War Diary Part Two.

Due to unforseen circumstances my film making activities have been seriously curtailed at the moment.
To keep the blog active it seems a good time to publish more extracts from uncle Walter's war diary.

In Part two, 1917, Walter trains as a signaller and gets home on leave to England for Christmas.
There are suprisingly no entries in the diary recording his time at home.

The entries seem to suggest that Walter was becoming "battle hardened".  No longer the quiet young Norfolk lad who left "Blighty"  twelve months earlier.

Walter was quite mobile in 1917 - although the front line was fairly static the battalions were moved quite frequently to reinforce the line.

Please note the extracts from the diary were written almost one hundred years ago and may not be considered "Politically correct" by todays standards.

Sat 12th May 1917

Manoeuvres - reveille 4am.

Mon 14th May

Manoeuvres cancelled - rain.

Tues 15th May

Manoeuvres with live ammunition through a rifle bomb being fired with an ordinary cartridge.  The bomb fell short of the target and dropped among some of my company,  men who were in the supposed front line causing several casualties.  The 4th Northumberland Fusiliers also had some casualties.   The wounded coming down on limbers made it look almost like a real stunt.

Wed 16th May

Manoeuvres -  enemy 6th Northumberland Fusiliers in wood which we had to attack.

Thur 17th May

Sousastr'e.

Marched to a small village

Fri 18th May

March to small village of Ayette - badly smashed about - we bivouacked.

Vaults in cemetery so knocked about as to expose skeletons.

Sun 20th May

Reveille 3am back in line, fortunate in being put on details with Sheardown where we ran a signal station to Brigade H.Q.

In evening cycled with a message to Brigade a few miles away.

Mon 28th May

Cycled with a message in evening to CO of our battalion which were lying in cubby holes at St Leger.  By an overland road got there all right but lost my way coming back in the dark and what with falling in old trenches and getting myself and cycle mixed up with barbed wire.  I had a devil of a time and got back to Ayette about midnight.

 

Wed 23rd May

Details shifted to Moyenville.

Sun 27th May Whit Sunday

On guard - battalion out of line.

Mon 28th May Whit Monday

March to Monchy (not to Monchy - le - Preax) where we had to build bivvies for ourselves.

Tich and I found a lot of old corrugated iron and made a bivvy and later we made an extension to accommodate Murchi.  I was on fatigue in evening filling in old trenches to make roadway for our field kitchens.  While at Monchy we had a very heavy hailstorm - largest hailstones I have ever seen.

British Army field kitchen

Wed 30th May

Manoeuvres where (Butcher) Brown very much amused Tich and myself by getting very excited over finding an old German telephone position fixed at the top of a high tree in a wood.  It was a well concealed position and was reached by steps that were cut in the tree.

Thurs 31st May

Reported sick with bad legs and was sent to hospital at place called Goury - had good time here.

Tues 5th June

Discharged hospital and had to walk right back to Monchy.  It was evening when got to Souastri.   Here we met a Northumberland Fusilier padre who gave us some cash and we went and got some tea at Y.M.  Concert party that evening "Blue Diamond" (Durhams) so we stayed and then continued our journey to Monchy.  Feeling whacked we crawled under a stack for the night.

Wed 6th June

About 9am we reported to battalion - companies out on manoeuvres.

Fri 8th June

Our company proceeded to Mercatil for duty on ammunition dump.  Where we worked in two shifts day and night loading up lorries with shells as required.  We were complimented on the amount of work we did.   Good time at Y.M. when off duty.

Wed 20th June

Whole of our division under canvas near Boyelles.

Sun 24th June

In the line - signal station - Murchi and I came right back to Mercatil for a reel of wire and stayed in Y.M. before going back.

Thurs 28th June

At Hinen in blanket bivvies - I was with Murchi and Tich and Daver were in the next bivvy.

Wind up at midnight as Fritz was dropping gas shells in next camp.

Mon 2nd July

In line - signal and gas guard.

Tues 10th July

Under canvas at Neuville Vitasse.

Sun 15th July

Working party at Wancourt.

Wed 18th July

In line.

Fri 27th July

Out of line and in old trenches at Neauville Vitasse.

Wed Aug 1st

In line.

Sat Aug 4th

Canvas camp at Neauville Vitasse.

Sun Aug 5th

Five days C.B. for washing in a shell hole.    (Confined to barracks)

(Punishment) Pulling horse drawn roller over cricket pitch and digging large pit to bury refuse.

