Boggart
The house-boggart of Syke Lumb Farm
A farm goblin reported near Blackburn, helpful when pleased but destructive when offended, whose interference reaches from the dairy and barn to the household’s beds.
Quick answer
In Harland and Wilkinson’s 1867 collection, the boggart of Syke Lumb Farm near Blackburn performs agricultural tasks when in a good humour. Disrespect provokes broken dairy vessels, disturbed livestock, obstructed work, and violent treatment of sleepers. This is a local reported spirit, not a description of every boggart.[1]
Quick facts
| Record type | Unnamed individual in a historical folklore collection |
|---|---|
| Tradition | Lancashire local belief, presented by nineteenth-century compilers |
| Source marker | Part I, “House Boggarts, or Labouring Goblins,” pp. 56–57 [1] |
| Source realm | Syke Lumb Farm, near Blackburn |
| Source terms | Boggart, goblin, imp |
| Helpful work | Milking, feeding cattle, harnessing horses, loading carts, stacking crops |
| Provocation | An unguarded expression or sign of disrespect |
| Appearance | Grins from a barn beam; no complete bodily description |
What the source says
The section introduces house-boggarts as useful and troublesome by turns, then names Syke Lumb Farm as a place reputed still to receive such a visitor. The compilers say its pranks remain subjects of local belief. They list milking cows, pulling hay, feeding cattle, preparing horses, loading carts, and stacking crops among its helpful activities.[1]
Offence reverses that assistance. Cream vessels break, churning yields no butter, animals are released or driven into woods, and two cows may be tied into one stall. Hay cannot be pulled from the stack, while the imp grins from a barn cross-beam. The account continues with empty carts that horses cannot move, overturned loaded carts, frightened cattle, bedclothes pulled away, and unseen hands dragging the offending sleepers downstairs by their legs.[1]
Description and conduct
The grinning figure on the beam suggests a visible presence in one part of the account, while the night assaults involve invisible hands. The text does not explain this difference or supply height, colouring, clothing, or a complete anatomy. It describes effects on work, animals, objects, and people without explaining a mechanism for them.[1]
Boggart, goblin, and imp are the compilers’ English terms here, not translations from another language or distinct biological classifications. Their wider section includes several kinds of boggart. Its comparison with house-boggarts or brownies does not establish that this individual was formerly a Brownie, nor does it give this figure the horse form assigned to the Hackensall Hall boggart.[2]
Source realm: Syke Lumb Farm
The source locates this account at Syke Lumb Farm near Blackburn, in Lancashire. Its spaces are the working farm and dwelling: barn, cattle stalls, farmyard, beds, and stone stairs, with nearby woods into which animals are driven. No separate supernatural kingdom is named. “Folklore places” identifies the local setting of the report, not a verified habitat or a modern address.[1]
Themes in this account
Assistance and retaliation: the same farm tasks that benefit from the spirit’s help become points of disruption after an insult. Domestic insecurity: the trouble extends from lost productivity to violence inside the home. These are readings of the reported actions, not symbolism or an origin theory supplied by the compilers.[1]
Book and references
- 1Lancashire Folk-lore: Illustrative of the Superstitious Beliefs and Practices, Local Customs and Usages of the People of the County Palatine
Compiled and edited by John Harland and Thomas Turner Wilkinson. London: Frederick Warne and Co.; New York: Scribner and Co., 1867. Part I, “House Boggarts, or Labouring Goblins,” pp. 56–57, opening Syke Lumb Farm account. Read in Project Gutenberg eBook 41148, a transcription of this edition; no translator. This is a historical record of reported belief, not verification of the events.
Read the Syke Lumb account ↗ - 2Separate accounts in the same section
Same work and edition, pp. 57–59: Hothershall Hall’s confined goblin, Towneley’s ghost, the Fylde classifications attributed to William Thornber, and the horse-shaped Hackensall Hall boggart. Consulted to preserve distinctions; their forms, histories, and remedies are not transferred to Syke Lumb.
Read the neighbouring accounts ↗