Encounter dossier · East Suffolk
The hound that kept the motorbike
After midnight on the long road out of Woodbridge, Keith Flory found a black hound running behind his motorbike. Speed did not at first leave it behind.
- Date
- Early 1973; later collected and published
- Location
- Old Barrack Road, Woodbridge, East Suffolk
- Record type
- Modern sighting
- Entry type
- Retrospective witness account
- Principal source
- Black Shuck in Woodbridge
- Names and aliases
- Black Shuck
- Reported behaviour
- Pursuit without reported contact
- Source status
- Named witness; later published source inspected
- Identification
- Reported to Black Shuck researchers
01
The Encounter
Not long after midnight in early 1973, Keith Flory was riding home from a night shift through Woodbridge. On Old Barrack Road, a black dog about the size of a Great Dane came after his motorbike.
The hound bounded behind him and kept pace along the road. Flory did not report a bite, a collision or a sound. The extraordinary part was its ability to stay with the machine.
He finally lost it around Seckford Hall Road, near the A12. The surviving summaries do not say whether it turned away, fell behind or vanished. That absence is left open.
02 / Historical context
First recorded account
Flory later gave the account directly to Ivan Bunn's Hidden East Anglia research project. The original web record is no longer readily recoverable, but Matt Salusbury preserved the case in a letter printed in Fortean Times, issue 361, and in a later account of Suffolk sightings.
The Fortean Times contents record supplies the witness, time, year, route, size comparison and ending. It is later than the event and shorter than a full interview. No exact speed, colour of eyes or words from Flory should be invented around it.
03
What the record supports
- Keith Flory is named and is reported to have contacted the Hidden East Anglia researchers directly.
- The meeting is placed after midnight in early 1973, while Flory rode home from a night shift.
- Old Barrack Road and Seckford Hall Road form a specific recoverable route through Woodbridge.
- The hound is described as black and about the size of a Great Dane.
- It kept pace with the motorcycle before Flory lost it; no physical attack is reported.
04
Later accounts and changes
Short news summaries reduce the event to a dog chasing a motorbike. The older published summary preserves the night shift, the after-midnight hour, the two roads and the Great Dane comparison.
The account does not supply fiery eyes, silence, a measured speed or a supernatural disappearance. Its sustained pace is strange enough without giving it details that belong elsewhere.
Woodbridge lies within the wider Shuck country, but the identification comes through the collecting tradition. The record is kept as a reported encounter, not forced into a single settled canon.
Glowing or coloured eyes
Not stated
Do not add from general Shuck descriptionsVanished
Not stated
Flory is said to have lost itAttack
Not stated
Pursuit without reported contactExact speed
Not stated
Kept pace is not a measurementBlack Shuck identity
Hidden East Anglia collection
Research identification attached to the report05 / Source audit
How this record was checked
These are the checks behind the dossier. They show what was inspected, what it establishes and where caution is still needed.
Fortean Times issue 361 contents record
Matt Salusbury's letter preserves the witness name, early 1973 date, night-shift journey, Great Dane comparison and named roads.
These details form the supported core of the encounter.Salusbury's later account of Suffolk Shuck reports
The later account says Flory contacted Ivan Bunn's Hidden East Anglia team and repeats the route and sustained pursuit.
The source chain can be shown, while the original submission remains a missing link.Recent derivative news summaries
They repeat the motorbike pursuit but often omit the collection history and road details.
They are not used to enlarge the account.06 / Sources
Sources for this encounter
The Fortean Times issue listing and Salusbury's later account have been inspected. The earlier Hidden East Anglia submission and any full witness statement remain sought.
Black Shuck in Woodbridge
Matt Salusbury, letter in Fortean Times, issue 361, 2018.
Letters section, summarised in the issue contents record.
- Held or supplied by
- Fortean Times digital issue listing
- Rights note
- Copyrighted publication. Bibliographic details and original summary only; no magazine text or image is reproduced.
My dad saw Shuck in the Seventies!
Matt Salusbury, 22 December 2021.
Section on Keith Flory's 1973 Woodbridge encounter and the Hidden East Anglia team.
- Held or supplied by
- Matt Salusbury's research blog
- Rights note
- Linked for source history. The archive uses original summary and reproduces no illustration.