Sun 12th Aug

On pass to Arras with Murchi.  Had photos taken by Frenchman who lived in a cellar near cathedral ruins.

Mon 13th Aug

Battalion in line - details.

Tues 14th Aug

Played cricket in morning and afternoon went to Arras.

Wed 15th Aug

Signals course at Boyelles - division signal school.

Fri 24th Aug

Y.M. at Boisleax-au-Mont,  pictures of Battle of Arras.   That evening saw the first Yankee troops - engineers.

Wed 29th Aug

On guard at school.

Mon 10th Sept

Sent to divisional sig stn at Wancourt for instruction.

Wed 12th Sept

Station moved nearer line to a small ruined village called Guinappe.  Station fixed at a wayside shrine where we were shelled by heavies and so we went farther back in the village.

Mon 17th Sept

Back to divisional school by motor lorry.

Sun 7th Oct

Rain all day.

Mon 8th Oct

Rain all day.

Tues 15th Oct

Guard - in afternoon the whole school started on the march for Achut-le-Petit.  The camp we should have taken over was occupied so that night we put up in a large barn which had been used for a theatre.   About 2am shifted into camp.

Wed 16th Oct

Entrained from Miriamont and arrived at Cassel where we marched to divisional details at a place called Bollezelle, very large camp here and signal school was lodged in a large marquee.

Wed 24th Oct

Rough weather - marquee blown down at about 2am.  Had to walk about till daylight when it was a scramble claiming kit.

Sat 1st Dec

Left Bollezelle for Eperleques Chateau - were billeted in Nissen huts in the grounds.

While here on the 13th and 14th was granted leave.  Marching to the railroad at Walton and entrained for Boulogne and after a splendid fortnight left home at 10-30pm on Boxing night.

Wed 26th Dec Boxing night

Thorpe 10.30pm  with  Jack Mace his wife and Albert Jex who were all going to London.

Thur 27th Dec

Liverpool Street Station 3.30am - stayed in waiting room till about 5am.  Then went and had a bit of breakfast in cafe just outside station.  After breakfast we got in a van, kind of laundry van which took us over London Bridge to the railway station where Jack and I left Violet and Albert who had to catch trains.  Jack and I went to his billet in Shepherds Bush where we had breakfast.   Jack couldn't get day off so I knocked about on my own till noon when I took my kit to Victoria station - and then went back and had dinner with Jack.  Had a look round town in afternoon and met Jack at night on the underground at Victoria station.  At night went to Oxford theatre and saw "The Better Ole".   Afterwards having supper at Lyons cafe,then 11.30pm.   Left Jack at 12.30am outside Victoria Station and went to Y.M.C.A. hostel nearby where I had ordered a bed for the night.

Fri 28th Dec

Caught boat train from Victoria Station it was snowing heavily when reached Boulogne - stayed at rest camp that night at Boulogne and met men of 4th Northumberland Fusiliers.

Sat 29th Dec

Left Boulogne - made meal of cake I brought from home.  6pm that night arrived at St Omer where we slipped out of station and had an hour or two in town - billiards and a drink or two.

9pm arrived at Walton reported to area commandant who put us up for night and told us our division was near Ypres.

Sun 30th Dec

Drawed rations from RTO and had breakfast at esterminet at Walton. 

Troops at an Estaminet (Bistro)

  Marched to signal school 8 kilometres stopping half way at an esterminet we knew and finished other cake and also had a few drinks - 4pm arrived at school.

Mon 31st Dec

Left school to rejoin battalion and detrained at Paperinge - air raid on.

Tues 1st Jan

Rejoined battalion at Potize - camp - tents, just through Ypres.

Wed 2nd Jan

Working party digging trench up line - went up by light railway.

Thur 3rd Jan

Battalion back to Paperinge by bus.

London buses used for troop movements

Sat 5th Jan 1918

Cap Off - 7 days No 1 for outstaying leave - in the mush in cellar beneath Battalion HQ.  All prisoners daily working parties up line. 

 

 

Uncle Walter's War Diary.

From a film making angle Uncle Walter's life and times would make a wonderful documentary but sadly the funding and resources required for such a production are not currently available.  

After careful consideration I felt the next best thing would be to publish extracts from uncle Walter's war diary through the Big Sky blog.  This year, as the nation commemorates the beginning of the First World War it seems an ideal time.  
In this small way I can acknowledge and honour uncle Walter and his young comrades who served in the trenches of the "Great War".

