Satan's Loan Traditional Cache
The Trekbuddies: put to bed for the closest munzee see http://www.munzee.com/m/thetrekbuddies/383/
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There is an interesting ghost story concerning the church, and mentioned in "The Gentleman's Chronicle" of 1683.
It relates that Adam Morland who, badly in need of money, borrowed a large sum from an old man unknown to him, who turned out to be Satan in disguise. Thus Adam had unwittingly sold his soul to him in return for the loan. He managed to redeem it by building a church with the money on the site of the present one. The church was consecrated by the Lord Abbot of St. Benet's at Holm, and the site therefore protected from devilish influence.
However, it is said that Satan still haunts the churchyard waiting for the Resurrection, so that he may claim the soul of Adam Morland. He is still disguised as an old man, but his clothes cover nothing but a skeleton, and in his skull are balls of fire. May 2nd is said to be his regular visiting date. It is also said that in olden days a definite day was
set aside for the purpose of prayer and fasting and the scattering of ashes round the church porch, to drive away the evil influence, but in vain. Many years ago one Mary Dowdell , an old lady, is said to have seen the ghost and her mind became affected. "She lingered manie yeares and dyed insane, which is greatlie to be pittyed. She left a good husband and eleven offspringes", as "The Gentleman's Chronicle" quaintly put it.
Burgh Church, with its unique brick tower rising in seven diminishing sections to the belfry, is thatched, and parts of it are very old. There are some small narrow windows in the Early English style. It seems likely that there were once clay lump cottages near the Hall and the church, as most of the houses in the village are now far from it.
The gift of the Burgh living is still in the hands of the Boycott family, formerly spell Boycatt, and it is said that the present church tower was built in the 18th century after one of the family had travelled in Italy, and been influenced by some of its architecture.
The famous Captain Boycott, who as a land agent to the Earl of Erne in Ireland in 1880 was involved in rent disputes, and was the means of giving English a new word, was born in Burgh Rectory and is buried in the churchyard.
A ruin which has now almost disappeared is to be found in the field adjoining the churchyard. It was evidently once some kind of church because a piscina was in position in it in 1953. It has been called St. John’s Priory but the "Victoria History Of Norfolk" does not mention it in its section devoted to the Religious Houses of Norfolk. A local clergyman who tried to get information about it in London was unsuccessful so it could not have been in use at the
time of the Suppression of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. I think it may have been a small chapel with one or two monks, but I do not consider that it was ever the parish church of Burgh.
It seems likely that materials, when the church was built, were brought by water, the present marshes then being a part of the river estuary, as at the time roads and wheeled transport were decidedly primitive.
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