Headless Horseman of Dungee Corner
There is a long straight road known as ‘Mile Street’ heading out of the village of Bozeat that joins a Roman Road at a T-junction known to the locals as ‘Dungee Corner’.
In the 1900’s my great grandfather who resided at Wymington would attend the Market in the nearby Northamptonshire town of Wellingborough. In that period, travel by horse-drawn transport was still the norm in rural Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire.
Meadow at Dungee Corner
Travelling back that afternoon from Wellingborough to Bozeat, and then turning left down Mile Street, he claimed to have seen the phantom ‘headlkess horseman’, the black wraith-like figure that is said to haunt ‘Dungee Corner’. Its presence was also allegedly manifested by the refusal of cart horses or other living equines to go approach or go past that haunted junction, despite any form of coaxing.
At least that was his excuse tendered to my maternal great grandmother allegedly oft used when trying to justify his later return from the Golden Lion.
The Roman road in question peters out to a country track just north of that junction, andcabn be followed across the fields past Farndish and Irchester, to terminate at an overgrown and abandoned caster (Roman fortified site) on the southern bank of the River Nene that gives nearby ‘Chester House’ its name.
Having travelled past that site for decades at all seasons of the year and times of day, I cannot say that I have ever seen the ‘headless horseman’. Was the tale just an excuse to be late backfrom the pub? if so it does has a certain style.
by Prusakowski
Re: Headless Horseman of Dungee Corner
Does the ‘headless horseman’ of Dungee Corner have a shared connection with the ancient Celtic myth of the ‘Dullahan’ ?
In Ireland a legendary monster said to ride a headless black horse whilst carrying his head under his arm, is the ‘Dullahan’ (translated from Gaelic into “dark man”).
The quaint Irish version of the legend of the headless horseman includes variants where in some cases “the Dullahan throws a bucket of blood at people he passes” !, whilst another variant of the Celtic myth alleges that “if the headless horseman calls out the name of the person he passes, it is a portent that the person will soon die”.
As with most evil forces, the ‘Dullahan’ has a weakness – Gold.