Q CAN you tell me anything about the Picktree Brag, a kind of mischievous horse, I believe, that lived near Chester-le-Street? - Bill Hutchinson, Chester-le-Street

A THE Picktree Brag was a kind of demon, usually described as a 'goblin' that was said to inhabit the Picktree area near Chester-le-Street and Washington.

The origin of the word 'Brag' is uncertain but it may come from an old word 'barguest' or 'barghaist'. In old sources of northern folklore, the Picktree Brag is often described as a 'Boggle'. In the north, the word boggle was applied to any ghostly apparition. This word is possibly Celtic, from the Old Welsh 'Bwg' meaning ghost or spectre. The name is also related to 'Bogie Man'.

The Picktree Brag is one of three such brags mentioned in the Chester-le-Street area, all of which seem to be associated with places beginning with the letter 'p'. Thus we have the Pelton Brag and, near Birtley, the Portobello Brag, although of course they may all be the same creature.

Accounts of such demons were often recorded during the 19th Century and were probably more widely believed in the minds of the pre-industrial people of County Durham. The Portobello Brag always appeared in the form of an ass and whoever mounted it was carried off with speed, before he or she was thrown into a bog or gorse bush. The creature would then run off 'nickerin' or laughing mischievously.

In the early part of the 19th Century, Sir Cuthbert Sharp, the historian of Hartlepool, made an extensive study of legends and strange beliefs in the County of Durham. He interviewed an old woman, probably at Pelton, about the alleged behaviour of the Picktree Brag.

The old lady said that the brag often appeared in the form of a calf which, for some reason, had a white handkerchief around its neck. The beast was described as having a bushy tail and galloped sometimes like a Gallowa' or pit pony and sometimes like a coach horse. It was apparently attracted by her husband's white suit but, when he attempted to mount it, the beast threw him into a pond.

Fortunately there do not seem to have been any records of the brag's activities in recent times. The A1M motorway was built in the vicinity of Picktree and may have scared it off for good.

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