Headless Coachman, Norwich

The following extract is taken from ‘Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders by William Henderson’ (1879). ‘The Headless Coach, or more correctly coach with headless coachman, appears again in Norfolk. Mr. Henry Denny writes thus of it: “I remember well my mother talking about a certain person, whose name I have forgotten, but who formerly lived in what is called Pockthorp, a part of the city near the river Wensam*, a man of some substance. He used to be seen by people late at night driving a coach and four horses over the tops of the houses, the coachman and horses all without heads. The crack of the whip was heard and then the carriage and horses were seen in the air. He was always seen going in the direction of Pockthorp, or the old bridge which leads to Monshold Heath**. The belief was a common one fifty or sixty years ago.”

* River Wensum
**Mousehold Heath