WEBVTT

1
00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:09.640
I can't remember what time of year
it was, but judging by the scenery

2
00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:13.279
and what I was doing, it
must have been the end of summer or

3
00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:18.000
the cusp of autumn. I can
be confident that I was on one of

4
00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:23.760
the longer school holidays children are given, much to the dismay of parents everywhere.

5
00:00:24.199 --> 00:00:28.000
Because my girlfriend of the time had
been sent to stay with her nan

6
00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:33.359
in a small market town almost twenty
miles away from where we lived, her

7
00:00:33.399 --> 00:00:39.000
mom and dad diligently limited our time
together. We were young teenagers, full

8
00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:43.520
of eagerness to act on our own
natural drives, and they had good reason.

9
00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:48.920
When I received a written message from
my girlfriend cell phones were not a

10
00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:53.159
thing yet, letting me know that
she was not under the watchful eye of

11
00:00:53.159 --> 00:00:58.000
her parents. A twenty mile bike
ride didn't seem like much of a barrier

12
00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:03.880
to some alone time children had more
freedom back then, I had more than

13
00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:07.560
most. Being the fifth of six
children, My parents had most likely had

14
00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:11.239
enough of parenting by the time it
came to me and my little sister.

15
00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:17.799
My independent nature and my ability to
stay out of trouble meant the arrangement was

16
00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:23.040
agreeable for everyone concerned. So with
a backpack containing a sleeping bag and a

17
00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:30.159
change of clothes. I headed off
to visit my girlfriend. England is a

18
00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:36.439
relatively small place, lined with narrow
lanes and dotted over with farmhouses and small

19
00:01:36.519 --> 00:01:40.519
villages. There's always a place to
stop and have a bite to eat.

20
00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:45.519
There isn't much there to pose a
danger to a bicyclist or a hiker,

21
00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:49.400
except perhaps stinging nettle that'll give you
an itchy rash for an hour or so.

22
00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:55.040
But otherwise I didn't feel as though
I had anything to worry about as

23
00:01:55.079 --> 00:02:00.799
I made my way cross country to
the village of Bungy. Twenty miles seemed

24
00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:04.959
to pass quickly as I rode through
the landscape that had changed very little since

25
00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:08.719
the days when the Romans ruled to
Britain, and soon I found myself on

26
00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:14.400
a country road too narrow for two
cars to pass, and it was separated

27
00:02:14.439 --> 00:02:20.639
from a farmer's fence by an overgrown
grass verge enveloped in cow parsley, blunt

28
00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:27.599
leafed dock and the chalky stems of
yellow fennel. Norfolk is exceptionally flat,

29
00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:30.400
and so I was given an unhindered
view of the sunset from the moment it

30
00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:36.759
touched the horizon until it slipt quietly
behind it. And to my right the

31
00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:42.199
world was all shadows and silhouettes outlined
against the sun, and to my left

32
00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:49.039
the fields were reflecting the amber rays
and casting a sinister pall over the countryside.

33
00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:53.280
While I was wishing I had a
camera, I slowed down to enjoy

34
00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:58.960
the sight, and that's when I
became aware of a metallic sound. I

35
00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:02.080
think I had been here hearing it
for a while but had subconsciously put it

36
00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:07.240
down to something caught in the spokes
of my bike. Now, as I

37
00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:12.120
slowed, the soft, metallic clanking
had not changed. I looked back over

38
00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:15.919
the flat landscape, but I couldn't
find anything natural or otherwise that could have

39
00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:23.159
been making that sound. Unfortunately,
I had recently read Algernon Blackwood's The Wind

40
00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:27.800
to Go, and though it held
very little resemblance to what we are told

41
00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:30.520
today that what a windygo looks like, it is one of the few books

42
00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:36.840
I've read that truly scared me.
That combined with my natural fear of dark

43
00:03:36.919 --> 00:03:39.919
and time of day, and my
location far from any man made light,

44
00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:46.639
sent fear sweeping over me in the
form of panic with a mental image of

