge and hideous” huntsmen, accompanied by hounds “jet black with eyes like saucers and horrible”.

It wasn’t until the 16th century that the idea of a menacing pup in East Anglia really began to proliferate.

The most famous story stems from 1577, where it’s said that a “black dog, or the devil in such likeness” burst through the doors of a church in Blythburgh, Suffolk, as the thunder clapped overhead.

Not content with merely interrupting the service, it “wrung the necks” of a man and a boy and caused the steeple to collapse through the roof. Naturally.

Incidentally, there were several accounts of this event in Blythburgh, with another describing how a “hellish monster flew, and, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew”.

Some say the dog left a mark on the door as it was leaving. What do you reckon?

The birth of Black Shuck.

Compared to the stories shared so far, the term “Black Shuck” is relatively modern. It first appeared in print in 1850, when Reverend E. S. Taylor wrote the following in the journal Notes and Queries:

“Shuck the Dog-fiend; this phantom I have heard many persons in East Norfolk, and even Cambridgeshire, describe as having seen as a black shaggy dog, with fiery eyes and of immense size, and who visits churchyards at midnight.”

“Shuck” derives from the Old English word scucca, which means devil or fiend.

Without realising it, Reverend Taylor had sown the seeds for a Norfolk legend.

All a load of BS?

As you might imagine, there’s a fair bit of cynicism when it comes to Black Shuck. It’s almost as if his initials are an East Anglian in-joke.

But sightings were frequent in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. This map, maintained by the unparalleled Invisible Works, documents sightings of Black Shuck as recently as 2005.

The truth is, Black Shuck isn’t just an East Anglian legend. From the Barghest in the Yorkshire Moors to the Yeth Hound in Devon, demonic hounds stalking the quiet paths of rural England is a nationwide trope.

But our very own Black Shuck is surely the most famous. Keep an eye out for him the next time you drive over this bridge in Coltishall:

You’re more likely to see Black Shuck on a bottle of gin in the Jarrolds’ booze aisle than creeping around the Broads, but if you happen to see him, do let me know, yeah?

See you next week,

Secret Norwich.