Chat It’s Fate – September 2019

Words: Ian Whyte Images: SWNS and Alamy

fascinated by the macabre – by

anything paranormal, in fact.

So here I was now, as dusk fell

across the historic town of Bury

St Edmunds, heading off in

search of spooks and spectres.

Freaky feline

Our fi rst stop was the Nutshell

Inn, which is famous for being

the smallest pub in Britain. It had

about a dozen people packed

inside, my wife still insisted on

barging in and taking

a photo of the

mummifi ed cat

hanging over the bar.

This freaky feline

was found walled up

in an old house near

the pub – a relic from

an era where it was

common practice to

wall cats up in new

houses to protect them

from evil spirits. It’s

been hanging in the

Nutshell for over 100

years, and it’s said to be

bad luck to touch it.

Legend has it that a

group of airmen from

nearby RAF Honington

kidnapped the cat for a prank, but

the base kitchen caught on fi re and

an airplane crashed. The cat was

anonymously returned to the pub a

few days later!

Wandering on from the pub

down towards the town’s famous

11th century ruined abbey, our

guide explained that, uniquely for

a British town, most of the

buildings are Mediaeval, but with

Georgian facades. It was initially

designed and built by monks for

the pilgrims who came from all

across Europe to pray at the

shrine of Saint Edmund, the

fi rst patron saint of England,

martyred by the

it’s fateit’s fate

T

he man in the black cape

and tricorn hat glared at me

as he banged his long

wooden stave menacingly

on the ground.

‘Do you dare,’ he hissed, ‘Join

us on the ghost tour?’

‘Um, yes,’ I said bravely. ‘My

wife and I have tickets!’

It was March and my wife had

booked a weekend away for us to

Bury St Edmunds in Suff olk.

‘It’ll be great,’ she said

enthusiastically. ‘The kids are

going to the in-laws so it’ll be

just you and me. So romantic. Oh

• although I’ve booked us on a
  ghost tour. And I really
  want to go to Moyse’s
  Museum in the town
  centre – they’ve got a
  book bound in
  human skin,
  you know.’
  I didn’t
  know, but
  it didn’t
  surprise
  me. My
  wife is

Spooky

location

Ian Whyte, 46, from High Wycombe

A spectre made my wife sick in Bury

St Edmunds

Danes in 869AD for refusing to

renounce his Christianity. One of

the most important shrines in

Mediaeval Europe, the town

became extremely rich. In fact, it

was its own kingdom, independent

of the rest of the UK, right up until

the 16th century, when King

Henry VIII seized the place and

took its wealth as part of the

Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Saint Edmund’s remains

disappeared during this time, too,

and to this day, nobody knows

Monk’s

haunt

Keen:

Brewery tour

Haunting:

Abbey ruins

Historic:

Mediaeval