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What's Your Local Urban Legend / Folklore / Myth?

Mr Bleak said:
Last year I was on my way to Worcester for a weekend break. Some young people got on the train as we got near the city. An animated discussion broke out whether or not the drink Red Bull contains bull sperm. Being a gentleman, I don't deliberately try to listen to other people's conversations, but sometimes one can't just avoid them. From what I could work out, a young chap was adamant that he learnt this fact from the 'Web. One of his friends sagely point out 'you can't believe everything that you read on line'.

I have been assured that the 'bull sperm' claim is a hoax.
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Apparently, it's from stuff called 'Taurine,' mistakenly tagged as Bull sperm, has been taken from the fact that Taurine was at first isolated from OX bile. "Luverly!" :bs:
 
Mr Bleak said:
Last year I was on my way to Worcester for a weekend break. Some young people got on the train as we got near the city. An animated discussion broke out whether or not the drink Red Bull contains bull sperm. Being a gentleman, I don't deliberately try to listen to other people's conversations, but sometimes one can't just avoid them. From what I could work out, a young chap was adamant that he learnt this fact from the 'Web. One of his friends sagely point out 'you can't believe everything that you read on line'.

I have been assured that the 'bull sperm' claim is a hoax.
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Anyone who has worked for the artificial insemination companies will tell you that bull's sperm is a) quite hard to come by (sorry) and b) worth a lot of money. Bulls that are kept as bulls are valuable breeding stock, and they aren't going to be spunking away money (sorry) by putting that stuff in drinks.
 
Wow I am surprised. I was going to post the local legend about our oldest church and found that it has a wiki page that mentions the witch's grave:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_St._Thomas_Church

It however does not tell the story. If you walk down the walkway to the church, on the right there is a blackened grave stone of a woman. I found this blog which has pics of the grave stone as well as the local lore and the truth.

https://explorationproject.org/witchs-grave/

The truth as I heard it. - apparently the minister of the church was a very eligible bachelor and all of the women were very interested in catching him. The woman who did become his wife was labelled as an outsider, a mean woman and subsequently a witch simply because of jealousy. Small towns.:roll: So not really a scary story, only small mindedness.
 
brownmane said:
Wow I am surprised. I was going to post the local legend about our oldest church and found that it has a wiki page that mentions the witch's grave:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_St._Thomas_Church

It however does not tell the story. If you walk down the walkway to the church, on the right there is a blackened grave stone of a woman. I found this blog which has pics of the grave stone as well as the local lore and the truth.

https://explorationproject.org/witchs-grave/

The truth as I heard it. - apparently the minister of the church was a very eligible bachelor and all of the women were very interested in catching him. The woman who did become his wife was labelled as an outsider, a mean woman and subsequently a witch simply because of jealousy. Small towns.:roll: So not really a scary story, only small mindedness.
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And they buried a witch in consecrated ground?
 
I'm really jealous. My local village - which, due to its proximity high above the marshlands of the Vale of Pickering, must have been occupied almost continually from the Neolithic, and has a church with Saxon origins - has absolutely no ghost stories, no legends, and no folk tales. It's almost sanitised!
 
catseye said:
I'm really jealous. My local village - which, due to its proximity high above the marshlands of the Vale of Pickering, must have been occupied almost continually from the Neolithic, and has a church with Saxon origins - has absolutely no ghost stories, no legends, and no folk tales. It's almost sanitised!
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The village where I was raised has nothing that’s ever been in print or Wiki-d but people do have ghost stories about it.
Correction. I’m wrong about it not being in print. A champion jockey wrote about the house he lived in in his bio; it was right next to where I lived. A family friend who’s auntie occupied it when I lived there also told me about hearing footsteps walking along the landing and downstairs the landing when he visited his aunt.

The misty shape that glides across the village street from one of the houses. (May possibly have seen it when delivering an evening newspaper round as a teen/may have been just mist.

The little wood where people have seen floating lights.

The ‘avenue’ a road that leads out of the village, seems to have a legend of a headless horseman or of a ghostly white horse. The two may have been conflated.

In the old tithe barn that I used to go to and talk with my old friend when we went for walks (the barn no longer exists) was next to an area of marshy ground which held a spring. The spring water used to be taken up to the church for baptisms. A cow was once found hung from the rafters (which were massive, as I recall) and drained of blood (this was pre-war years I think and before my family moved there).

The little area of woods just outside the village called Fairyland which were deemed dark and eerie and ‘strange‘ (lots of Old Man’s Beard tangling over the trees)

So you can talk to people who’ll come out with ghost stories but they’re very ‘local’, they rarely get recorded anywhere. I think a lot of places may be like that.
 
catseye said:
And they buried a witch in consecrated ground?
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Not really. She was called a witch. No witchy doings, just local bitchiness and pettiness. She was, after all a minister’s wife and well-to-do.

Not much lore here.

Wait, I just remembered another site close to my town. Southwold Earthworks:

https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=370
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwold_Earthworks

This small area consists of several trees and very small mounds. You wouldn’t think it was anything if there was no plaque identifying it.

