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Black Annis

Don't wander to the Bower.

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Illustration: Black Annis
The legend
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Black Annis

She waits under the oak.

Stand where it happened

What's there
Housing estate on the old hills
Legend from
Leicester folklore
Tone
Eerie
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Before you go

Suburban streets; the Bower site is lost. Check before you go.

  • Dane Hills
  • Near A47
  • The pin is approximate.

Blue face, iron claws, a cave in the hill.

Black Annis is a blue-faced hag said to live in a cave, 'Black Annis' Bower', in the Dane Hills west of Leicester, and to eat children. Trubshaw finds the earliest reference in 1622, as 'Black Agnes', possibly a real anchorite. Story of Leicester notes a 'Black Anny's Bower Close' in 1764, a 1797 poem, and a tale of a tunnel to Leicester Castle. The cave and its oak have long gone; Dane Hills is now a suburb.

Sources

  1. Black Annis, Wikipedia —
  2. Black Annis and Dane Hills, Story of Leicester (Leicester City Council) —
  3. Black Annis and her Bower (Bob Trubshaw, Trans. Leics Arch. & Hist. Soc. 2006), via DocsLib —
  4. Area of Leicester named after flesh-eating hag, Leicester Mercury —

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