Walter Parker

Very few diaries from the first world war were written by private soldiers as it was strictly forbidden.  Because of this there are only a handful of accounts written by enlisted men.   Walter made notes on scraps of paper and made his diary entries secretly whenever the opportunity presented itself.  For this very reason the diary gives a fascinating insight into the lot of the "PBI" (poor bloody infantry). 

Uncle Walter was the first of thirteen children born to Walter Snr and Georgiana Jane on 20th February 1893.  Walter was apprenticed to the Norwich shoe trade as a "clicker" - a reserved occupation which prevented Walter from enlisting.   He made many attempts to join up before he was successful. He took the "Kings Shilling" soon after his twenty third birthday.

Please note the extracts from the diary were written almost one hundred years ago and may not be considered "Politically correct" by todays standards.

Mon 17th April 1916.

Joined up at Britannia Barracks.  Tich with me, evening march to drill hall and billeted at home.    Drill daily at Eaton Park.

Tues 2nd May

Bury St Edmunds, billeted with a Swaffham chap named Askew at Furlonges.   One weekend leave.

Tues 5th June

Left Bury. Train all night and at daybreak next morning arrived in Harrogate.

Marched about four miles to Pillinghall Camp- under canvas - hard training but good time on whole.  Frequent visits to Harrogate very nice place.

Tues 29th Aug

Left Harrogate 10pm good send off by local folk and early next morning arrived Shornecliffe.

Wed 30th Aug

Embarked Folkestone at midday and arrived Boulogne 2pm.  Marched to St Martins Camp just out of Boulogne - pretty stiff hill to climb.  "Frenchies" (Women and kids) hawking en-route (cheese and  spearmint).  

Fri 1st Sept

Entrained for base at Etaples - very stiff training, gas etc, at Bullring every day.

Wed 6th Sept

Route march to Paris Plage, pretty seaside place four miles from Etaples.

Fri 8th Sept

Posted to 5th Northumberland Fusiliers.  We entrained to join Battalion,  forty in a truck with full kit - uncomfortable.  We were run into a siding and stayed all night.

                                                                           

Northumberland Fusiliers at Thiepval 1916 (Public Domain)

 

 Sat 9th Sept

We detrained at Freshencourt near Albert - rest camp - on guard that night - loaves stolen.

Mon 11th Sept

March through Albert - first experience of shellfire - and form battalion details that night - about forty of us under tarpaulin.

Sun 17th Sept

10pm up to trenches near Marmetz wood.  Rained hard and tear shell gas all night - miserable time.

Mon 18th Sept

Rain all day.

Wed 20th Sept

Moved forward to Clarkes Trench

Thur 21st Sept

Working party at midnight digging Communication trench under shell fire.  Thinking we should return we left surplus kit at Clarkes Trench but at daybreak we were ordered forward to take enemy trench - very little opposition and that evening I went back to Clarkes trench for my kit.  Tich and Murchi went to Headquarters for some boots and were lost all night.

Sat 23rd Sept

Heavily bombarded and were relieved at 9.30pm and went back to support trench (Clarkes)

Mon 25th Sept

Billeted in Albert near cathedral and did all day working party clearing mud from roads - 1 foot deep in places.

Tues 26th Sept

Carrying small arms ammunition to front line.

Wed 27th Sept

Mametz Wood.

Thur 28th Sept

Road mending near Mamentz - used bricks etc from ruined houses in village.

Fri 29th Sept

Left Clarkes Trench at 4am for Front Line.   I kept in a cubbyhole and missed breakfast.

Sun 1st Oct

At 3pm over the top (my first experience) to capture Le Sars.  Tich and I were ammunition carriers for the Lewis gunners.  we took the position after stiff resistance and held on.  Fritz made counter attack in the night and we passed up thousands of Mills bombs to repel attack.

We sustained many casualties, these were chiefly previous to going over - in the communication trench leading to our Front line.   There were plenty of dead  Germans lying about when we reached our objective.   Sent a photo home taken off a dead German.

Mon 2nd Oct

Still in Fritz's old Front line and made ourselves at comfy in one of his old dugouts.   Rain hard all day.  During afternoon Fritz dropped a shell clean in the dugout doorway, (wind up)setting a box of flares alight.  After things cleared up a bit we began to think about getting out and found there was just enough room left for us to be pulled through the doorway one at a time.

German Dugout (Courtesey of Imperial War Museum)

Tues 3rd Oct

Still raining hard and we got rations up that night the first we had had since the Sun (1st Oct)so we had been practically between 50 to 60 hours without food which couldn't be got up to us.  Never enjoyed food so much before, although it was only biscuits and tea.