Some people will say the area has a feeling of spookiness. Idk it’s a rural area with fields around, on a back road. Some people who have never lived in a rural area are not used to the quiet and space.
 
Fanari_Lloyd said:
The village where I was raised has nothing that’s ever been in print or Wiki-d but people do have ghost stories about it.
Correction. I’m wrong about it not being in print. A champion jockey wrote about the house he lived in in his bio; it was right next to where I lived. A family friend who’s auntie occupied it when I lived there also told me about hearing footsteps walking along the landing and downstairs the landing when he visited his aunt.

The misty shape that glides across the village street from one of the houses. (May possibly have seen it when delivering an evening newspaper round as a teen/may have been just mist.

The little wood where people have seen floating lights.

The ‘avenue’ a road that leads out of the village, seems to have a legend of a headless horseman or of a ghostly white horse. The two may have been conflated.

In the old tithe barn that I used to go to and talk with my old friend when we went for walks (the barn no longer exists) was next to an area of marshy ground which held a spring. The spring water used to be taken up to the church for baptisms. A cow was once found hung from the rafters (which were massive, as I recall) and drained of blood (this was pre-war years I think and before my family moved there).

The little area of woods just outside the village called Fairyland which were deemed dark and eerie and ‘strange‘ (lots of Old Man’s Beard tangling over the trees)

So you can talk to people who’ll come out with ghost stories but they’re very ‘local’, they rarely get recorded anywhere. I think a lot of places may be like that.
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I think we may have a different use of 'village' here. We're about fifty houses, and only one road, so there's less opportunity, maybe?

I need to quiz people. It's practically impossible for a place where the majority of houses are over 200 years old (including my own) to not have One. Single. Ghost. Surely?
 
catseye said:
It's practically impossible for a place where the majority of houses are over 200 years old (including my own) to not have One. Single. Ghost. Surely?
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Where I loved was not big, the population seems to be between 250-300 over many years, but there are a couple of roads through it.

I would honestly think there must be something in your village (hamlet)? There must be something. I‘ll bet if people got chatting they would have things to say.
 
It's curious how local legends and history get lost as time goes along.
When I was young and single and lived in that haunted building for 10 years (which I've written about here), I had no idea what was going on, until a woman living around the corner in her 80's told me the history of the area. A few other much older folks filled in some more. But they are long gone and I'm sure the people living there now have never heard any of the true history and stories surrounding their home. All of my old neighbors are gone, either passed away or moved on, I don't recognize anyone.
Even more curious is that I have yet to see any of the current occupants outside when I walk / drive past. I'm dying to know if they are having the same experiences!
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
It's curious how local legends and history get lost as time goes along.
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It’s a shame. Some seem to last but they need to be written down or at least well-known.

I worked in a place I’m sure was haunted and it was later converted into flats. I felt the same. I’d like to know if the occupiers ever felt/saw/heard anything.
 
The only one I can think of in my current neighborhood is not really Fortean, but a persistent belief by many neighbors that a local wild peccary (related to pigs), javalina, is actually a type of really large rodent. WTF. Despite having hooves, a snout, and a cute little tail, it is still believed to be a rat. A 50 pound rat.

Edit: here is a photo of the local 50 pound RAT. Notice the hooves. Oink.

1677109542441.png
 

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Endlessly Amazed said:
The only one I can think of in my current neighborhood is not really Fortean, but a persistent belief by many neighbors that a local wild peccary (related to pigs), javalina, is actually a type of really large rodent. WTF. Despite having hooves, a snout, and a cute little tail, it is still believed to be a rat. A 50 pound rat.

Edit: here is a photo of the local 50 pound RAT. Notice the hooves. Oink.

View attachment 63692
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This should help to distinguish it. . .
1677145175238.png
 
catseye said:
I think we may have a different use of 'village' here. We're about fifty houses, and only one road, so there's less opportunity, maybe?

I need to quiz people. It's practically impossible for a place where the majority of houses are over 200 years old (including my own) to not have One. Single. Ghost. Surely?
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50 houses, isn't that more a hamlet? Although it's supposed to mean a village without a church. I bet you have those.
 
catseye said:
Anyone who has worked for the artificial insemination companies will tell you that bull's sperm is a) quite hard to come by (sorry) and b) worth a lot of money. Bulls that are kept as bulls are valuable breeding stock, and they aren't going to be spunking away money (sorry) by putting that stuff in drinks.
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May I suggest you watch the first episode of season 3 of the comedy drama Brassic. Think you might enjoy it!
 
The first bit of folklore I heard when I moved into town was about the ‘back dog’ that ran along the main road that passed my school and boded ill for any who saw it. There’s two black dogs associated with the town according to the Paranormal Database, one further out in what’s now a large estate.

That autumn, a friend and I started reading I think Unwin’s ghost book in the gloomy little school library, and waking home from school on the darker evenings I was always a bit edgy, lol.

In January, I was looking through the local news and saw that there had been (another) accident at a crossroads known as Black Dog. The name interested me because crossroads have always been significant in folklore as have black dogs.

