In Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast there is a tale told of a legless human torso - its head attached to its body by only a few strips of flesh. This is the Pump Hill Ghost who haunts the area from the sea to an ancient well at Well Corner. In its arms it carries a bundle. When it gets to the well it places the bundle down and then both bundle and torso disappear.

The coastal village of Happisburgh has two distinctive landmarks, its candy striped lighthouse and the tall tower of its church. Some claim that the body of a poisoner, one Jonathan Balls is buried in the churchyard. It is said that he was buried with a Bible, a plum cake, a poker and a pair of tongs. But this story is not about Jonathan Balls, but about the strange and perhaps unique legend of The Pump Hill Ghost otherwise known as the Happisburgh Torso.

It is believed that the Happisburgh’s spectre was first seen in the vicinity of Whimpwell Street, by two local farmers on their way home in 1765. It was not the absence of the spectre’s legs that made the farmer’s hair stand on end, though that of course was bad enough. No, what caused these two hearty men to quake was the fact that as the apparition drew nearer it seemed to have no head.

As it drew level they saw that there was a head, but it dangled down the spectre’s back attached to the neck by only a thin strip of flesh. So as the thing moved, the head bounced and jiggled from side to side. Dressed in sailor’s garb the spectre clasped a rough brown sack to its chest.

The figure was followed on several occasions until it reached the well at Well Corner, where it was seen to disappear whilst climbing in.

A meeting of the village council was held to discuss the sightings and as a result it was decided to investigate the bottom of the well. A man was lowered into the well and found a sack. When it had been hoisted to the surface it was found to contain a pair of boots, with the legs of the unfortunate owner still inside them.

Following this discovery, the well was drained. The villagers discovered found another larger sack in which there was a pistol and a torso clothed in similar garb to that of the ghost. The torso had a severed neck on which, attached by some rotting skin, was a skull!

The villagers then remembered that some years earlier there had been a disagreement between three Dutch smugglers out by Cart Gap. It was believed that a fight had taken place between the smugglers as shots had been heard. The next morning the locals found large puddles of blood on the beach but no corpses. One of the smugglers must have been killed in the fight and his comrades had decided to chop him up and stuff him down the village well.

Now this you would think would have been the end of the matter, but what causes a haunting we shall never know, this side of the grave.
So it is, that each time the well at Happisburgh is disturbed, so the headless legless torso of the third smuggler is said to walk, with his sack and his severed head bouncing from side to side.

The 'Pump Hill Ghost' returned as soon as the pump was removed from a well at Well Corner, and the horrible groans were heard again. The groaning stopped when the pump was installed, but now the pump is gone again and the wailing is back and the figure of the legless torso has been seen several times since then, gliding from the shore towards the coast road, with it's head wobbling in a grotesque fashion.

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