Sometimes referred to as the Dogdyke Werewolf. This is the story of a man who, in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, is said to have dug up the body of a human with a wolf’s head near Dogdyke, on Langrick Fen, and taken it home. That night, the living manifestation of the beast apparently smashed his window (after which, the lad fled into the next room and barricaded himself in) and spent the night prowling the rest of the house, only leaving in the morning. The lad reburied the skeleton where he had found it, and never saw the beast again.

Recorded in Christopher Marlowe, The Fen Country (1925). There is no other early source than Marlowe, and no newspaper records or other evidence from the time, and it seems likely that he made it up, along with several other tales. Nonetheless, it has captured imaginations, and has subsequently thrived. The story is recounted in Daniel Codd, Mysterious Lincolnshire (2007).The storyteller Flinders Worthy narrated this version for Lincoln Castle in 2020. The author William Hussey provides a version here. In 2021, the folk musicians Barry Bray and Gareth Patten recorded this song about the legend. (We are grateful to Judi Gaskell for drawing our attention to this song.) Mark Temple has contributed an original poem about the legend to the Lincolnshire Folk Tales Project guest writers’ blog (2024), here.

In 2016, the Daily Star ran an article about recent apparent sightings, citing black hairs, mauled rabbits, a big footprint and an indistinct photo as evidence, so be careful round those parts…

Words by RORY WATERMAN