45
00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:50.919
the wind to go, rising up
from behind the overgrown fence line and sprinting

46
00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:55.639
at me with ungodly speed. I
pushed off with steely determination to reach the

47
00:03:55.639 --> 00:04:02.319
welllit safety of my girlfriend's nan home. As I raced along in the fading

48
00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:06.520
light, the metallic sound stayed with
me, and in a very short period

49
00:04:06.919 --> 00:04:13.400
it changed from clanking to that of
a dog's claws on the pavement. I

50
00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:15.560
was hoping that was the case,
and I looked back, half expecting to

51
00:04:15.600 --> 00:04:20.040
see a dog like my German shepherd
at home, ambling down the road behind

52
00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:26.000
me, but again there was nothing
in sight. I'm deaf in one ear,

53
00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:30.680
and as such I'm used to being
misled by sound. Identifying it or

54
00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:35.639
placing its distance and direction are much
more difficult with only one good ear.

55
00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:42.199
But still this was a familiar noise. Whether I was able to identify the

56
00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:46.879
source or not. The absence of
sunlight was doing nothing to counteract the chill

57
00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:50.800
that had swept over me, but
the knowledge that it was the sound I

58
00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:57.959
knew helped to provide some calm.
As if to punish me for relaxing,

59
00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:01.560
the sound of something big came from
the long grass and tall plants, on

60
00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:08.600
the verge. The dry sound of
moving grass and folding stems softened the clank

61
00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:13.319
of a short chain being dragged over
the hidden fence. I whipped my head

62
00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:15.600
around, expecting to see an animal
that I thought had come out of the

63
00:05:15.639 --> 00:05:21.279
field and should have been standing on
the verge behind me, But nothing was

64
00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:27.240
there. An electric prickle slid up
my back and raised the hair off my

65
00:05:27.399 --> 00:05:30.720
neck. The road was empty,
but I saw the silhouette of a pair

66
00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:35.319
of long, narrow dog ears keeping
pace with me in the field. The

67
00:05:35.399 --> 00:05:40.199
animal's head wasn't bobbing, so I
knew it didn't have to try to keep

68
00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:44.399
up with me. I could see
the top of its head in the breaks

69
00:05:44.439 --> 00:05:47.360
of the tall grass, and it
seemed to know I was looking at it,

70
00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:54.399
because it folded its ears and ducked
its head lower. That chilled prickle

71
00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:58.959
made a home in the center of
my chest, and it tightened my lungs

72
00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:02.079
and made the air hit cold in
the back of my throat. My heart

73
00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:05.879
started thumping against my rib cage as
if it wanted to break out of its

74
00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:13.079
organic prison, and it pushed icy
blood around my body, and instinctively I

75
00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:18.079
knew the situation was unnatural. My
legs were already pumping as hard as my

76
00:06:18.279 --> 00:06:24.680
heart while my head swiveled between the
narrow road ahead and the animal moving along

77
00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:29.199
the fence. If I'd seen the
thing's head level with the tops of the

78
00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:33.199
grass, it had to be five
feet tall. Now that I knew what

79
00:06:33.319 --> 00:06:38.000
I was looking at and where it
was, I could see its thick,

80
00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:44.920
heavy muzzle and long black body between
the thinner patches of the grass. Somehow

81
00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:49.120
I found more speed, but that
didn't help. It increased its gait to

82
00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:54.720
try it and keep pace with me. I was pelting along faster than I'd

83
00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:59.279
ever bite before or since, and
all this dog had to do to keep

84
00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:03.360
up was trot. Fear was pushing
me beyond my limits, and the voice

85
00:07:03.399 --> 00:07:09.360
of reason was a distant whisper in
my mind between telling me it was just

86
00:07:09.399 --> 00:07:14.439
a horse or a deer. But
I knew in reality it was an unnatural

87
00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:18.399
creature, and I had no chance
of escaping. An animal that size could

88
00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:21.240
leap over the fence and catch me
if it wanted to, and there was

