MERMAIDS AND MANIMALS OF SUFFOLK

In an extract from his new book on the mystery animals of Suffolk, MATT SALUSBURY tackles some of the oddest putative denizens of that curious county – from freshwater mermaids with a remit to terrify local children to dog-headed men and red-haired werewolves…

In the Ipswich Journal of 27 May 1721 there appeared the following plea from a letter writer: “Pray resolve me in your next Week’s Paper, whether there be any such Thing in Nature as Mermen and Mermaids, I being not yet satisfied in the verity thereof, notwithstanding the Reports of Seamen and others.” The vexed reader of the Ipswich Journal may well have believed in mermaids, possibly because his parents had told him from an early age to believe in mermaids (as they might convince their infants to believe in Father Christmas today). His parents would have a very practical reason for doing so, as we will see. MIND THE MERMAIDS With the possible exception of the Orford “merman” found by fishermen off the coast at Orford Ness and described…

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Fortean Times (Digital) - 1 Issue, 444

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