Hi dudes,
I recently bought a book from the Oxfam Online Shop titled Lincolnshire
Folklore by Ethel H.Rudkin , ( 1936) which is packed full of folklore
curiosities, including many animal references. One which caught my beady eye was
the Commonpiece cat, at Gunthorpe, Lincolnshire (on pages 30 -31).
"Some three hundred yards from the hamlet of Gunthorpe, on the Trentside
road leading to West Stockwith, is an opening in the bank, the end of a
lane,known as Commonpiece Lane. This spot iss aid to be haunted by a species of
white cat;and those who have seen it say it is of abnormal size. This apparition
was quite common forty or fifty years ago. ( i.e c. 1880s). I remember when I
was a boy returning from Stockwith one Sunday evening in late September, and
being overtaken by Mr Joe Jenkins, a local Wesleyan preacher...he asked me if
the cat had been seen lately? or if I had seen it.I had not, but asked him,
"Have you sen it, Mr Jenkins?" and he replied, "Scores of times!" it always
crosses the road from the river and runs through the opening in the bank; it is
white, and nearly as large as a pig." (The story then goes on to describe how a
man was walking down the same road on a snowy night when he saw the cat and
aimed a kick at it, whereupon it vanished. He returned the next morning and saw
his own footprints but not the spoor of the cat!)
"It is known that human bones lie buried beneath the bank just here, for
about seventy years ago some farm-labourers unearthed a skeleton whilst earthing
up a pie of potatoes (sic). The bones were reburied. Nothing is known as to the
identity of this skeleton, whether it is the body of some person who had met
with foul play , or someone who had been found drowned, and the body buried
near the place where the body was discovered - a common practice years ago. (
Per C.K.S. Gunthorpe.)
Source: Lincolnshire Folklore Ethel H.Rudkin Gainsborough Beltons,
Church St 1936
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