The town of Bungay in the County of Suffolk is famous for a spooky past. On Sunday 4th August 1577 at St Mary’s Church during a service, a ghostly hound dog called ‘Black Shuck’, also known as ‘The Black Dog of Bungay’ is said to have killed two residents attending the service and left another mauled. The dog was later alleged to have visited Holy Trinity Church the Cathedral of the Marshes at Blythburgh during the same thunderstorm shortly after the appearance at Bungay. In that manifestation the dog ran down the aisle, escaping through the North door of the church leaving large black gouges on the door which can still be seen today! The fable of Black Shuck has inspired the annual marathon called funnily enough “The Black Dog

Marathon” begins in Bungay, and follows the course of the River Waveney. The town’s football club is nicknamed the “Black Dogs” and Black Shuck was also the theme of a song by the band named The Darkness. Arthur Conan Doyle’s infamous novel Hound of the Baskervilles was allegedly inspired by the old Bungay tale of Black Shuck really putting the town on the map which was celebrated by the black hound weather vane in the market place.

Shuck itself is a strange word which is thought to either come from the old English word scucca meaning demon or more probably the local East Anglian dialect word ‘shucky’ meaning shaggy or hairy. Sightings of the hound have continued right through the centuries up until the 1980s when a woman and her son apparently came face to face with the huge black haired dog but she reported it having yellow eyes rather than red. Anyone who has met Black Shuck is supposed to die within twelve months of the sighting. Eek! Bungay itself is also an unusual name for a place in England; it derives from the word Bunincga-haye which is Anglo- Saxon, the town was almost destroyed entirely by a large fire in 1688 but luckily thrives today and is a lovely place to have my business as a hog roast Bungay caterer. Bungay is only a small town of 5,000 residents but it has a huge heart and some great parties and events which we have had the pleasure of providing hog roast Bungay and spit roasts to over the years.