7.2- Cutty Dyer

Wyrd Folk

In this episode of Wyrd Folk, hosts Sam and Nikki compete with two dark folklore retellings centered on the murderous legend of Cutty Dyer.

Key takeaways

• The Cutty Dyer is a legendary entity from Ashburton, described variously as an ogre, water sprite, or malicious creature that targets drunks near bridges.
• Folklore often functions as a tool for social control, using tales of danger to encourage behavioral changes in children and the intoxicated.

Main topics

• Cutty Dyer folklore
• Ashburton legends

Notable quotes

Who can tell the weirdest tale? We are duelling

Conclusion

A compelling look at how much of our 'monstrous' folklore is rooted in

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:02) Ghosts and vampires, witches and worms. In this pod, we're on a mission to find the weirdest folk tales in Britain. But it's not just a mission, it's a competition. Who can tell the weirdest tale? We are duelling Speaker 2 (0:15) to discover which one of us can write the best story to settle our ancient sibling rivalry. I'm Sam. And I'm Nikki. And this is Weird Folk. Speaker 1 (0:28) Welcome, welcome, welcome. It is the autumn and we have a wonderful new show to you today. One of my favourite, creepy, spooky, potentially like... I would not encourage you to have young children listening to this episode with us because it's about a creature who's called Cutty Dyer for a reason. Speaker 2 (0:46) Yeah, I would normally be like, come on, come on, listen to this show, join us children. But I know what I wrote today and I wouldn't want Speaker 1 (0:54) my 10 year old to read it. There's channeling some of the really deliciously nasty aspects of folklore. Speaker 2 (1:02) Yes. So I think this is probably the first one that we've ever done. We've ever done a real. warning notice on so if if you are a young child don't listen to this i think i might actually put the warning notice up on when i put it up on a cast as well like it's not explicit but unless you like gore then perhaps don't listen to this show because although listen to it obviously otherwise because if you love gore welcome welcome welcome to it's not the horror season we're gonna go with what everybody else brands it which is spooky season yeah Speaker 1 (1:32) we've definitely um I mean, again, my favourite time of year, as I'm sure it is for many of our listeners. I'm wearing a jumper with witches on. It's fabulous. But it is that thing where we get to dive into some of the aspects of folklore that really go back to the roots of... people telling stories of things they were afraid of. Speaker 2 (1:53) Yes and I think it's the perfect time of year for that because the nights are finally starting to draw in. No longer do I have to go to bed while the sun is still up. Such a vampire that I just literally can't stand it. It is actually somewhat chilly. I don't know if anybody else is out there. It's like you know somebody who is living their eternal teenage goth girl like me but I just love the cold. I'm looking forward to it. Please bring the rain. I Speaker 1 (2:17) love it. I mean I sleep with the window open and last night I I was like, oh, I do need all the cats on me. Oh, jelly. Speaker 2 (2:23) Yes. And as always this year, we will be looking for Halloween accoutrements for our cats. If you know of any good, like I'm waiting for pets at home to release their cat Ouija board again. I'm hoping that they will. There's Speaker 1 (2:35) one that's come out. I saw it yesterday. Oh my gosh. Speaker 2 (2:37) I Speaker 1 (2:37) didn't get it. Damn. Speaker 2 (2:38) Yeah. So cat Ouija board is number one on my birthday list. Samantha and I both have autumnal birthdays as well, which is probably why. And Samantha's got a big autumnal birthday this year. Don't do Speaker 1 (2:47) it. No, no, I'm going to say... The warning was given on WhatsApp messages. It will not be published online. Speaker 2 (2:55) People don't know, you could be 21. That's a big birthday. Yeah, I'm 21. Thanks, folks. Speaker 1 (2:59) I Speaker 2 (3:00) really sound it. Well, also, we've never really put any pictures out of us, apart from there were some pictures of us on the Speaker 1 (3:05) Instagram. I have a little bone to... I wasn't going to pick it, but now you've mentioned it. You picked the... Speaker 2 (3:11) Worst possible picture of me literally ever. I think it's a nice photo. Speaker 1 (3:15) Oh, you liar. She's got the smirk of the other Dupes smile. No, Speaker 2 (3:22) it's not Dupes delight. I thought we might put some pictures out of ourselves. Before we get to the story, I want to go over the fact that we ran the festival on the 6th of September. We'd invited all of these lovely people who were all fabulous, but nobody recognised us when they first got there because there were no pictures of us online. And all everybody said is once we'd started talking, oh, I recognise your voice. which is so nice. I do have a face for radio. I will put that out. But there are pictures of us, but I haven't labelled them. So people don't know which one is us. Well, anyway, back to Cutty Dyer. Yes. Speaker 1 (3:53) So Cutty is a... Speaker 1 (3:58) character, maybe an ogre or maybe some sort of water elemental. Malicious water sprite. Yeah, it's sort of described differently depending on the stories. Not a current living legend, so there aren't current reports of people having seen Kutty Dyer, but there's certainly collections of it from the 18th and 19th century. Speaker 2 (4:15) Only 1900s as well, I think there's some evidence of Speaker 1 (4:18) Kutty Dyer stories. We Speaker 2 (4:20) haven't placed it in its location yet because Kutty Speaker 1 (4:22) Dyer is a very Speaker 2 (4:23) specific location. No, we didn't get there yet. Oh, sorry. Let's go. Speaker 1 (4:26) So, Kati comes to us from the town of Ashburton, which I believe you went to as a school trip. I did not. I did not. So, Samantha's referencing the