BeastHidden
Shock of Melton
A donkey-headed goblin waits at the old toll-gate.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Village crossroads near the old turnpike road
- Legend from
- Victorian report
- Best time
- Night
- Tone
- Eerie
Melton: one dark night a man found something on the toll-gate with a donkey's head and a coat like velvet.
Suffolk had many tales of Shock, a goblin creature of changing shape. Lady Gurdon printed one from Melton, near Woodbridge. In the days of toll-bar gates, a man named Kemp from Woodbridge burst into the Horse and Groom on a dark night, frightened, asking to borrow a gun. A Shock was hanging on the toll-gate bars: a thing with the head of a donkey and a smooth velvet hide. Bolder with friends beside him, Kemp tried to grab it and carry it to the inn to look at it, but as he seized it the creature suddenly turned round and snapped at him
One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.