It was the ideal location for former punk idol Toyah Wilcox to learn about the eerie tale of Gytrash, the mythological harbinger of doom. The wind whistled around the ancient tombstones and the crows cawed in the creaking trees.

Buried in Haworth graveyard next to the Parsonage, the famous home of the Bronts, is Tabby Ackroyd, a servant of the literary family for 30 years. Tabby loved to tell tales of hobgoblins, ghosts and fairies - and of Gytrash, the red-eyed devil dog which prowled the streets of West Yorkshire, his appearance being an omen of doom.

Toyah was filming in the graveyard with Keighley historian Marie Camp-bell, an expert on myths and legends, for her BBC Sunday-morning programme Heaven on Earth. Part of the show features Toyah in her search for local folklore, like the legend of Gytrash and his links with the Bronts.

"The legend of the black dog is specific to this area of Yorkshire and it is referred to in Jane Eyre (written by Charlotte Bront)," Toyah told us as she visited Tabby's grave. "We are exploring things that can't be explained like death and unusual happenings - things that can be put down to anything unnatural or supernatural.

"It seems Yorkshire people have chosen a black dog to represent the unexplainable."

Marie, who is researching her latest book The Strange World of the Bronts, points out that Charlotte described in her novel how Jane Eyre mistook the sound of hooves for the approach of Gytrash as she walks at dusk.

"This harks back to the tales she heard in the parsonage told by Tabby, who described Gytrash and other myths to the children," says Marie.

Tabitha is buried next to what was known in the Bront days as the Gate of Death, a gap in the wall leading from the parsonage to the church.

Gytrash - or sometimes Bargiest, Padfoot or Clatterchains - has been seen for centuries and still appears today. One of the latest sightings was by four people walking across the moor from Ilkley who saw a large black dog with droopy ears and big paws melt into the distance.

The Bronts would also have learned many spooky tales from village fortune teller Jack Kay, a crystalball gazer/star-seer who lived in a cottage near the Parsonage where he drew up birth charts.

And they may have known of Tombstone Tom, the phantom white cat which prowled the graveyard in the early 1800s.

Marie can be seen being interviewed by Toyah on the programme later this autumn. It goes out on Sunday mornings at 10am and also features TV chef Kevin Woodford.

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