During that evening some of our fellows who were wounded in the attack on Sun were brought.  They had gone too far forward in the attack and had laid out all that time.

                                                                      

Stretcher bearers bringing back the wounded (Public Domain)

About 5pm nearly dark we started for Mametz quadrangle trench, plenty of sniping but no one hit.   Still raining hard, passed a lot of our dead on the way.

Wed 4th Oct

Marched to Albert.

Thur 5th Oct

Marched right back to Millencourt rest camp, tents where we got plenty of training.

Tich and I am put to a course of bombing.

Daily Sketch photographer at our camp. 

Tues 24th Oct

Reserve trenches about a mile through High Wood.  Slept in shell holes and as it rained all night we had quite a rotten time of it.

Wed 25th Oct

We were lucky in finding a tent but the trouble was where to pitch it as the whole place was little but a swamp - got it up at last.

Thurs 26th Oct

Working party to Front line carrying duckboards, started 5pm and got back at 2am next morning, worst working party I was ever on.

Fri 27th Oct

Just before daybreak Fritz dropped a shell not a great distance from our tent, a piece of shrapnel went clean through the top.

Court Martial read out, chap named Palmer sentenced to death. 

Rain almost everyday and the wooden roads laid by the Canadians were practically afloat.

Fri Nov 3rd

Back to High Wood in bivvies - heavy rain during night - we were washed out, so we got up - lit a fire and talked.   Nearly stifled with smoke. 

Tues 14th Nov

Up to front line and at midnight dug jumping off trench and 6.30 next morning made attack with Australians on left - objective being Buste de Watercourt.

Many casualties, including G Fearless (Sniper), both amongst Australians and ourselves.  We captured two trenches but failed to reach objective.

Shell dropped on parapet just in front of me, blowing trench in.  Shell shock (concussion) and came out of line with many wounded and some German prisoners.

I was with young Ritchie who had had a bullet through his hand.  Shelled heavily and young Ritchie got a piece of shrapnel in his neck.

The mud in parts of the communication trench was waist deep, like treacle.  Things were so bad at dressing station that stretcher bearers couldn't get along and the wounded were put on sledges which were pulled along by horses.

Reported to transport after leaving dressing station. 

 

Wed 15th Nov

Reported sick and was sent by ambulance to C.R.S (Casualty Rest Station) at Becourt, near Albert - good food and stretcher beds in large marquee. 

Sun 19th Nov

Discharged  C.R.S. report to battalion billeted in houses in Albert - learned I had been reported missing - wrote straight home.  Battalion much below strength through casualties.

Big draft arrived including Daver. 

Tues 23rd Nov

Working party at Albert gas works loading lorries with coal. 

Fritz over at midday bombing. 

Mon 27th Nov

About 10pm Fritz started shelling  -  long range gun -  put one clean through wall opposite our billet, next one knocked chimney off house next door so we retired to the cellar for the night.

German Long Range Gun (Courtesey Australian War Memorial)

Wed 29th Nov

On guard in mess by billet over officer awaiting trial for cowardice, (wanted to surrender in action).

About 11pm was taken off guard and ordered to report to signals sergeant for instruction next morning.

Fri 1st Dec

Marched back down Amiens road to village of Brisle to re-organise etc - billeted in top half of barn and mucked in with Reay and Murchi.

Sat 2nd Dec

Divisional band played in farmyard.

That evening Reay and Clayton were told off for firing party.   The whole firing party billeted in a cottage other end of village.

Sun 3rd Dec

After church parade adjutant Easton presented Military Medal ribbons to Cpl Saint and others and then read out the Court martial sentence on private Cameron, sentenced to be shot next morning.

In afternoon a party including myself were told off to level ground at back of farm where the sentence was to be carried out.   Cutting down shrubs etc so there should be no obstruction to firing party.

Mon 4th Dec

At daybreak (about 7.30) battalion were lined up at the back of farm where Cameron was to die. Could not see him but was rotten to hear him groaning and then the volley.

After execution back to billets.

Tues 19th Dec

Granted a days leave to Amiens and only hope of getting there was getting a lift on lorries going in that direction.  Challenged several times but allowed to pass on production of pass. Barrier across road at Amiens and pass examined before being allowed to enter town.

Went in cathedral front of which was protected against air raids by sandbags to a great height  - very rich in Architecture and scores of candles burning in interior.  
 

