Black Shuck Terrorizes Bungay Church — The Same Storm, the Same Day (1577)

On August 4, 1577, the very same day that Black Shuck devastated Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh, a similar attack struck St. Mary's Church in Bungay, Suffolk, twelve miles to the northwest. During the height of a tremendous thunderstorm, a large black dog materialized inside the packed church. According to Abraham Fleming's contemporary account, 'A Straunge and Terrible Wunder,' the creature wrung the necks of two parishioners who were kneeling in prayer, killing them instantly. A third person was left 'as shrunke as a piece of lether scorcht in a hot fire,' though they survived. The tower of St. Mary's was also damaged, with some accounts claiming the clock was destroyed. The town of Bungay embraced the black dog legend — Black Shuck (or 'Old Shuck,' from the Anglo-Saxon 'scucca' meaning demon) became the town's emblem and appears on the Bungay town crest to this day. A lamppost in the town center bears a black dog weathervane. The dual attacks at Bungay and Blythburgh on the same August afternoon remain one of the most extraordinary events in English supernatural history.