Podcast Day - November 2024
Good morning from the Norfolk Folklore Society!
Today we are talking about a particularly sinister apparition that stalks the Norfolk countryside, namely the Old Man of Hopton, who haunts a section of road close to the coast.
In the Winter edition of Lantern (the wonderful publication from the brilliant Lowestoft-based Borderline Science Investigation Group) in 1980, the tale of a Lowestoft man on the new A12 Hopton Bypass was reported.
Frank Colby of the British Transport Police was driving with his wife when he saw a man crossing the dual carriageway at Hopton. Stocky in build and wearing a calf-length, shapeless garment, he was hunched over and wearing “fantastically huge footwear…and he was lifting them up well as he plodded across,” reported Mr Colby to investigator Ivan Bunn.
Swiftly braking, Mr Colby alerted his wife to the figure but she was unable to see it – then he watched the man cross to the central reservation before disappearing. Earlier still, in 1957, another two other witnesses – driving separately – saw the figure of a man wearing very large boots, a large fawn overcoat and a hat, crossing the road in front of them. And then, before their eyes, he disappeared.
In 1981, another witness was horrified when he saw a man fitting the description above and found himself ploughing into him…and through him.
Siofra and Stacia – who was once based in Lowestoft and knows this piece of road very well – discuss the horror of driving through ghosts, commuting to Suffolk from Norfolk every day and the eeriness of Hopton.
In other news, our main newsletter will arrive with you on November 15 and it is filled with treasure, we’ve got another podcast to record and there will be news of our next speaker, soon.
Stay strange,
Love from Siofra and Stacia
💚🖤
FURTHER READING:
Lantern issue featuring the Old Man of Hopton:
More on the St Michael Alignment, the theory that a ley line stretches from St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall to Hopton on Sea in Norfolk:
http://www.davidfurlong.co.uk/michael_alignment.htm
The history of the ruins of St Margaret’s Church in Hopton:
https://www.hopton-on-seapc.info/historic-ruins
Haunted highways and roads across the world:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reportedly_haunted_highways
A whole Reddit discussion about spooky things happening as you drive: