Tradition: English Mythology
Alternative names: The Roaring Bull of Bagbury
Category: Ghost, Cow
The Myth
A notoriously wicked man once lived at Bagbury Farm. According to the story, he had done almost no good in his life, with only two acts of kindness remembered: giving a waistcoat to a poor old man and giving bread and cheese to a poor boy.
After his death, however, his ghost refused to rest. It began appearing in the buildings at Bagbury Farm in the shape of a bull, where it would roar so violently that boards, shutters, and roof tiles were thrown from the buildings. The haunting became so severe that nobody could live nearby.
The bull originally appeared around nine or ten at night, but eventually became so troublesome that it began arriving as early as seven or eight. Twelve parsons were summoned to lay the ghost. They managed to drive it, still in the form of a bull, toward Hyssington Church, but they struggled to contain it.
One of the twelve priests was an old blind parson who knew the ghost and anticipated its violent charge. He carried his candle inside his top boot. When the bull suddenly rushed at the priests, all their candles were extinguished except his. He then told the others to relight their candles from his.
Inside the church, the bull made such a tremendous burst that it cracked the church wall from top to bottom. According to the storyteller, the crack remained visible for years and was deliberately left unrepaired so that people could see where the supernatural bull had broken the church.
Eventually, the priests succeeded in forcing the bull into a snuff-box. The spirit then requested that it be buried beneath Bagbury Bridge, threatening that every mare passing over the bridge would lose her foal and every woman would lose her child. The priests refused this request and instead cast the bull into the Red Sea for a thousand years.
Even long afterward, people remained frightened of Bagbury Bridge. The storyteller recalled that the old clerk of Hyssington had personally remembered the blind parson. Decades after the bull had supposedly been confined in the Red Sea, people still crossed the bridge cautiously. One man recalled crossing it with horses and deliberately getting down from his horse, walking softly and making as little noise as possible, because he feared that the bull might hear him and emerge from beneath the bridge.
Sources
“Efft60.” Sacred Texts. Accessed August 29, 2026. https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/efft/efft60.htm
