The event:

The black dog of Bungay

The location:

Blythburgh, Suffolk - 1577

The legend:

Etched into the north door of Blythburgh church are long black marks said to be the claw marks left by the fabled Black Dog of Bungay.

According to the 17th-century pamphleteer Abraham Fleming, the Black Dog appeared at Blythburgh and "placing himself uppon a maine balk or beam ... sodainly he gave a swinge down through ye Church", killing two men and a boy, and burning someone's hand in his progress.

He went out through the north door (traditionally known as the Devil's Door) and, when this was cleaned in the 1930s, long black marks were found which people connected with the Black Dog's visitation.