Wednesday Woe: the cursed builder of Burgh St Peter

We're off now to ​the church of St Mary the Virgin in the village of Burgh St Peter, not far from the Urban Fantasist office here in Norfolk’s Waveney Valley.

This church is famous for three things. The first is it’s five stage square tower, which looks a little like a wedding cake but was actually inspired by the design of the Ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats. Apparently local residents used to tell visitors on boating holidays on the nearby Norfolk Broads that the tower could be extended and contracted like a telescope, and was lowered during the winter and only raised again during the summer to provide a handy landmark for visitors.

The second claim to fame is that during the 18th and 19th centuries, five successive generations of the same family - the Boycott family - served as rectors (or priests) at this church. Unfortunately the family is now best known for the son, Charles Boycott, who did not take holy orders but instead became a land agent – in effect a landlord’s enforcer – in Ireland.

Unfortunately his time in Ireland coincided with a rise in Irish nationalism and civil disobedience so when he issued eviction notices against several tenants, he found himself ostracised by the local community and the subject of widespread opposition. In fact the situation became so bad that local shops would not sell to him and even the local post office stopped forwarding him telegrams. Eventually Charles Boycott and his family, protected by a troop of cavalry, had to flee Ireland and return to England.

He should have stayed at home and become a vicar and I doubt it was much consolation for him to know that the verb “to boycott” meaning the refusal to buy or provide goods and services as a means of protest, would be coined from his name.

And then we have the church’s third claim to fame: its ghost. Or should that be doomed spirit trapped for all eternity in a churchyard porch?

This is an intriguing story as the legend holds that the church’s original builder, an Adam Morland, sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and wisdom on how to complete the construction of the building. When he died – it was on the 2nd of May – he was buried within the church itself, so the Devil could not seize his soul. However his spirit is now trapped within the building – because he sold his soul, the spirit cannot rise up to Heaven but if it strays outside, it will be dragged away to Hell.

So now, once a year, every t2nd of May, the builder’s ghost – reduced now to a skeleton in a raggedy shroud – can be seen flitting around the church porch (which is holy ground) and therefore protected, peering out to see if the Devil has finally given up waiting to enforce the demonic pact the builder so foolishly signed all those centuries ago.