89
00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:26.759
nothing I could do to stop that. I could hear the animal's paws padding

90
00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:30.519
through the dirt, and the rhythmic
jangling of a chain as it lazily started

91
00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:35.800
to close the gap between us.
On the very few occasions when I had

92
00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:41.240
been forced to see control of my
body to the fight or flight response,

93
00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:46.040
I had been amazed at the number
of tiny details that autopilot is able to

94
00:07:46.040 --> 00:07:50.279
pick up on in factor into a
snap decision. And even now I can

95
00:07:50.360 --> 00:07:55.879
clearly picture the vista ahead of me
as I approached the small hump back bridge

96
00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:01.319
spanning a narrow stream with three foot
deep banks flanking it, And although I

97
00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:05.800
couldn't see the road immediately beyond the
hump of the bridge, I could see

98
00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:11.560
the hedge rows bordering the generous gardens
of scatterings of cottages built along the winding

99
00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:16.800
road. There was a slight downward
gradient that probably passes as a hill around

100
00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:20.279
here, and it allowed me to
see the roof of a car weaving its

101
00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:26.000
way toward the bridge at a speed. The homes in sight were all on

102
00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:28.879
the right side, with open fields
on the left, and that meant the

103
00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:33.279
dog wouldn't have any overgrown grass to
stay behind after it crossed the stream,

104
00:08:35.080 --> 00:08:39.000
and thinking that the dog would choose
to pounce on me after clearing the end

105
00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:43.200
of the bridge, I dug deep
and pushed out enough effort to increase my

106
00:08:43.399 --> 00:08:48.840
speed of fraction. As I crested
the humpback bridge. As my tires left

107
00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:54.000
the tarmac where it was gouged by
unwary drivers who had bottomed out, I

108
00:08:54.039 --> 00:08:58.279
saw that the road took a sharp
turn to the left a little beyond the

109
00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:03.919
foot of the bridge. I cleared
most of it and landed, already leaning

110
00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:07.519
hard to the right to make the
turn and happy that it would take me

111
00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:11.600
further away from the dog. But
as I rounded the corner, I saw

112
00:09:11.639 --> 00:09:16.720
a large, unreasonably spiky piece of
farm equipment sitting by a large gate that

113
00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:22.840
opened out onto the fields. Still
in mid turn, I remembered there was

114
00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:26.840
also a car coming fast that,
in all probability hadn't seen me coming over

115
00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:31.240
the hump of the bridge, and
if I stayed on the road, I

116
00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:33.919
would be hit by the car,
And if I kept pulling left to get

117
00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:39.960
off the road, I'd be secured
on the blue crescent shaped steel spikes belonging

118
00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:43.480
to the tractor trailer. And to
the right, I saw a well kept

119
00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:50.720
privet hedge belonging to the first cottage
along this road. Although I hadn't glanced

120
00:09:50.759 --> 00:09:54.360
back since I had noticed the deep
gouges in the tarmac at the crest of

121
00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:58.080
the bridge. I imagined the large
dog running alongside me, just on the

122
00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:03.039
other side of the mant incured hedge. I had nothing to do with the

123
00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:07.440
choice, mate, It was all
instinct, and I jerked the handlebars to

124
00:10:07.480 --> 00:10:11.840
the left and tensed my arms and
shoulders as a wall of green hiding the

125
00:10:11.879 --> 00:10:16.600
field's boundary hurtled toward me. Before
I hit anything, the front wheel snapped

126
00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:22.799
around beyond ninety degrees and I was
catapulted off the saddle. In the air,

127
00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:26.960
I made contact with something hard enough
to bounce off and tumble along the

128
00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:33.039
verge before coming to rest uncomfortably on
my overstuffed pack. I sat up just

129
00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:37.120
in time to see the car going
by and breaking hard for the bridge.

