Bures Dragon
General Information
National Grid Ref Approx. TL923344
A dragon on private land near Bures, Suffolk, it can easily be seen from the public footpath that runs between Cuckoo Hill and Clicket Hill.
History.
Created in was made by Sir Richard's distant kinsman Bures farmer Geoffrey Probert with assistance from his family & local helpers.
There are several legends about a dragon around Bures and this dragon is inspired by those. One legend is detailed below.
The dragon's presence in Bures in the the Chronicle of St Albans Abbey written in 1405 by Henry de Blaneford 'In these days there appeared lately an evil dragon of excessive length with a huge body, crested head, saw like teeth & elongated tail in the land around the village of Bures near Sudbury, which destroyed & killed a herd of sheep. The servants of Sir Richard Waldegrave who owns the land haunted by the dragon came forth to shoot it with bows, but its body resisted the arrows which sprang forth from its ribs as if they were metal or hard stone & from the spines of its back with a jangling as if they were hitting bronze plates, and flew far away because its skin was impenetrable. Almost the whole county was summoned to slaughter it, but when it saw that it was to be shot at again, it fled into the marsh, hid in the reeds & was seen no more'. He is the subject of a 15thc wall painting in Wissington church three miles east of Bures.
