OUR region is particularly rich, with legends ranging from tales of giants to accounts of fairy activity in quiet places. Barguests and wild boars were said to roam the countryside during the hours of darkness, and we also have widespread tales of ghosts and other fearful apparitions.

The devil features in several yarns, and there are tales of people being trapped underground, such as Potter Thompson and the Drummer Boy of Richmond, or the sleeping knights of Freeborough Hill on the moors near Guisborough.

There were the Claymore Well bogles and the Gytrash of Goathland; the Bosky Dyke boggart and the Tongueless Boar of Bradford; the Wag-at-the-wa’ sprite of the Border country and the Kabotermannekin who, it seems, was from Holland but who in the North-East was known as a Redcap.

The hobs of the North York Moors keep us entertained, as do the Dobies of County Durham and the Brownies of Northumberland and Scotland.

Stories of the gruesome Hand of Glory feature in several parts of the North as do tales of giant worms or dragons that in bygone times kidnapped fair maidens. There were other giants too, huge creatures who stole cattle for meals and destroyed houses by trampling across them.

Some of us are old enough to recall such tales being told around the fireside hearth on dark winter nights, making us too terrified to go to bed and jumping at the smallest noise, such as a creaking floorboard or the hoot of an owl.

In some cases, we wondered if the stories were true or perhaps tales of fiction based on either real events or ancient historic occurrences. Or were they merely the product of storytellers’ imaginations?

I know from my own experiences that once a false tale gets into the public consciousness in the printed form, it is impossible to eradicate it even when presenting an alternative, but true, version of events.

I recall a colleague who became a very senior police officer but whenever news stories of his activities were printed in a local newspaper, the reporters always mistook him for his brother, who was a senior naval officer.

On one occasion, the police officer had attended a major event in York, and it was to be followed by a tour of the local newspaper offices. There he was to be presented with an evening edition of that day’s paper featuring that visit, but when he examined it, it bore his brother’s name. Another example of this relates to Beggar’s Bridge at Glaisdale. The oftrepeated story is that it was built by a romantic man who needed to cross the River Esk to visit his beloved girlfriend. The tale said he had once failed to cross the flooded Esk before leaving for a foreign country aboard a Whitby ship; that failure led him to build the bridge.

It’s a nice tale with a smattering of truth but the true story of that bridge is that it was built by a wealthy man born in Lastingham; he was a former pirate and Lord Mayor of Hull who had become a successful businessman. His wife was from Glaisdale and died in 1618, and so he built that bridge to her memory. It carries the date 1619.

Another tale tells how the Giant Wade constructed a road across the moors near Goathland so that his wife, Bell, could more easily tend her livestock.

In fact, that road was built by the Romans probably in the 4th century – but the story of Wade and his roadbuilding continues to be told and some of us still believe it.

It is interesting to speculate upon the true story behind some of our legends, folk lore and even history. Many such tales originated through being repeated by word-of-mouth, and so they became distorted, altered and exaggerated over the years.

When I served in the police, I encountered similar distortions when interviewing witnesses of a simple event such as a road accident – if there were three witnesses, each might relate a slightly different version of events and it was sometimes difficult to determine exactly what had happened.

One of the most apt warnings about relying on our written history is that most histories are written by the winning side.

This means the truth is often hidden or disguised for political or other reasons. And finally, as a journalist once said to me: “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”

So what are the truths behind our legends and histories?

Southern guest

A COUPLE of days ago, we noticed a small butterfly fluttering inside one of our ground floor windows. It was trapped between the glass and the blind on a bright sunny day.

I realised it was not one of our usual garden visitors such as a small tortoiseshell or a peacock. It was smaller with wings of a dark brown background bearing an interesting pattern of white spots, some with darker centres making them look rather like eyes.

Fortunately it settled down on our blind to sun itself with open wings, remaining very still and visible through the window. I had enough time to find a picture in a book of butterflies, and match it side-by-side with the real thing. It even allowed my wife and me to take photographs.

Our visitor was a Speckled Wood which apparently is plentiful in the South of England, the Isles of Scilly, Snowdonia and Scotland. As my reference book was published in 1984, the situation may have altered, but a map of the Speckled Wood’s distribution does not include any of Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland or the Lake District.

Whether or not I should be excited by the Speckled Wood’s presence in our house and garden, I am not sure. But we rescued it and off it flew before any of the birds noticed it.

More garlands

IN LAST week’s diary, I featured the old custom of having maidens’ garlands at funerals in our churches.

While undertaking further research for another topic, I came across some notes about the garlands in the North York Moors.

The book was Oswald Harland’s Yorkshire North Riding, published by Robert Hale in 1951, and from it I learned that churches in Staithes, Egton and Robin Hood’s Bay (called simply by its local name of Bay in this work) used to display these garlands.

White ones were used for an unmarried girl, with brown ones for married women, and Mr Harland, now deceased, then asked for more information about them. It seems curious that there should be garlands for deceased married women as the basic idea was originally for virgins, male and female.

He did say, however, that the last recorded use of a maiden’s garland was at Robin Hood’s Bay in 1873.