Amiens Cathederal

Many French colonials in town and what with traffic and so many civvies walking about it was very gay and was quite a novelty after seeing nothing but Khaki for so long. Seemed strange to see people in cafes with no blinds up and it looked more as if they were up the window for sale. 

Mon 25th Dec

Christmas day

Church parade in a granary at Brisle and evening a concert in same place.

Thurs 28th Dec

Marched to Becourt near Albert - stayed the night in Nissen huts.

Fri 29th Dec

Bivvies near High Wood - at night up to trenches.  I was fortunate being on details at canvas camp Bazenten.

  

 

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

 

Rupert Brooke  1887 - 1915

 

Broads Under Threat

A great deal of time and money has been allocated to protecting the Broads and Broadland from flooding. One hundred and forty million pounds over twenty years to be precise. This is the Broadland flood Alleviation Project which has just reached its midway point.   Mile after mile of new dykes and banks now follow the course of the waterways - their presence may not please everyone but in the event of excessively heavy rainfall or tidal surges villages and waterside properties now have added protection.

Recently we had the cameras out at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast - we went to see the properties about to be demolished in Beach road.   The erosion of the cliffs along this stretch of the coast has been going on for hundreds of years and the "Powers that be" plan to allow it to continue for at least the next one hundred.

What, you may ask, has this got to do with the Broads?
The flood protection plans currently being carried out in Broadland involve a large number of agencies, but none of them are responsible for Shoreline Management.

Property On The Edge

There is a Shoreline Management Plan and when it is boiled down it amounts to an orderly retreat from the sea.  As far  as the elements are concerned we are not going to fight them on the beaches.    The architects of the plan have forecast  the degree of cliff erosion  up to 2025, 2055, and 2105.  Nobody can be sure if the experts have got their forecasts right, we just have to trust in "The Great God Computer" and hope they have.   The slipway for the Happisburgh lifeboat slipped away sometime ago and the Lifeboat station itself has been demolished.   The lifeboat station was not due to fall into the sea for another twelve years.   Similarly, the catwalk leading to the beach stairway has been removed from the crumbling cliff, seemingly in the nick of time, its demise also appears to have crept well ahead of schedule.

 Old  Slipway

Remains Of The Beach Stairway

Talking to local people only provides anecdotal evidence but it does graphically illustrate what is happening to parts of the Norfolk coastline. Like the fellow who told me he remembered having tea in his friends garden when he was he was a teenager - he is now well into his sixties and the garden now lies more than a  hundred yards out to sea.

Timber Sea Defences

The Road To Nowhere.

The timber sea defences at Happisburgh were constructed in 1959 between Ostend and Cart Gap.  By 1989 the sea had rendered sections of them in-effective and since then the erosion of the cliffs at Happisburgh have accelerated at an alarming rate.    Local government has been fighting a losing battle to maintain the depleted sea defences with limited resources  and without any financial help from Central Government.
Local government agencies simply cannot raise the funds required to finance a civil engineering project of this magnitude, while Central government feel it is economically unsound to spend large sums of tax payers money to protect a few clifftop properties in a remote Norfolk village.   The rate of erosion is being monitored  in case the heart of the village becomes threatened.  When that time comes it may well be too late.

In the 1990's there was a feasibility study carried out to stabilise the cliffs and funds could have been made available for the scheme.  Unfortunately the various agencies procrastinated for such a long time that the window of opportunity to launch the scheme was lost along with more large areas of Happisburgh cliff.  The lack of decisive action for whatever reason means we no longer have a defence against the sea on this vulnerable stretch of coast.

Unstable Cliffs

Now for the scary part.  The moorings at Stalham are only five short miles from those disappearing cliffs at Happisburgh.  The landscape between the cliffs at Happisburgh and Stalham is flat rolling farmland.    Unless something is done, it is not a case of if the sea breaks through, but when.   In this event there will be absolutely nothing to stop the sea reaching the Broads.

It will not be in my lifetime but unless some action is taken it could happen in less than a hundred years.  To someone in their twenties that must seem an inconceivable time scale, although in reality it is barely a lifetime away.   This subject has been aired in many forums over a number of years.  To some enlightened individuals it is dismissed as scare-mongering. To other, equally, well informed people it is just a theory and it may never happen.   The view of this old "Norfolk boy" is somewhere between these two extremes.   Rising sea levels and increased rainfall in the 14th century were responsible for flooding the peat excavations and creating the Broads - what bitter irony it would be if it is the sea that destroys them.  

