Suffolk Folk: East Anglian Tales for the 21st Century

  • 12. Raising the Devil by Carol Love

    07:35
    Akenham church is part of a small hamlet three miles north of Ipswich. The church is abandoned but under the care of the church conservation trust. It is isolated apart from a farm which backs onto its graveyard. The road to the church is a quarter of a mile away from the nearest thoroughfare.Akenham Church has many rumors of strange happenings. It has been reported that the bells ring for no reason, and a ghost has appeared at its window. It is most known for a legend which has been passed down from generation to generation which says that the devil slumbers under a split gravestone and you risk his ire by running around the church thirteen times anticlockwise.
  • 11. Faines Of Hethersett by Kay Saberton

    10:57
    The Faines are said to be large animals the size of cows. With their enormous glowing saucer eyes, they haunt the village of Hethersett at night. Nobody quite knows what these terrifying creatures look like, but there are many tales of the beasts. Each storyteller has had their own version, and here is mine.
  • 9. The Gift, by Caroline Roberts

    11:30
    This is the tale of Malekin. It is not well known for it happened many long centuries ago.Some say that on occasion a baby was taken from its parents by fairy folk and spirited away to live in ‘another world’.At Dagworth Manor in Suffolk there came a visitor, a strange spirit who called himself Malekin who made the Manor his home for many years. Malekin was said to be a bright and clever spirit, but young and incorrigible. He spoke in many languages but always in the voice of a one-year old child.The tale tells that the family of Dagworth Manor, a knight and his family, heard a voice in the upper rooms. At first, they were afraid of what they heard, but soon the childish chatter began to engage them and they warmed to its owner. They began to communicate with the spirit and Malekin amused them with his funny ways and his tendency to gossip.
  • 8. The Tale of the Devil at St Peter's Church by Amber Spalding

    06:09
    St. Peters church stands in the centre of a vast, Suffolk landscape. Through the centuries, Suffolk has become been famous for its many churches, often in forgotten and isolated spots in the countryside. As the pivotal landmark in the rural village of Westleton, St Peter's is home to a deadly tale. Amber's story will send shivers through you!
  • 7. Eva of Dunwich by Muriel Moore-Smith

    13:40
    The story of Eva of Dunwich by Muriel Moore-Smith       Many years ago, when Dunwich was a bustling port and not the tiny hamlet it is today, a young girl, Eva, was out walking along its harbour walls. In the distance, she spied a ship with magnificent sails. Curious, she hurried towards the place where the ship was moored.            Securing the ropes of the vessel was a sailor who looked up from his task and saw Eva, with her rust-coloured hair plaited down her strong back and her cream dress tipped with black. He told her she was beautiful, a child of nature. He said that if she met with him that evening, he would bring her riches the like of which she had never seen.            Eva agreed and later that evening, she met the sailor as arranged. It was then that he told her he loved her. And again, later in the dead of night, and later still, in the dark of dawn. But when Eva woke in the morning, the sailor was gone.           On the horizon, the sailor’s ship was far away and slipping out of view. Eva looked down at her torn dress and ran a hand through her tangled hair. Her heart ached for his words of love. In an anguish of sorrow for all she had lost, she reached inside her dress and ripped out her heart, throwing it towards the vanishing ship. Today, if you walk along Dunwich beach, in amongst the pebbles and driftwood and pieces of brick, you might find a wooden heart. However much you look, don’t pick it up; its sorrow may become your sorrow.
  • 6. 'Sara’s Strike for Climate' by Hannah Daley

    09:13
    You may have heard the tale of the fairy who was stolen in the dead of night? But, as is the way of magical stories, it must be told again. A farmer, who lived near Bury St. Edmund’s, had noticed that someone was stealing his wheat. Enraged, for he thought it was his competitor, he set a trap for the thief. He hid amongst the hay bales and waited until the moon had risen and owls hooted in the night. To his surprise, he did not see the neighbouring farmer. Instead, before his eyes was a crowd of merry fairies...
  • 5. The Stowmarket Fairies by Dinah Cowan

    14:07
    1st January 1800Stowmarket, Suffolk.Dear Parishioners, As I dip my pen, at the dawn of a new century, and on a day when so many of us reflect on our lives, vowing to make resolutions, I feel the time has come to share with you a tale that first enchanted me as a young child, some forty years ago. Linger on that word for a moment: enchanted. We Suffolk folk have long considered our cherished county to be enchanting, but let us focus on its essence of the magical, which lies at the heart of this tale.
  • 4. The Lost Shepherd by Fiona Waters

    08:45
    The Tale of John Dobbs by Fiona WatersIn Kesgrave, Suffolk you can find the grave of John Dobbs dated 1740. The solitary headstone, surrounded by iron railings, sits on a lonely grassy area next to Kesgrave Wood deep in the Suffolk countryside. It is said that anyone who disturbs his resting place will be chased away by his angry and bitter ghost. Many have spoken of the strange inexplicable sadness that fills the woods nearby. John Dobbs was a shepherd and led a life full of loss and sadness. He lost his beloved wife, and then his two baby sons to the plague. John mourned for his loved ones and in a moment of grief, lost sight of a sheep in his flock. John wandered the fields for days in the hopes that he would find the lost animal, but he never did and fearing that he might face being deported for the crime of stealing, he took his life.
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