Country people around Barnack and Helpston knew to be careful after dark, because of the thing they called the Shag Foal.
A woman whose family had lived at Barnack for generations described it in 1902 as a large black animal, shaggy and ill kempt, more like a bear than a horse. It would appear to a traveller on a lonely road and lead him gently off the path into the marsh. Worse, it might stand still and invite him to climb on. Anyone who did found himself dropped in some wet and miserable place, with the animal gone.
The poet John Clare, who grew up at Helpston, called it Old Ball or the shagged foal, and said that everyone in the villages knew the devil liked to take that shape. One of his neighbours swore he had met him in it early one morning at harvest.
The Shag Foal is our local cousin of Black Shuck, the shaggy hound of the East Anglian roads. Ours simply comes on four hooves rather than four paws.
Where: Barnack and Helpston, best appreciated on a foggy evening.
