The warm glow of the Lantern Man’s lamp will entice you to head towards it on a foggy night at the marsh land but take heed, follow to far and the lamp with die away leaving you to drown in the thick mud and water, surrounded only by darkness. The legend of the Lantern Man is one that has long since haunted the Norfolk Marsh. Some believe that the Lantern Man is merely marsh gas that arises from the boggy ground beneath whilst other claim to have actually seen the phantom appear as a full-bodied apparition, right before their eyes. The warm inviting glow of his lamp almost impossible to resist.
The legend dates back father than we can trace although it’s referenced on a gravestone at the north side of All Saints’ Church in the village of Thurlton, south of the River Yare.
Joseph Bexfield
The skeletal remains beneath the gravestone are those of Joseph Bexfield, a wherryman by trade. On August 11th 1809, Bexfield was drinking with fellow sailors in the White Horse Inn when he left to pick up an important parcel he’d left outside on his wherry (a large rowing boat used to transport passengers and cargo). Bexfield was to collect the parcel and then return home to his wife and two children. His friends pleaded that he reconsider, it was a dark and foggy night and the only dull lights that appeared over the marshland were assumed to belong to the Lantern Man or ‘Will o’ the Wisp’ as he was also known. Nonetheless, Joseph Bexfield was confident in the fact he knew the marsh as well as anybody and he headed out into the dark foggy night, never to been seen alive again.
A thorough search of the marsh was carried out with no trace of the missing thirty-eight-year-old, that was until three days had passed and his body washed up on to the banks of the River Yare. Strangely the search party claimed that for the three solid nights they were out looking for Bexfield, the sound of hounds echoed around the quiet marsh and the warm glow of what appeared to be a lantern was spotted in the distance. No further deaths or disappearances were recorded at that time.
Ghost Sightings
To this day people claim to see the Lantern Man wandering the marsh on a foggy night. There are also a host of witnesses that claim to have headed towards the lanterns glow before a full-bodied apparition manifests, warning them to turn back. Whether the spirit is that of Joseph Bexfield or another unfortunate soul that fell foul to the Lantern Man remains a mystery. Light anomalies, temperature fluctuations and electrical malfunctions have also been reported around the marsh on dark, foggy and usually cold evenings. The eerie howling of a hound thought to be a Black Shuck is also common around Autumn and Winter.
Trick of the Mind
It appears as though the lantern causes the mind to revert to a day-dream, almost hypnotic state in which the warm glow is amplified in to something safe and comforting. If so the easiest way to protect ones self against this would be to have a binaural tone on hand ready to play through some headphones. Binaural tones play two different tones into each ear causing the brain to create a third tone. Whilst binaural tones are often used in hypnotherapy, they can also cancel out any effect but be warned, electrical malfunctions are regularly reported when the Lantern Man is close by.
Check out the Woman in Grey at the nearby Sea Palling!
