Festival named after demon dog ends with premiere

Legendary dog Black Shuck has featured on a set of stamps dedicated to mythical beasts

An annual event dedicated to a spine-tingling mythical hound reached a climax at the weekend with the premiere of a community musical.

Each year in Bungay, Suffolk, the Black Shuck Festival - named after the hair-raising hound rumoured to stalk the county - celebrates the region's folklore.

Sunday's closing night featured a performance of an original work called Fire! Fire!, about The Great Fire of Bungay in 1688.

Commissioned by the festival, with funds from Arts Council England, it was rehearsed and performed on a single day and was open to anyone who wanted to sing.

The premiere of Fire! Fire!, written by local composer Will Drew-Batty, took place at St Mary's Church - said to have been one of Black Shuck's haunts.

Polly Wright, the festival's artistic director, said: "The Black Shuck Festival looks to bring people together through the shared experience of art.

"We are so excited that Will has created this epic new piece which offers a new telling of this important part of the town's history.

She said the fact the "impressive large-scale piece" was put together on a single day was "testament to what is possible when people come together and what magic can be created through music".

Composer Will Drew-Batty by a plaque in Bungay marking the 300th anniversary of the fire

Drew-Batty described Fire! Fire! as "a story-telling cantata, a dramatic and accessible piece that is scored for a huge choir, instrumentalists, narrator and soloists".

The Great Fire of Bungay destroyed most of the town within six hours.

A public appeal was launched and donations came in from across the country.

The East Anglian legend of Black Shuck tells of a wild black dog that is said to have entered St Mary's Church during a violent storm on 4 August 1577.

The legend tells of the animal then reappearing at Blythburgh church, where it was trapped.

Some say Black Shuck's claw marks, burned into the surface of the door, can be seen to this day.