Phantom Black Dogs

Raymond · Phantom Black Dogs

Why is the death-hound of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles such a vigorous archetypal beast? Conan Doyle's inspiration was the folk tale of a phantom black dog on Dartmoor. Such beasts recur throughout Britain, with almost every county having at least one example.

In the Quantock Hills of Somerset the black dog was frequently seen and called the 'Gurt Dog'. Cornwall has various tales of the 'Devil's Dandy (or Dando) Dogs', Devon has the 'Yeth (Heath) or Wisht Hounds. Other local names include Barguest, Black Shag, Padfoot or Hooter.
Just to be different, in West Yorkshire the common name is 'Guytrash'; in Lancashire this is reduced to 'Trash' or changed to 'Skriker'. Further afield, a particularly unpleasant phantom pooch frequented Peel Castle on the Isle of Man in the seventeenth century and was known as the Moddey Dhoo, or Mauthe Dog.

At Alveston, Charles Walton, a ploughboy, met a phantom black dog on his way home on nine successive evenings. On the final occasion a headless lady in a silk gown rushed past him, and the following day he heard of his sister's death.

The apparition of a tall lady with a large black dog at her side has been seen Pickerings Barn in Brailes.

During the Second World War at Brook House, Snitterfield (which used to be the Bell Brook Inn) a big black dog was seen.
It ran over the tilled earth of the garden without leaving footprints. Very old people of Warwick used to say that the castle was haunted by a black dog. The tale has the hallmarks of a time-encrusted tall story. The local version claims it all started when an old retainer there, a woman called Moll Bloxham, sold milk and butter from the castle stores for her personal gain.
One Christmas she overdid this, and the then Earl of Warwick, getting wind of it, stopped her source of supply. Furiously angry, she vowed she would 'get them haunted'.
She apparently succeeded and returned in the form of a big black dog. In due course the clergy were called in to exorcise the ghost with bell, book and candle, but for a time they were entirely unsuccessful. Then one day, so it was said, a huge black dog sprang from Caesar's Tower into the river below, and so ended the ghost story.

A black dog with a matted, shaggy coat and green eyes roams in Whitmore Park at night. Local people avoided the area, since to see the dog means a death in the family.

Meon Hill has both a phantom black dog and a ghostly pack of white hounds. The death of George Walton in very curious circumstances on 14th February 1945 was accompanied by a black dog being hung in a nearby tree. Walton had seen a black dog on nine occasions - the last time it changed into a headless black woman. His sister died shortly after. Although strongly contested, Walton's death has many overtones of the ritual sacrifice of a 'cunning man'.

In Nottinghamshire only one black dog story is known. A manuscript dating to 1952 in Nottingham County Library records the words of Mrs Smalley who was then about 75 years old. 'Her grandfather, who was born in 1804 and died in 1888, used to have occasion to drive from Southwell to Bathley [near South Muskham] in a pony and trap.
This involved going along Crow Lane, which leaves South Muskham opposite the school and goes to Bathley.
Frequently, along that lane he saw a black dog trotting alongside his trap. Round about 1915 his great-grandson, Mrs Smalley's son Sidney, used to ride out from Newark on a motorcycle to their home at Bathley. He went into Newark to dances and frequently returned at about 11 o'clock at night.
He too often saw a black dog in Crow lane; he sometimes tried to run over it but was never able to. One night Sidney took his father on the back of the motorcycle especially to see the dog, and both of them saw it.'

Moving across to Lincolnshire there are a number of examples. The two best known appear in Ethel Rudkin's book. 'The road up to Moortown House was haunted by a big black dog that always disappeared into the hedge at the same place.' And at Blyborough 'The Black Dog has been seen near the Fish Pond and near the "Old Yard"'.
However Rudkin's 1938 article in Folklore lists a much greater number - by 1958 there were 47 separate black dog localities in Lincolnshire.

In Thornton, near Bradford, Jim Craven Well was the haunt of the ghost of 'Peggy wi't Lantern' and 'Bloody Tongue', a great dog with red eyes and a huge tail. The well is now lost.

A spectral hound with large glowing red eyes traditionally haunts Helliwell Banks Well, Baildon (now capped over) and the nearby Slaughter Lane. Several other wells in West Yorkshire are associated with the 'Guytrash' which takes the form of a large shaggy dog with broad webbed feet. It has drooping 'saucer' eyes and walks with a splashing sound.

Folklore also tells us of some dramatic consequences resulting from the sighting of black dogs.

Somerset has a black dog which appeared in 1960 to two people - who both died soon after. East Anglia, Essex and Buckinghamshire all have examples of phantom dogs which disappeared in dramatic flashes, in one case burning to death a farmer, his horse and wagon.

Kas

We apparently have one in the grounds of Coalhouse Fort. I've heard many a testimony to it. Plus i've heard some very strange stuff late at night. As has Mel.
We also have a large black dog thats picked up regularly by mediums in side the fort called Nigger.

david hobbs

I can just Imagine the reaction of any visitors when you stand on the

ramparts calling him in for food.

Kas

The team think the dog maybe linked to one of the many WWII aircraft weckages stored at the fort. Hence to name.

david hobbs

I am afraid I am a bit lost !

Are you saying that a plane was called nigger?

Kas

No lol
Many airmen had dogs at the airfields. Some were pets, some mascots.
Nigger was a popular and aceptable name for a black dog at the time in the RAF.

The thing outside though, and i've mentioned it on here before was more in the style of the American Werewolf!!!
Mel's boss have seen it. Damn near gave him a heart attack apparently.

david hobbs

Ah I see.

A wearwolf in a fort in Essex.

Do tell more.

I noticed the other day that a thread about coalhouse that was posted in May has had one of the biggest hit rates on the forum so people obviously want to have as much information on the place as possible.

Hunter

Raymond you didn't mention the "Black Shuck"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Shuck
Or Bungay church http://www.bungay-suffolk.co.uk/history/black-dog.htm

Raymond

You mean you want me to waffle more???

I thought the post was too long as it is.

Lilly

[blonde moment] I can't find the 'Big Cat' thread,so I'll pop it on here if thats ok with boss man!
latest video.

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share...mp;h=37rLY&u=MAW0K&ref=nf