The Shrieking Boy of Hawkwell

Hawkwell's woods once drew crowds to hear a ghostly child crying for its mother, until someone found the culprit.

In the middle of Great Hawkwell Wood stood an oak of strange shape called the double tree. It split into two trunks near the root and joined again about four feet up, leaving a gap big enough for children to pass through. The ground near it was said to be haunted, because a woman was supposed to have killed her child there. At night voices cried 'Oh mother, mother, don't kill me', and people came from miles away to hear the shrieking boy. The cries retreated whenever anyone followed. A ventriloquist got some of the blame, and one man even dragged a pond. At last the culprit was shot: a horned owl.

One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.