Local legends & folklore

[ApocalypseNowt]

Not sure how we got on to the topic but I was talking with DH the other day about Jenny Greenteeth.

When I was a child everyone knew about Jenny Greenteeth - a slimy, green skinned hag with stringy hair & pondweed hanging off her who would grab the legs of any little children who walked too close to a drain and drag them off to a watery grave!

DH had never heard of it so I'm assuming Jenny is a local legend (I'm from Lancashire originally).

I love all things spooky - ghost tales & folklore. Does anyone else remember any such stories from their childhood / local area?

We had Jenny Greenteeth! She lurks in lodges and reservoirs and still bodies of water, under the duckweed... I’m also from Lancashire!

We also had an old lady who walked the country lanes wearing a bonnet and carrying a basket - if you walked beside her and chatted to her she’s eventually turn the bonnet towards you and you’d realise she had no head - then her head would jump out of her basket and chase you down the lane...

We also had a murderous boggart!

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/history/how-boggart-came-haunt-kidsgrove-502435.amp

I also remember my dad telling me one about dwarfs while we were out waking in maybe Northumberland? They would lure people into quicksand (I think it was quicksand but I could be wrong) with torches (the wooden type ) and then they would get dragged in and die.

Im from Scotland, we had Maggie Murphys house where you went if you were bad, Killer Clowns who slashed you from ear to ear (a Chelsea smile apperently!)
I used to read alot and read about Selkie folk from Shetland, who were seals that transformed into handsome men to lure beautiful girls to be their wives underwater

None where I grew up but we used to stay in Ireland with my granny and they had a local legend about The Long Woman and you could go and see The Long Woman’s Grave in the Mourn Mountains. I think it was a RL woman who did something or other, but just the thought of her used to scare the shit out of me when I was about 5.

He was called Jimmy here (Manchester) and lay on the canal bed. Still scares me now.

I was coming on to this thread to say Jack Valentine too, must be a Norfolk thing! I like this tradition because everyone gets something in our house (single or not! )

Lucy - Jinny/Ginny is an old Lancashire nick name for Jane/Jenny. Often gets mis-heard as Jimmy.

I was born in Glasgow and we had Maggie Murphy. She was an old woman that ran the bad children's home and if your were naughty she would take you to live with her. I think it's a Glasgow thing as the only people I have met who know about her are from Glasgow.

Just asked my mum ProfYaffle, it is indeed Jinny

I had the kids in the street convinced that there was a dragon living under our front steps. I made sure that they 'overheard' me cadging bits of coal or complaining that it had got out again. I don't know whether that counts.

We also convinced our son when he was little that the service hatch under a bridge was the door to where the local troll lived.

I didn't learn much local folklore but DH talked about a statue in the local graveyard that was supposed to walk after bad kids.

I remember my Mum jumping out of her skin when as a child in the 70s I brought in an armful of May Blossom.

Bad luck apparently.

Tyredofallthis1 that reminds me of my mum! She used to make up loads of stories including that a witch lived behind our garage which I 100% believed

Also told of Jenny Greenteeth (Yorkshire), never wanted to stand anywhere near river edges! Terrifying.

Where I grew up in Suffolk there was the legend of Black Shuk (not sure this is the right spelling), a huge black devil dog. There is some old story of it appearing in a church and killing people.

The goddess Morrigan (goddess of war and death) is said to appear in the guise of a washer woman before someone dies. A few years ago, my washing machine kept breaking and I would have to hand wash. Each time, someone I knew died (naturally of old age). As a result, despite knowing it was coincidence, if my washing machine ever breaks I go straight to he launderette so I don’t have to hand wash. Better safe than sorry!

I grew up in a country in Europe, where there was a certain place in the forrest near our town, that was known as the field of the witches. It's circle in the middle of the forest, it was used thousands of years ago as a burial site, with several dolmen. This particular place in the forest was used during the Middle Ages as a gallows field as it was on the route between 2 important villages and those that were hanged there as a punishment would stay there ususlly for a while after the execution, to warn others who traveled to the village what could happen to you if you commited any crimes in the village. For centuries this particular spot was seen as cursed and the local legend says that witches would turn themselves into cats to dance there during the night. I have visited the place once during a Halloween night with my ex (he was frightened to go there after dark but I was very curious if something spooky was there & prepared to go alone so he came with me ). Unfortunately we did not see anything. We also took several photos there but saw nothing paranormal.

Fascinating LaBella!

[quote umpteennamechanges]We also had a murderous boggart!

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/history/how-boggart-came-haunt-kidsgrove-502435.amp[/quote]
Like @umpteennamechanges we had the Kidsgrove Boggart 😄.