130
00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:41.840
And given all the details I can
recall from that moment, it vexes me

131
00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:46.879
to know in that I cannot recall
the color of that car. The big

132
00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:52.720
dark face opposite me that had pushed
itself through the hedge across the narrow road,

133
00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:58.159
however, will stay with me forever. With my legs splayed out in

134
00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:03.399
front of me, I felt the
stiff stems of the tall grass between my

135
00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:07.159
fingers as I propped myself upright.
I could have reached out and grabbed the

136
00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:11.799
painted blue spikes of the trailer beside
me if I wanted to use it to

137
00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:16.600
haul myself off the ground, But
I was locked in place by the gaze

138
00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:24.200
of an unnaturally large dog. Yellow
eyes glimmered at me with their own luminescence

139
00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:28.759
in the half light, and a
heavy muzzle that wouldn't look out of place

140
00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:35.039
on a mastiff barely concealed the bulge
of hidden fangs atop its large, square

141
00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:39.919
head. Two long, narrow ears
were trained on me along with its unblinking

142
00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:46.279
gaze. I could see one leg
planted firmly under its massive body, and

143
00:11:46.360 --> 00:11:52.480
I'm glad its paws were lost in
the slightly overgrown edges of the cottage's lawn,

144
00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:56.600
because I think even a hint of
tooth or claws would have pushed me

145
00:11:56.720 --> 00:12:01.360
to the breaking point. A heavy
coal black chain hung beside the one leg

146
00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:05.799
that I could see, but I
couldn't honestly say I saw much more of

147
00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:11.720
the animal. Hot tears welled up
in my eyes as the bomps and bruises

148
00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:15.279
I got from the tumble began to
ache and I thought it was the end

149
00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:20.320
of me. At that moment,
the giant dog, not ten meters away

150
00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:24.799
from me started to shrink. As
if my encounter didn't sound unbelievable already,

151
00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:31.480
I promise you, the dog stood
statue still and began to shrink. I

152
00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:35.440
know it doesn't make much sense to
say this, but the shrinking didn't look

153
00:12:35.559 --> 00:12:41.399
real. It looked like a bad
special effect from a cheap TV show.

154
00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:46.279
As it got smaller, a lot
didn't move at all. It wasn't getting

155
00:12:46.360 --> 00:12:52.200
further away. It shrank, and
somehow it became wrong. I know that

156
00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:56.440
it is an incredibly poor descriptive,
but the comparison to low budget TV show

157
00:12:56.480 --> 00:13:01.639
effects is the best I can muster
for what I saw that evening. In

158
00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:07.000
a scant few seconds, I couldn't
see the dog anymore. An instinct relinquished

159
00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:11.559
control of my body, and I
sat there for a while, trying to

160
00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:16.200
normalize my breathing and stopped trembling.
And all too soon the growing darkness encouraged

161
00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:22.639
me to make haste to where my
girlfriend was staying. I chose not to

162
00:13:22.679 --> 00:13:26.360
tell her what had happened. I
told her that I had fallen off my

163
00:13:26.440 --> 00:13:28.759
bike and there was no need to
worry. She was used to seeing me

164
00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:35.279
looking weather worn and road weary.
After a mug of tea and a generous

165
00:13:35.320 --> 00:13:39.799
slice of cay, I all but
forgot about the dog and concentrated on enjoying

166
00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:45.679
my girlfriend's company, And all too
soon my girlfriend's nan politely reminded me that

167
00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:48.080
it was getting too late for a
young lady to have a male visitor.

168
00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:56.720
Unfortunately, my return trip was mundane. Not much time passed before I put

169
00:13:56.799 --> 00:14:01.799
my encounter down to my fear of
the dark feet my imagination. I decided

170
00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:07.159
it was a deer that had startled
me. Maybe something did stick its head

171
00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:11.759
through the hedge and stare at me. But a lot of people keep goats.