Bless This House.

 

Author's note.
There is no political agenda attached to the above article.  I only observe what heritage is preserved and that which is at risk.   "There is nothing more powerful than the power of nature".

Check out our new "Big Sky" website    http://bigskyuk.weebly.com/index.html

To see a clip of the demolition at Happisburgh click here

Black Shuck - The Hound From Hell.

"Black Shuck" -  "The Hound From Hell" is a well known East Anglian legend - a large black dog with eyes that burn like red fireballs.  He roams the coastline and the marshes right across Norfolk and Suffolk.   Anyone who looks into those flaming red eyes will be dead within twelve months, according to the legend.  

 In September 2011 we loaded the cameras and headed for Suffolk to follow in "Shuck's" paw prints.  

"Shuck's" first recorded appearance was in Bungay, Suffolk, on August 4th 1577.  During a violent thunder storm a large black dog ran into St Mary's church and attacked and killed two of the congregation.  A third man survived, it was said his wounds resembled scorched leather rather than wounds consistent with an animal attack.
It was also claimed that the dog's claws left scorch marks on the church doors of the North porch.   Unfortunately any evidence to support this was lost when the church was badly damaged by fire in 1688. 

A few miles away in Blythburgh a similar attack took place during a violent thunder storm.  Again it was reported that a large black dog ran into the church and attacked members of the congregation, a man and a boy were killed.  During the attack the steeple was struck by lightening and part of the masonry crashed through the roof of the nave.  Once again Shuck's claws left scorch marks on the church doors, these marks are still clearly visible. 

Earlier the same day a local man was chased by a large black dog,  this fellow was able to reach the safety of the parish church before the dog could attack him.  Again scorches and scratch marks were left on the doors of the church.  

Although phantom Black Dogs have been reported since Roman times the events in Suffolk in 1577 gave a perceived credibility to "Black Shuck's" existence.   The "Hound from Hell" tag originated from the belief that Shuck was actually the devil who appeared in the form  of a black dog.  If the story had ended there the legend might have been relegated to the status of an "Old Wives Tale" but over the last four centuries there have been many sightings of the black dog.  From Suffolk to North Norfolk people have claimed to have seen the dog with flaming red eyes.

In 1890, on Yarmouth beach, a young lad was preparing to swim in the sea when a large black dog approached him.   The boy entered the water and began to swim - the dog followed.  For some time the two of them swam together much to the amusement of the teenager.  The young lad was enjoying the swim with his new friend but as he was beginning to tire he decided to to turn back to the beach.  The black dog snarled and barred the way, several bites to the boys feet and back forced him further out to sea.   He was practically exhausted when a fishing boat spotted them.  Assuming the boy and his dog were in trouble the fisherman rowed over to assist them.   They hauled the semi conscious youth into the fishing smack and were horrified to see deep wounds in his back, shoulder and feet.  As they made for the shore they watched the black dog swim out to sea until it was out of sight.

A stormy night in North Norfolk in 1980 a holiday maker stopped to buy a pint of milk at a village store.   He left his young son in the car while he nipped into the shop.  A few minutes later he emerged with the milk just in time to see a large black dog disappear into a copse on the opposite side of the road.
Inside the car the child sat frozen with fear - he told his father the dog had glowing red eyes and had tried to get into the car.  The following day the father found large muddy paw prints on the bonnet and the back window of the car. 

Between West Runton and Overstrand there have been so many sightings over the years the area is called Shuck's Lane.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who was convalescing in Cromer would often dine at Cromer Hall with the lord of the manor.  He heard many stories about the black dog from Baskerville the lord's coachman.   Soon after his stay in Norfolk Sir Arthur wrote "Hound of the Baskervilles",  without doubt Shuck was the inspiration. 

I am ecstatically happy to report that we saw no trace of the "Hound From Hell"  so we have had to recruit a large black dog to appear in the film on "Shuck's" behalf.   To say Shuck does not exist would be the logical reaction for most people.   But next time you find yourself walking along a lonely Norfolk lane in the fading light, you might have to ask yourself, is it the North wind howling or could it be............


Authors Footnote 8th February 2012.
Sightings of a black Puma or Panther loose on the outskirts of Norwich yesterday.   This is the latest in a series of sightings of what is definitely a large black animal roaming the Norfolk countryside.
These sightings have been reported regularly over the years but so far no evidence has ever been found.  One would expect to find evidence of kills or paw prints if there was a big cat on the loose but so far nothing.     What if.............?