fact that the Speaker 2 (4:37) junior school that we went to in year six, you could either go to Ashburton or Mind Gwynedd. I went to Mind Gwynedd. I went to Mind Gwynedd as well. Oh, I thought you went to Speaker 1 (4:43) Ashburton. No, no, no, no. Ashburton was for losers. No, actually, I'm going to say Ashburton was for losers. But in the context of my Speaker 2 (4:49) primary school trip, I don't think we got a choice. I think we just got sent somewhere. where no i got i got to choose i'm very she's much Speaker 1 (4:56) much older than me so that might be why um so yeah Speaker 2 (4:59) my next special birthday is gonna be a sad one no Speaker 1 (5:01) and Speaker 2 (5:01) ashburton's a lovely town Speaker 1 (5:02) anyway yes so uh originally uh known as the the river yo um but now the ashburn um The Cutty is said to inhabit at least one, possibly a few of the different bridges or waterways that go through Ashburton and into the surrounding countryside. And is either a trickster or truly malevolent, depending on the interpretation. Possibly murderous. Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:31) Depending on, I'm thinking based on our warnings at the beginning of Speaker 1 (5:34) the Speaker 2 (5:34) show, as you know, neither of us have read each other's stories yet, but we've both said on the way in. Speaker 1 (5:39) Mine is quite murdery. Mine's also very murdery. Okay, so a murdery episode Speaker 2 (5:43) today. So, Speaker 1 (5:44) Cutty had a dislike for drunkards. Yes. Is how I would put that, maybe. And those were generally the people that saw... um cutty dire and either lived or didn't see the tail um so you could expect to either be drunk dunked not drunk dunked in the river which is not a very deep river by the way no it's more of a splashing well Speaker 2 (6:08) if you imagine it like i i think i think the imagining is that uh in the case of uh folkloric creatures like this whatever waterway they're in is much deeper than it appears because of their kind of magical presence so you can be drowned and also like Again, this reminded me very much of Jenny Green Tea. Lots of these stories come from cautionary beware. Who is it who has accidents in these kind of waterways? Well, it's young children and the drunk. So they're just working with the evidence of their eyes, which is people who should stay away from fast-flowing waters. It doesn't matter how deep Speaker 1 (6:44) they are. You could drown in an inch of water. Yeah, and that's certainly what happened to... A number of people. Generally, men and young men coming home at night after being kicked out of Speaker 2 (6:56) the Speaker 1 (6:56) pub. Speaker 2 (6:57) Yeah. Speaker 1 (6:58) And they would either be dunked in the water and it would sober them up and they would leave. Speaker 2 (7:05) Yeah. Speaker 1 (7:05) They would drown or they would have their throat cut. Yes. Speaker 2 (7:09) Throat cut bit suggests to me that people were embellishing this to make it really quite, you know, this is not based on real life. Although there is an... interesting I came across so Cutty Dyer does not have an awful lot of detail there are bits and pieces a lot not recorded I'm sure if you went and interviewed people in the local area which we have not had time to do um then you would find lots of variations on this as you do with all these stories uh but the theories as to why it's called Cutty Dyer there's the obvious one which is Cutty to do with throat cutting and uh then somebody has made up something to go with Dyer I don't know but the more convincing one that I've come across is that Actually, there used to be a monument to St. Christopher on the bridge. And Cutty and Christopher have natural shortening associations, especially in local dialect. So perhaps it is just like a twisting of that idea of St. Christopher, who is the patron saint of travellers, protecting that bridge. And then that being twisted later on when... after the reformation catholic saints are less popular they're less they're kind of yeah and they're demonized demonized yeah so it becomes an ogre rather than a saint Speaker 1 (8:25) um although it's interesting because there's different bridges that i found mentioned in different places so there's the king's bridge which actually i don't think exists anymore yeah um i think it's been built over in the town Speaker 2 (8:38) um Speaker 1 (8:39) and there's the cuddy ford bridge which obviously lends itself to is it cuddy or cutty yeah um which are both areas and there's various stories of of um drunks reporting that they encounter this ogreous creature that has enormous glowing eyes and stringy dark hair that frightens them off or attempts to pull them into the water. Speaker 2 (9:02) Yes. Yeah. It's really interesting, isn't it? The reports of drunks. You know, Speaker 1 (9:07) we've all had those lights outs where we have come away Speaker 2 (9:12) thinking, you know, what did I see? What did I experience? I don't Speaker 1 (9:17) know that I have ever... I Speaker 2 (9:20) believe that I've seen an ogre. I don't know. I did Speaker 1 (9:22) see a fairy ring the other day and immediately step in it and command for them to take me. Didn't happen. Oh, sad. But if they took you, how would we continue the show? Speaker 2 (9:30) I mean, I'd be in fairy land, who cares? This is a really good question. Does Zencastle work in fairy land? We'd have to test Speaker 1 (9:37) it out. Speaker 2 (9:39) I don't know. What about the Wi-Fi signal? It's pretty poor around here in general. No, Speaker 1 (9:43) no, Speaker 2 (9:43) no, no, Wi Speaker 1 (9:44) -Fi. Speaker 2 (9:45) So... Today then, we are going to give you two stories of Kurti Dyer. So what is interesting about this is we're often all about perspective and looking at things from different viewpoints. But with Kurti Dyer, I think I'd be interested to see the way you've gone. Mine is, like I'm pretty good. I usually stick to the