172
00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:16.039
They're great at slipping out of their
pens or off their chains. But

173
00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:20.120
it wasn't until the Internet took off
many years later that I came across the

174
00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:24.879
story of the Black Shuck, and
I began to entertain the idea that I

175
00:14:24.919 --> 00:14:31.480
could have seen a supernatural hound.
The United Kingdom has plenty of mythological creatures

176
00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:37.200
to call upon, a wealth of
homegrown legends mixed with those brought to our

177
00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:41.759
tiny island by raiders and conquerors over
the millennia. We are small, but

178
00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:48.360
we're not densely populated. Even so
what we refer to as a vast open

179
00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:54.159
space might only constitute a large backyard
in other countries. That's why I raise

180
00:14:54.200 --> 00:15:00.240
an eyebrow whenever someone insists the UK
has its own large, cryptid running about.

181
00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:03.320
What I can start to believe is
the many black dog stories that have

182
00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:09.000
been around since time immemorial and the
big cat sightings that have been common since

183
00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:16.240
the nineteen seventies. Black dog stories
have been a mainstay of legends and myths

184
00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:20.919
from Scotland to Wales and across the
Irish Sea to Ireland. The town of

185
00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:26.600
Burnby has its own tale of a
black dog called the Black Shuck, and

186
00:15:26.679 --> 00:15:31.600
it stretches back to the fourth of
August fifteen seventy seven, when darkness,

187
00:15:31.799 --> 00:15:37.559
rain, hail, and lightning as
was never seen. The light sent the

188
00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:43.159
townspeople to the church to pray for
a reprieve from the tempest. Lightning struck

189
00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:48.200
the church and a black dog broke
down the door with a bestial hatred and

190
00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:52.399
a disregard for God. All down
the church in the midst of fire,

191
00:15:52.600 --> 00:15:58.759
the hellish monster flew and passing onward
to the choir he many people slew.

192
00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:03.360
After killing two people, the dog
of Death, burning with the wrathful head

193
00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:10.000
of hell fire, vanished. It
then apparently traveled twelve miles to the Holy

194
00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:15.039
Trinity Church in Blibra, where it
killed more of the faithful. Saint Mary's

195
00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:19.600
Church has a tower damaged by lightning
that now sports an iron weather vane with

196
00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:26.200
a black dog running on a lightning
bolt. The Holy Trinity Church at Blibra

197
00:16:26.440 --> 00:16:30.240
has burn marks on its ancient doors
that were apparently left behind by the baleful

198
00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:36.080
heat of the black Shuck's claws.
Thanks to a little research, I have

199
00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:41.200
discovered many people all over Suffolk and
Norfolk and the Black Shucks stories to tell

200
00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:45.559
a good handful of them recount hearing
a dog padding along the road close by

201
00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:51.080
and dragging a chain, but there
is no dog to be seen. Those

202
00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:56.120
that do see something report sizes from
a normal dog to something like a small

203
00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:00.639
pony, and a couple of people
even say they watched the dog shrink and

204
00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:06.640
then vanish. The legend of the
black Shuck claims that if you see the

205
00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:10.319
dog, you will die within a
year. Well, I'm fine, and

206
00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:15.079
so is everyone else that reported seeing
the black shuck. But just like me,

207
00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:18.279
many of those people had a brush
with death. If I hadn't been

208
00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:22.119
peddling hard to get away from the
dog following me, I would have come

209
00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:26.279
over the humpback bridge without seeing that
car coming, and I would have been

210
00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:30.759
hit by it or veered off the
road straight into the spiky tractor trailer.

211
00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:37.400
Perhaps then the black shuck is there
to protect the lonely wanderer on East Anglias

212
00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:42.519
back roads and in its woods.
If not, then it is a sinister

213
00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:48.440
harbinger of pending disaster, waiting for
our soul's release from its mortal vessel.

214
00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:53.640
Still an escort, but a shepherd
of a very different kind. It has

215
00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:59.559
a chain around its neck, so
that makes me think this dog is domesticated.

216
00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:03.200
The dogs are called to man's best
friends for countless very good reasons,

217
00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:08.079
and I can't help but wonder about
that chain. Though. If the black

218
00:18:08.119 --> 00:18:15.440
shuck is a domesticated animal, what
sort of creature does a giant black dog call master