Googling it took me to a totally different place initially, though still in Wiltshire, called Black Dog Hill and a Dead Maids crossroads both have legends attached to them and black dogs though as belonging to people rather than supernatural ‘hell hounds’. I always think of black dogs as a more eastern counties legend, but there are a few around here.
 
My archaeology group has been doing some work at a local village in East Yorkshire called Hook. There is a little back lane in the village called Mad Dog Lane. Now if ever there was a place that deserved an interesting piece of local legend surely this is it. However, I have asked around villagers and local historians and carried out a few internet searches but no one seems to know where the name comes from. The lane is there in the 1788 enclosure map but with no name, My guess is that it is a corruption of something like Maddox Lane but I would have expected someone to have concocted a story at sometime through the ages!
 
escargot said:
50 houses, isn't that more a hamlet? Although it's supposed to mean a village without a church. I bet you have those.
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We do have a church. But nothing else. No shops, schools or anything else, which is why I always smile wryly at those who say they live in a village and then describe the fourteen different kinds of shop or complain about the parking. Our nearest TOWN only has half a dozen shops!
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
The British have such interesting names - 'Mad Dog Lane' and 'Dead Maids' crossroads, I wonder how they possibly got those?? :)
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They are usually corruptions of names (as @eziofan believes above) or other words. Especially in the days before general literacy (which wasn't THAT long ago, cartographically speaking), people just used the name that they 'thought' they heard, and that would get into general usage. So 'Dead Maids Lane' may have been 'Dimeads Lane' - as in the name of a local family who owned the land.
 
catseye said:
We do have a church. But nothing else. No shops, schools or anything else, which is why I always smile wryly at those who say they live in a village and then describe the fourteen different kinds of shop or complain about the parking. Our nearest TOWN only has half a dozen shops!
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Yup, a 'village' near'ere is now more like a small town, with lots of shops, businesses and new-build estates.
Its inhabitants still call it a village, of course. Or the Village. :cool:
 
Fanari_Lloyd said:
It’s a shame. Some seem to last but they need to be written down or at least well-known.

I worked in a place I’m sure was haunted and it was later converted into flats. I felt the same. I’d like to know if the occupiers ever felt/saw/heard anything.
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It is a shame, but it's also a fact that those moving into the area are not from this area originally, and have no interest in the history of the area. Things have changed.
For example, when I visited the site of the old 'Lafayette Bar & Grill' in Paterson, NJ, where the 1966 murders of a few people occurred (Rubin Hurricane Carter and John Artis spent decades in prison for the murders), I was stunned - I went there to see if I could pick up anything on the murderers. But the people inside had never even heard of the infamous murders, and certainly no one was interested.
If I owned that building, I'd have major psychics and mediums come by to reconstruct that night in 1966.
All these physical places hold memories and vibrations and unhappiness from the tragedies that happened in the past, at least that's what I feel.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
Dead Maids' crossroads, I wonder how they possibly got those?? :)
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Dead Maids is from a local legend where a woman courted by two suitors killed herself. The two men duelled; one was killed and his dog attacked and killed the survivor. The woman, minus two suitors now and horrified, killed herself in remorse and was buried as a suicide at the crossroads. (Or that’s the legend).
 
Fanari_Lloyd said:
It’s a shame. Some seem to last but they need to be written down or at least well-known.

I worked in a place I’m sure was haunted and it was later converted into flats. I felt the same. I’d like to know if the occupiers ever felt/saw/heard anything.
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And I worked in a local company office some years back, which had moved from a building miles away in another town.
Turned out they had moved because the old place was horribly haunted, and it was well known that it was.
It was a warehouse storing drums and heavy supplies. The man who worked in the warehouse which was huge, worked on a forklift, bringing shipments in and out.
He would be driving around a corner in the warehouse and run right into a group of 'people' hanging up in the air, watching him. They were former employees who had all passed on, but were still there. It was creepy because they were up high, not standing on the floor.
He saw them so many times that eventually they had to move.
 
Fanari_Lloyd said:
Dead Maids is from a local legend where a woman courted by two suitors killed herself. The two men duelled; one was killed and his dog attacked and killed the survivor. The woman, minus two suitors now and horrified, killed herself in remorse and was buried as a suicide at the crossroads. (Or that’s the legend).
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Is this actually why the road has this name, or is it a retconning of a name to give a legend? Ie, everyone thinks it's called Dead Maids crossroads, so someone comes up with a legend to make the name fit? But the name may, originally, have been something that just sounded like Dead Maids?
 
catseye said:
Is this actually why the road has this name, or is it a retconning of a name to give a legend? Ie, everyone thinks it's called Dead Maids crossroads, so someone comes up with a legend to make the name fit? But the name may, originally, have been something that just sounded like Dead Maids?
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Yes, it could well have been. I googled it and all that came up was that legend so what it might have been originally called is lost in the mists now.
E.T.A.
It depends on how old the name is, I suppose. An old map might show something.
 
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