What are locally referred to as 'the shrieking pits' are a group of iron working pits dating to the middle ages. These hollows dot the local landscape as a reminder of our industrious past. In the early medieval period, ironstone nodules were dug out of the ground, and smelted down nearby. Iron slag from the workings pops up in fields and gardens still.
The pits were never infilled and became little havens for wildlife, many now forming pools surrounded by foliage and flowers.
Although these were fairly common in the local area, there are a cluster near to Aylmerton that have long been reputed to be haunted.
The local legend is that they are haunted by the ghost of a tormented woman who came here in search of her murdered baby.
The story goes that at some point in the last 500 years, this woman gave birth to her child in a house nearby. Her husband believed someone else had fathered the child and in a jealous rage took the baby from her, rode out to the pits and threw the baby in to one of them to die.
It is likely this cruel action drove her insane and she would come out to the pits in search of her infant. She is seen desperate and screaming, wringing her hands and moving from pit to pit.
Some say that she, too, was murdered by her husband the same night, however I suspect her anguish was more of a punishment in his eyes than simply taking her life. Surely if they had died together, she would be at peace with her baby somewhere and not seen searching as she might have done were she forced to live not knowing?
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GRID REF: TG 18242 38856
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Resources:
Gothick Norfolk by Jennifer Westwood (1989)
https://maps.nls.uk
https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk
https://www.edp24.co.uk
https://burialsandbeyond.com
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