Woolpit is a large village just off the A14 not far from home and it was just a couple of miles from where I grew up and we all knew the story of "The Green Children"
The two green children, who climbed out of the ground, speaking a strange language and afraid of the sunlight. The boy died soon after, but the girl grew up and married; she learned to speak English, and told of St Martin's Land, from where she and her brother had emerged. There are holes in the ground around Woolpit, quarries where bricks were made in the 19th century and gravel extracted through much of the 20th. But perhaps there was once something much older, for every Suffolk schoolchild knows that the name 'Woolpit' is nothing to do with wool, but with the wolves that once lived in the pits here...........
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| A page from last years Folklore Diary |
This is another story............... St Martins Land. https://www.norfolkfolkloresociety.co.uk/post/the-norfolk-entrance-to-the-magical-st-martin-s-land
It’s a legend that will delight those who believe in the little people and who dream of being able to visit Fairyland. On the road between Bawdeswell and Swanton Morley, in a field next to the thoroughfare, a hole was found – a potential portal to The Otherworld.
In an article written by Michael Sidney Tyler-Whittle entitled ‘Witchcraft’ in the East Anglian Magazine of October 1952, it read: "I have heard it said that until quite recently there was a hole in a field beside the Swanton Morley-Bawdeswell road.
I wonder if Ang at Tracing Rainbows who lives not far away from here has come across this hole in a field!

What a great fable, I've never heard it before. Always interesting to hear of the 'otherworld'!
ReplyDeletePenny
If the Flemish theory is correct - those poor children. If not -how very intriguing indeed. I love the etymology of village names and no - wolves were not on my radar - it was definitely sheep. (So - in my fizzy brain - Sheep in Wolf clothing rather than the other way round😆)
ReplyDeleteWhat fascinating local history. How lovely to read that the villagers tried and managed to help. Given the times they may have reacted very differently to strangers and ones with such an odd appearance. There are lessons for our current times there but I doubt the great orange dictator reads this blog.
ReplyDeleteDoes Woolpit still have the 'whiff' problem?
The Woolpit whiff was well known for years but the farm closed down eventually.
DeleteIt's sad but true that people fear strangeness, in whatever form it appears.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting story
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
Hi, about an hour after reading this post my daughter randomly decided to watch a Horrible Histories episode at lunchtime (from 2010) & one of the sketches was the “Children of Woolpit” !
ReplyDeleteOOOOOOH Spooky!
DeleteChildren do love a story with a bit of horror-My nephew loved all the Horrible History books and they encouraged him to become an avid reader. Catriona
ReplyDelete