Whilst the Domesday Survey records a church on the site, it is thought that the main part of the present church dates from the 14th-15th century.

In 1577 the church was struck by lightning, and this event led to the Legend of the Black Dog During the thunderstorm an apparition appeared, consisting of a black Hell Hound which dashed around the church, attacking members of the congregation. It then suddenly disappeared and re-appeared in  12 miles away, injuring members of the congregation there. An image of the Black Dog has been incorporated in Bungay’s Coat of Arms

“All down the church in midst of the fire,

The hellish monster flew

And passing onward to the quire

And passing onward to the quire

He many people slew.”

www.stmaryschurchbungay.co.uk

The Museum also organises a number of special events during the year

Visited by around 40,000 visitors a year, admission is free, although donations towards the running of the Museum are welcome

https://www.aviationmuseum.net/index.html

The venue also boasts a bar, which is open from 6pm on show nights and if you are coming to a show on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday a pre-show meals are available (3 days notice is required)
https://www.fishertheatre.org/

There is still much discussion over the helm roof-of which only one authentic example, at Sompting, Sussex, exists in England. The original collapsed in 1835 and the debate centres on whether the tower was an accurate copy of what was there before- (Historic England say that  a sketch of the building made by Isaac Johnson in 1818 does not support the assumption) or just a Victorian creation by the architect Anthony Salvin, who almost completely rebuilt the church leaving very few original features.

When the church was rebuilt, the motivating force seems to have been Theodosia Adair, Lady Waveney, and the octagonal, vaulted structure at the west end of the north aisle is her memorial chapel. It is a completely heathen structure, clear glass in the gothic windows illuminating her life-size statue, the work of John Bell- most famous for the work “Babes in the Wood”, which can be seen at Norwich Castle Museum.

The church is open to visitors every day. Why not combine a visit to the church with a visit to the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum

The man who became a verb! Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott

After retiring from the army, Boycott worked as a land agent for Lord Erne, one of the foremost landowners in  County Mayo who lived off the steep rents he charged tenants. Boycott was responsible for many bloody evictions.

When Boycott tried evicting 11 tenants, the locals had had enough. The Mayo branch of the Irish Land League pressed Boycott’s employees to withdraw their labour and began a campaign to ostracise Boycott in the local community.

This campaign included shops refused to serve him, or provide services. Boycott found himself a marked man, not only fearing violence but even worse the scorn, silence, and contempt of everyone in the community.

He made a fatal mistake, by writing a letter to the London Times outlining his grievances:-

“Sir,

The following detail may be interesting to your readers as exemplifying the power of the Land League. On the 22nd September a process-server, escorted by a police force of seventeen men, retreated to my house for protection, followed by a howling mob of people, who yelled and hooted at the members of my family.

On the ensuing day, September 23rd, the people collected in crowds upon my farm, and some hundred or so came up to my house and ordered off, under threats of ulterior consequences, all my farm labourers, workmen, and stablemen, commanding them never to work for me again.

My herd has been frightened by them into giving up his employment, though he has refused to give up the house he held from me as part of his emolument. Another herd on an off farm has also been compelled to resign his situation.

My blacksmith has received a letter threatening him with murder if he does any more work for me, and my laundress has also been ordered to give up my washing. A little boy, twelve years of age, who carried my post-bag to and from the neighbouring town of Ballinrobe, was struck and threatened on 27th September, and ordered to desist from his work; since which time I have sent my little nephew for my letters and even he, on 2nd October, was stopped on the road and threatened if he continued to act as my messenger.

The shopkeepers have been warned to stop all supplies to my house, and I have just received a message from the postmistress to say that the telegraph messenger was stopped and threatened on the road when bringing out a message to me and that she does not think it safe to send any telegrams which may come for me in the future for fear they should be abstracted and the messenger injured. My farm is public property; the people wander over it with impunity. My crops are trampled upon, carried away in quantities, and destroyed wholesale.

The locks on my gates are smashed, the gates thrown open, the walls thrown down, and the stock driven out on the roads. I can get no workmen to do anything, and my ruin is openly avowed as the object of the Land League unless I throw up everything and leave the country. I say nothing about the danger to my own life, which is apparent to anybody who knows the country.”

– CHARLES C. BOYCOTT

Boycott left Ireland in 1880, a discredited and  broken man-his name forever linked to a campaign to bring down tyrants. In 1886, he became a land agent for Hugh Adair’s Flixton estate in Suffolk. He died at the age of 65 in June 1897 in his home “The Hollows” (now known as The Priest House) in Flixton, after an illness earlier that year. His name lives on in infamy forever

The common is a wonderful place for walking, watching wildlife, spotting wildflowers and even river swimming in the clear waters of the Waveney. It is also possible to hire a canoe from the adjacent caravan park. all benefit from the ongoing maintenance programme to protect the open nature of the area, heathland and water meadows.

The Common has an interesting history.  A “going”-the right to graze livestock on the Common , was, perhaps as long as 1000 years ago, attached to owners of properties in Bungay. Eventually these 300 goings were sold away from the properties and are now owned by around fifty individuals and organisations in Bungay and the surrounding area.

The Common is managed by the Chairman and 6 Common Reeves appointed by the owners at the Annual General Meeting; they work to a management plan which was agreed ten years ago with the District Council tree wardens and the Broads Authority. The Common, with the exception of the Golf Course is, because of its special environment, now included in the new Higher Level Stewardship Scheme administered by Natural England; it is acknowledged as an important habitat for over-wintering wading birds and has one of the largest areas of acid grassland in the Waveney Valley; water voles are present in the dykes and there is a growing population of Barn Owls. Agricultural inputs are kept to a minimum to avoid seepage of harmful chemicals into the surrounding waterways. This should ensure that all visitors to the Common will benefit from the ongoing maintenance programme to protect the open nature of the area, heathland and water meadows.

There are a number of excellent walks in the area

The remains today of the castle include its keep, gatehouse, curtain wall and the substantial remnants of the castle’s inner bailey wall. The historic fabric that remains forms the centrepiece of a more extensive historic landscape encompassing the castle site’s defensive earthworks and the area enclosed by these defences, sections of which are designated as scheduled monuments

The Castle was given to the town people of Bungay along with an endowment for it’s upkeep in 1987

The site is closed pending approval for commencement of the extensive repairs to this Grade 1 listed monument