Phantom donkeys

Regarding the gypsy story of one of the Smith family stopping in a “field in Suffolk” and encountering a donkey that turned out not to be their donkey after all, but a mysterious kind of donkey that, while standing stock still, always seem to “recede” when its owner approached it, before vanishing [ FT407:34]: I have heard one story of a “phantom donkey” from Suffolk, while in numerous traditions about Black Shuck (not just from Suffolk), Shuck is a donkey. In Westleton – Customs and Sayings recorded by the Women’s Institute in 1922 (Westleton Women’s Institute, Leiston Press, Leiston 2008), the local WI’s folklorists recorded that an invisible donkey was heard frequently by Mr J Spall of the Suffolk village of Westleton, who lived with his wife in a cottage near the churchyard. He would hear at midnight a noise coming from the yard outside his house, a sound “as if a donkey with a clanking chain” were moving about.

The Shuck in the Suffolk village of Melton (near Sutton Hoo) had a donkey’s head and a smooth, velvety coat. Near the Horse and Groom pub in Melton, one Gordon Kemp tried to catch it (or, in one version, shoot it, with a gun borrowed from the pub), but it bit his hand and vanished. This was sometime in the 18th century, according to Country Folklore: Suffolk (1893).

Another Suffolk Shuck variation was Old Shock, recorded in around 1830, which could transform itself from the usual black dog into a donkey. In other accounts it is a dog “as large as a donkey”, which could be where the donkey idea originally came from.

From Yorkshire and Lincolnshire comes the Gytrash or Shagfoal, a shapeshifting version of Shuck that can appear as a crane or a horse, mule or donkey with burning eyes.

From Bristol comes a report from 1908 of a large black dog that appeared in a dead-end lane in Hallen, near where the M49 bridge now is. It was seen climbing out from a hedge before transforming into a donkey and standing on its hind legs. ( Paranormal Database www. paranormaldatabase.com/reports/ shuckdata.php?pageNum_paradata=2)

Returning to Suffolk, I have also come across an account of the recurring phenomenon from gypsy ghost stories – an animal that appeared normal except that the horses were terrified by it, warning the humans that something was wrong.

This tale was gathered by the same volunteer WI folklorists of Westleton in 1922 who wrote down the one about the phantom donkey. It featured the same J Spall who was haunted by a phantom donkey. He was travelling back to Westleton by road at night, driving a cart full of “whins” – harvested gorse, used as fuel, particularly in bread ovens.

On the road, Spall encountered a white horse, a “loose horse” who fell into step with the three horses pulling his cart. His own horses were frightened, they were “a muck of sweat” and almost bolted; they only calmed down when Mr Spall managed to shoo the “loose horse” away with his stick. When he stopped at The Plough pub in Wangford, he found his horses were cold to the touch. He never worked out whether he’d seen a ghost or not. I’ve also found another account of the phenomenon of a creature “receding” when witnesses approached. A poster to the Centre for Fortean Zoology blog, giving his name as “Woody”, described a 1990s encounter with a classic black shuck hellhound while out walking his own dog at Martlesham Creek in Suffolk. Whenever Woody approached the creature, it always seemed to be the same distance away.

Matt Salusbury

Dunwich, Suffolk