Dunwich

Toby Gill

In the excellent booklet on Blythburgh, which can be purchased from Blythburgh church, is a small section detailing the Toby Gill legend. ‘ Many spirits, including the Black Shuck, the feared hound of the marshes and portent of death and disaster, reputedly haunt Blythburghs landscape. Toby’s walks, alongside the A12 road, immortalise Toby Gill, a black drummer of Sir Robert Rich’s dragoons, who was convicted in 1750 of the murder of a servant girl, Ann Blakemore. He was hanged in chains at the crossroads, and it was a nineteenth century belief that a funeral hearse, drawn by four headless horses and driven by Toby himself, was doomed to convey him to hell every night. Ann Blakemore is also said to materialise, on the road from Blythburgh to Westleton, around the 24th of June the date of her death.’ TM – Interesting the June 24th date….John the Baptist day as well as marking the turn around point of the setting sun 3 days after the solstice …Moving 1 degree South, towards darker nights and the opposite extreme winter solstice setting point. Toby’s walks within the central Penta area.