Friday, September 12

Headless Horsemen and Treasure......hmmmmm

I am staying in a part of Norfolk that is steeped with history, mythology and ghost stories...the following is copied from a local tale about the treasure and the key,
( the door handle is on the rectory right across from us here at Reading Room Cottage, behind the beautiful red brick wall covered in Ivy. I am in the thick of it as they say...)



"Callow Pit- source, notes and queries, John Glydem, "The Norfolk Garland"

On the boundary of moulton River and Cantley parishes, there was a cavernous hollow known as the Callow ( or caller ) Pit
( some say it's the pond on the west side of the southwood road crossroads at TG394058), which in olden days was used as a hiding place for smugglers and outlaws. By night the ghost of a headless horseman rides around it before galloping off to Callow Spong a mile away and vanishing.

Although the water was very dark, locals often talked about dragging the iron chest of money they could see just below the surface. One night two men from Southwood tried, and managed to hook the iron ring on the end of the chest. After hours of struggling with its weight, it broke the surface, and one of them cried out " We've got it now, and not even the Devil himself shall have it!" At that a cloud of sulphurous vapour enveloped the pool, a long black arm erupted from the water, grabbing the chest with claw-like fingers, and a fierce tug of war ensued.

The Devil proved too strong, and the chst sank into the water, never to be seen again, and the men were left with the iron ring from the chest. They took it home and fixed it as a handle onto the door of St. Edmund's church at Southwood, where it could be still seen as recently as 1890, but is now the door handle at impenhoe Church."- end quote

Spooky hey :)

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