A haunted childhood

During a recent weekend stay in a coastal town in East Anglia, I visited the austere Holy Trinity church in the small settlement of Blythburgh, the site of an extraordinary supernatural incident. In the 16th century, this venerable ecclesiastical building was terrorised by Black Shuck, a fiendish dog who oc- casionally ravaged the surrounding villages. One afternoon, as the townsfolk shivered in the church, sheltering from a ferocious storm that raged outside, a deafening clap of thunder was the signal for the gigantic hellhound to burst through the church doors and hasten down the aisle. Terrorising the congregation, he leapt upon a man and a boy bent in prayer, wringing their necks before bounding away. The deep, dark scratches on the door, it is said, are lasting traces of this macabre episode: scorch marks he made upon his exit from the church.