Читать книгу Haunted Britain and Ireland: Over 100 of the Scariest Places to Visit in the UK and Ireland - Derek Acorah - Страница 19

Hickling is the largest of the Broads. It is a very popular spot for sailing and for fishing from boats, especially for rudd, tench and bream. The three Hickling villages – Hickling village, Hickling Green and Hickling Heath – lie to the north of the broad.

One winter during the Napoleonic Wars a poor drummer boy from Hickling home on furlough fell in love with the daughter of a rich man in Potter Heigham. Her father disapproved of the match, so the lovers met secretly in a small hut at Swim Coots in the marsh on the Heigham side of Hickling Broad. Each night the drummer boy would skate out across the frozen broad, beating on his kettledrum to let his lover know he was coming. Then one night the drum fell silent – the boy had fallen through the ice and drowned. Since then, however, he has often been seen on February evenings, skating along and beating his drum.