The Beast of Bunting Nook

Known as Padfoot and Hairy Jack

And Barghest of Yorkshire

Black Shuck of East Anglia

And Skriker of Lancashire

Beware of this portent of death

Roaming out there in the fog

Pray that you never cross the path

Of the devilish black dog

According to folklore, ghostly black dogs pop up all over England. There’s East Anglia’s Black Shuck or Yorkshire’s Padfoot, a chain-carrying dog associated with executions. The nation’s most famous is probably the Yeth Hound of Devon, which inspired the Sherlock Holmes mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles. But, not to be outdone, Sheffield has a red-eyed, horse-sized hound of its very own: the Beast of Bunting Nook. 

The dog is said to rise from one of the graves at the Church of St James and appear in front of motorists, sometimes causing their engines to cut out. It emits a blood-curdling howl, before disappearing in a cloud of sulphurous smoke. The first reported sighting took place 300 years ago, while the most recent was in 2017.

Adrian Finney, who runs local ghost tours, believes our black dog is a Church Grim, which would make it a far more benevolent spirit than such behaviour suggests. During England’s distant past, it was allegedly thought that the first being buried in a new graveyard was stuck with the job of guarding it from the Devil for eternity. To spare a fellow human this unenviable chore, churches held their first funeral for a dog instead. Perhaps to an ancient guard dog, the difference between the High Prince of Hell and a passing Honda Civic is hard to discern.

Today’s Halloween special is a members-only affair, so you’ll need to join up if you want to read about how Bunting Nook earned its haunting reputation. While this edition is a bit of spooky fun, plus some interesting local history, we’re only able to produce the impactful journalism that saw us shortlisted in this year’s British Journalism Awards because of our paying subscribers. Whether you want to be entertained or informed, a Tribune subscription has you covered.

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