It’s one of the most terrifying mythical creatures in history – a huge black dog with ‘hellish’ red eyes that haunts East Anglia.
Now, in his quest to unravel some of England’s most famous folklore legends, Charlie Cooper is on a quest to find the ‘Black Shuck’.
In his new BBC series ‘Myth Country’, the actor attempts an overnight stakeout in rural Norfolk to try and catch the ferocious hell-hound on camera.
But does the Black Shuck even exist? And what have the hundreds of alleged witnesses actually seen?
MailOnline spoke to the experts – and Charlie himself – in a quest to find out the truth behind the terrible beast.
It’s one of the most terrifying mythical creatures in history – a huge black dog with ‘hellish’ red eyes that haunts East Anglia (artist’s impression)
In the first episode of his new series, Charlie Cooper’s Myth Country, the writer and actor goes in search of the dreaded Black Shuck dog in East Anglia
Dr David Waldron, a historian and anthropologist at Federation University in Australia, said black dog tales in the British Isles go back as far as the 9th century in the written records.
‘There are versions of this story across the country, and indeed across Europe,’ Dr Waldron told MailOnline.
‘These stories can be difficult to interpret, as they leave a profound mark on those who have experienced them.
‘People have mentioned a distinct sense of “wrongness” when they saw it, which, in their mind differentiated the experience from seeing a normal dog.’
One early record describing ‘jet black’ hounds with ‘eyes like saucers’ dates back to 1127 in the historic Peterborough Chronicle manuscript.
But the birth of the Black Shuck legend is really a purported event at the Holy Trinity church of Blythburgh in East Suffolk on August 4, 1577.
As a wild wind raged outside, a clap of thunder burst open the church doors and a hairy black ‘devil dog’ came snarling in.
The 7ft-tall death omen allegedly ran through the congregation, killing a man and boy and causing the church steeple to fall through the roof.
Marks still visible on the church doors today are supposed to have come from Shuck’s claws as it fled, referred to by locals as ‘the devil’s fingerprints’.
The event is remembered in verse: ‘All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew, and, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew.’
Another encounter on that very same day, in the church of Bungay 12 miles southeast, was described by English clergyman Abraham Fleming.
‘This black dog… passed between two persons, as they were kneeling uppon their knees, and occupied in prayer as it seemed, wrung the necks of them bothe…’ Fleming wrote in ‘A Straunge and Terrible Wunder’ (1577).
According to legend, the beast’s most celebrated attack began at Holy Trinity church, Blythburgh, East Suffolk (pictured)
Pictured, the inside of the north door at Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh. There are scorch marks on the door which were ‘left by Black Shuck’
In an attempt to prove the beast’s existence, Cooper sets up a ‘trap cam’ – a camera that is automatically triggered by motion in its vicinity – in front of some meaty bait
On August 4, 1577, Black Shuck apparently caused carnage in Blythburgh before moving to Bungay. One much more recent sighting occurred in Woodbridge
Dr Jonathan Woolley, a environmental anthropologist and University of Cambridge graduate, said Black Shuck ‘definitely exists’.
‘He forms an important part of how people experience the deathly flat lands of East Anglia,’ Dr Woolley told MailOnline.
‘The really complicated question is how he exists – what manner of phenomenon is he? Why does he appear?’
One theory is that Black Shuck is an unknown species of wild dog, yet to be scientifically recognised – but Dr Woolley said we can rule that out.
‘Plus, the odd stray black dog is unlikely to prompt such elaborate and clearly supernatural experiences as the Shuck,’ the academic added.
Apparently witnessed all over Norfolk and Suffolk, the horrifying figure is described as a ‘black shaggy dog’ and massive glowing red eyes (artist’s impression)
Title page of Rev. Abraham Fleming’s account, ‘A Straunge and Terrible Wunder’ (1577)
Abraham Fleming’s account of the attack on Bungay of 1577 is widely cited as driving the Black Shuck legend.
But Dr Waldron – who co-authored the book ‘Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay’ – points out that Fleming was a clergyman and hence a religious man.
What’s more, an account by English chronicler Raphael Holinshed from 1578 describes ‘a strange and terrible tempest of lightning and thunder’ causing deaths in Bliborough and Bungay on August 4, 1577 – but it doesn’t mention any dog.
‘It seems doubtful Fleming had been to or was familiar with the two towns,’ Dr Waldron told MailOnline.
‘Rather his work was a call to arms against sin and a call to faith at a time of immense religious conflict and upheaval during the aftermath of the reformation.
‘He is also, in his account, drawing on well entrenched myth and folklore of black dogs as harbingers of doom which had already been around for centuries across Europe.’
However, in the nearly 450 years since the Blythburgh church incident, there have been numerous alleged sightings of the Black Shuck – and new accounts are recorded almost monthly.
Gloucestershire’s Charlie Cooper – who wrote and acted in hit sitcom ‘This Country’ with his sister – is a self-confessed English folklore fanatic
One memorable witness called Keith Flory said he was chased by the dog all the way down Old Barrack Road in Woodbridge on his motorbike in 1973.
More recently, former print salesman Nigel Thorpe saw a large dog with ‘fiery’ eyes ‘bounding’ towards him on an empty road in Great Yarmouth.
Dr Waldron said he encountered many people who had experiences with a black dog including friends and family while working on his book.
‘The tales are often deeply tied to a sense of heritage, landscape, and history, which enriches their meaning and emotional weight of the storytelling and the significance people attribute to it,’ he told MailOnline.
‘I found it akin to talking to people who had had a profound religious experience in some respects.
Although the academic stressed that it’s a ‘delicate task’ to speak on behalf of a Black Shuck witness, such encounters may ‘stem from mistaken identity’.
For example, they could be a normal dog, another species or even a hallucination, and could even become skewed in the human memory.
‘I’d argue that these encounters stem from mistaken identity of a variety of sources, interpreted through the veil of strong traditions of folklore and culture, established over centuries – and this is shaped by the nature of how we create memory itself,’ Dr Waldron said.
‘We often think of memory as a perfect recording, but in reality, it’s an imaginative reconstruction after the fact.
‘I also would argue that the emotional power of the folklore can further influence these experiences, priming us to interpret them in a certain way and imbuing them with added significance.’
Meanwhile, Dr Woolley, who wrote a 2018 paper about the legend, said Black Shuck accounts shouldn’t be dismissed as ‘mere nonsense and hallucinations’.
‘People hallucinate all the time, but these don’t capture the public imagination down the centuries in the way that the Shuck clearly has,’ Dr Woolley said.
‘His diabolical qualities echo the deep-seated religious anxieties that have wracked East Anglia for millennia.’
Charlie Cooper, who also tackles crop circles and the legend of King Arthur in his new BBC series, talks to multiple Black Shuck witnesses – and he said he has ‘no doubt’ they’ve ‘seen something’.
‘I think they saw Black Shuck – well that’s what I want to believe,’ Charlie told MailOnline.
‘If I had to think about it a little bit more then perhaps it’s a survival-instinct-trick-of-the-eye-thing left over from our caveman days when we might have made a nice snack for a sabre tooth tiger or a pack of wolves. Evolution is a slow process right?’
Charlie added that we now ‘live in a world where we have the answers to pretty much everything’ and so we need legends like Black Shuck.
‘There seems to be an obsession to resolve, conclude and explain and because of that we’re losing a bit of mystery and magic in the world, which is a shame,’ he said.
‘Sometimes it’s nice not to know and let the imagination run wild, because it will usually always be more interesting than the truth.’
Charlie Cooper’s Myth Country is airing on BBC Three Fridays at 9pm. All three episodes are now streaming on iPlayer