The Paranormal Database

Peddar's Way, Great Massingham.

Phantom Dog

Location: Great Massingham (Norfolk) - Peddar's Way & Massingham Heath
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1960s, 1970s
Further Comments: The shucks around this area bring misfortune to any who see them, one witness having a serious road accident exactly one year after seeing a ghostly dog. Reports of a grey phantom dog have also been made, quite rare in East Anglian Shuck mythology.

Phantom White Dog

Location: Great Snoring (Norfolk) - Road South of Great Snoring
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Late 1930s
Further Comments: Just prior to the Second World War, a farmer reported driving straight through a phantom white dog. He was so shocked he stopped his car and ran. Many cyclists in the area had also reported the creature.

Large Black Dog

Location: Great Wakering (Essex) - Star Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This area lays claim to be one of the many places in East Anglia where the shuck has visited.

Black Hound

Location: Great Yarmouth (Norfolk) - Southtown Road
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This stretch of road is said to be home to Old Scarf, a black dog that haunts the area.

Running Dog

Location: Great Yarmouth (Norfolk) - Suffield Road, near the police station
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 2006
Further Comments: An animal resembling a dog with long legs was seen running along the path, vanishing within seconds of being spotted. The same entity was also observed along the High Street by the same witness, though years previous.

Bear Sized Hound

Location: Great Yarmouth (Norfolk) - Yarmouth South Station (no longer standing)
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1860
Further Comments: This creature was described as white and the size of a polar bear by two witnesses as they watched it leap over engines.

Scared Shuck

Location: Grindlesford Bridhe (Yorkshire) - Longshaw moorland
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While this shuck is said to be just as terrifying as his brethren in other parts of the country, a good loud shout is reportedly enough to drive him away with his tail between his legs.

A sketch of a large black hound with red glowing eyes, by Wayne Lowden.

Thomas Colley

Location: Gubblecote (Buckinghamshire) - General area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1893
Further Comments: The shuck spoken about around these parts is thought to be the spirit of a particularly nasty man who drowned two people thought to be witches - he was executed for his crime and his body left on a gibbet. The large black dog with red eyes was last seen sinking into the earth by the village headmaster.

Large Black Dog

Location: Halesowen (West Midlands) - High Street area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: August (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A local legend says that the area where the Saxon church once stood is home to a large black dog which glides around. Its howls are prevalent throughout August.

Two Dogs

Location: Haslingden (Lancashire) - Greens Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Winter at dusk, 2006 and 2007
Further Comments: Twice over a period of two years one witness watched two phantom dogs run along this lane. A black hound is chased by another dog - both a slightly out of focus and move thirty centimetres above the ground.

Gabriel Hounds

Location: Hathersage (Derbyshire) - Clough Dell
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: To hear the howl of this demonic dog indicated the imminent death of a family member, although on one occasion, the howling came from a farmer's son who then eloped with a woman in a Scooby-Doo-que ruse that is too convoluted to summarise here.

Snarling unlike any Dog

Location: Hemby (Norfolk) - Lane leading to a Caravan Park, behind a fence in the garden of a house
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Summer 1996, around midnight
Further Comments: When walking back from the arcades, a couple and their nineteen year old daughter witnessed a large dog with glowing red eyes, growling 'unlike any dog... ever heard before'. The family reported a run of bad luck ever since.

Vanishing Dog

Location: Hempnall (Norfolk) - Market Hole (road)
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Twentieth century?
Further Comments: The dog in question ran in front of a cyclist - the man braced for impact, only to see it vanish. A quick search revealed no sign of the creature.

Black Dogs

Location: Hemswell (Lincolnshire) - Area between village and Grayingham
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These calf-sized dogs patrol the roads connecting the two villages. A woman who encountered one of the hounds is said to have lashed out at it with her umbrella, only for the object to pass straight through the creature.

Fiery Eyed

Location: Henfield (Sussex) - Woodland in the area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The large demonic dog of this area is said to be the size of a calf with the fires of hell burning within its eyes.

Devil Hound

Location: Hergest (Hereford & Worcester) - Hergust Court, now a farmhouse
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Prior to death in family
Further Comments: This hound would appear to members of the Vaughan family before one of their number died. It is said that when Black Vaughan was beheaded in 1483, his faithful hound seized and ran off with the head. The creature is said to have inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write 'Hound of the Baskervilles'.

Faines

Location: Hethersett (Norfolk) - Mill Road and Gravel Pit Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Faines were creatures that stood as tall as a calf, with large eyes. One account has the entity possess the ability to blow anyone nearby away which a large gust of wind.

Vanishing Hound

Location: Hillsborough (Yorkshire) - Taplin Road
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: A policeman reported an encounter with a black dog which suddenly vanished without trace along this road.

Loping Phantom Dog

Location: Hockley (Essex) - Road between Hockley and parish church
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Misty nights
Further Comments: Appearing on misty nights, those who see the dog are said to die before the end of the year. One witness walking home on a dark night fainted after a large black dog appeared by her side, disappearing into thin air several minutes later. It is not known if she suffered the fate that legend dictates.

Invisible to Some

Location: Holmesfield (Derbyshire) - Bury Hill ('three lane ends'), although cannot find on modern maps
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The barghast, a demonic dog with saucer-sized eyes, was considered a death omen. The creature which lurked here was spotted by a woman, but remained invisible to her sister who walked besides her. The sister died a month later.

Padfoot

Location: Horbury (Yorkshire) - Jenkin Road area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A man returning home spotted a white dog in the hedgerow and hit out at it with a stick. The stick passed straight through the creature, which then turned and stared at its attacker. The man ran home, fell ill and died soon after. The shuck is said to sometimes run around on two legs and is considered a harbinger of death.

Red Eyed Dog

Location: Horton (Dorset) - Bagman's Lane and Pot Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This lane is home to a local shuck; with red eyes and fur black as coal, his passing is to be taken as an ill-omen.

Subduing Hound

Location: Horton (Yorkshire) - Horton Hall
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Early nineteenth century
Further Comments: This black dog attacked one man walking by the hall, pushing him to the ground but not causing any harm. Coincidently, at the same time, the Hall's owner died.

Black Hound

Location: Huddersfield (Yorkshire) - Milnsbridge area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This devil dog is more likely to be heard baying at the moon, its howl freezing the blood of witnesses.

Old woodcut of a hound with a burning tail.

Dog of Ill Omen

Location: Hurstwood (Lancashire) - General area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Banished by an unknown holy man, this creature would once walk through the town warning the inhabitants of misfortune.