The Roaring Bull of Bagbury
The following story entitled ‘The Roaring Bull of Bagbury’ was published in ‘English Fairy and Other Folk Tales’ (1890) by Edwin Sidney Hartland. ‘THERE was a very bad man lived at Bagbury Farm, and when he died it was said that he had never done but two good things in his life, and the one was to give a waistcoat to a poor old man, and the other was to give a piece of bread and cheese to a poor boy, and when this man died he made a sort of confession of this. But when he was dead his ghost would not rest, and he would get in the buildings in the shape of a bull, and roar till the boards and the shutters and the tiles would fly off the building, and it was impossible for anyone to live near him. He never came till about nine or ten at night, but he got so rude at last that he would come about seven or eight at night, and he was so troublesome that they sent for twelve parsons to lay him. And the parsons came, and they got him under, but they could not lay him; but they got him, in the shape of a bull all the time, up into Hyssington Church. And when they got him into the church, they all had candles, and one old blind parson, who knowed him, and knowed what a rush he would make, he carried his candle in his top boot. And he made a great rush, and all the candles went out, all but the blind parson’s, and be said: “You light your candles by mine.” And while they were in the church, before they laid him, the bull made such a burst that he cracked the wall of the church from the top to the bottom, and the crack was left as it was for years, till the church was done up; it was left on purpose for people to see. I’ve seen it hundreds of times. Well, they got the bull down at last, into a snuff-box, and he asked them to lay him under Bagbury Bridge, and that every mare that passed over should lose her foal, and every woman her child; but they would not do this, and they laid him in the Red Sea for a thousand years.
I remember the old clerk at Hyssington. He was an old man then, sixty years ago, and he told me be could remember the old blind parson well. “But long after the ghost had been laid in the Red Say, folk were always frightened to go over Bagbury Bridge,” said John Thomas. “I’ve bin over it myself many a time with horses, and I always got off the horse and made him go quietly, and went pit-pat, ever so softly, for fear of him hearing me and coming out.”
Re: The Roaring Bull of Bagbury
According to the BBC Domesday Reloaded ‘Under the church step at Hyssington, legend has it, lies the miniaturised body of the Bull of Bagbury which tormented the villagers of Hyssington in the early 19th century. An irascible farmer who lived at Bagbury Farm was cursed by a witch in Bishops Castle. His soul took on the form of a bull which was eventually driven into the Church and exorcised by twelve priests. The Bull shrank until it could fit into a box which was placed under the church step, which has not been moved since. Strange markings on the step are reputed to have been caused by the Bull’s hooves.’
Re: The Roaring Bull of Bagbury
Haunted Churches (1939) by Elliott O’Donnell (27 February 1872 – 8 May 1965)
A very unusual animal ghost haunting is associated with Hyssington church, Shropshire. A man, who had lived a very evil life, died either in or near Bagbury. After his death the lanes round Bagbury began to be haunted by a phantom in the form of a bull, which the peasantry were convinced was his spirit, earth-bound on account of his wickedness. To see a bull coming towards one in a lane at night is not the most agreeable of spectacles, but when that bull roars and positively rushes, and is accompanied by an unearthly glow or light, it is apt to be downright scaring, and those who encountered it were invariably more than merely scared. One woman is said to have had a fit forthwith, another to have fallen dead, killed from sheer shock, while a farmer was thrown from his stampeding horse and seriously injured. So many accidents and such widespread terror did the bull ghost cause that the villagers finally sought the aid of the clergy to lay it. Consequently, twelve parsons, with bibles and candles, waited in a lane for the ghost one night, and when it rushed past them, bellowing in a horrible manner, they ran after it. Down one turning and then another it went, with the panting, perspiring and undaunted clergy in hot pursuit. At last it came to Hyssington church and, without pausing, dashed through the closed gate into the churchyard. Thinking they had cornered it, the twelve clergy cheered lustily, but their triumph proved to be premature, for the bull, after careering about among the tombstones, rushed at and through a wall, and into the road beyond. Finally, however, the ghost was run to earth in Bagbury, and having been induced by prayers and the lavish use of holy water to contract to a size sufficiently small to enter a snuff-box, it was sealed up and thrown into a pond. The haunting thus terminated, but when the parson of Hyssington went to the church the following morning he found, to his dismay and amazement, one of the walls was cracked from top to bottom.