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Not all strange tales begin with the words “Long, long, ago”. The Wisbech ‘Toadmen’ were still in existence between 1918 and 1938 and are more of a memory than a myth.
The term ‘Toadmen’ does tend to conjure up images of monsters from b-movies or comic books; and indeed toadmen have featured in Stan Lee’s ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and Henri Verne’s ‘Bob Morane’ comic strips.
But the Cambridgeshire Toadmen were not monsters, they were normal men with the gift of controlling horses; a kind of equestrian Cesar Millan.
Cesar Millan: The Dog Whisperer
They may have been the fenland’s Dr Dolittles, but they did more than just talk to their animals. It is said that a horse that was in the control of the Toadmen would remain completely motionless and would resist all attempts to make it move. But these were no mere horse whisperers, indeed their name itself points to a much darker secret.
The name ‘Toadman’ is said to derive from their elaborate rituals. One account describes them catching a live toad which was then pegged to an ant’s nest. The ants woul eat the toad’s skin and flesh leaving only it’s bones.
The Toadmen would then keep the bones in their pockets until they were completely dried out. Then, on the night of a full moon, they would take the bones down to a stream and place them in the water where the bones would let out a horrifying scream. Soon a certain bone would become dislodged from the skeleton and begin to float upstream. The Toadmen would fish this bone from the stream and use it to make a strange herbal brew; this would give them their power over horses – and the name ‘Toadmen’.
There is historical evidence to show that the services of Toadmen were employed on farms around Cambridgeshire to help with breeding and other farming matters. It’s likely that they drew their ‘powers’ from an esoteric knowledge of herb-lore and that the use of ritual helped to keep their knowledge secret. Secret knowledge helps to grant a certain amount of power to those ‘in the know’, but it’s also worth remembering that people who used traditional, pagan remedies would once have been persecuted by the Church for their beliefs.
The demise of the Toadmen is a sad reminder that we can sometimes forget as much as we learn. It would have been interesting to see what modern pharmacology could have done with the this fenland ‘magic’.
Image from Fantasy Horse Wallpaper
THE END
Living the Legend…
The best way to understand and enjoy British Folk-Tales is to visit the places which inspired them. Cambridgeshire has so much to offer that it’s hard to decide where to begin; one good place to start is here. Wisbech is known as the capital of The Fens, an area drained by Dutch engineers in the 17th Century which offers nearly a million acres beautiful black soil and wildlife-rich waterways.
'A wet morning in the fens' by Ashley Baldwin-Smith
wynfrith.wordpress.com 