Deep in the Norfolk Broads, close to where the Ant and Bure rivers meet, is the ruined Abbey of St Benet’s at Holme. It’s a remote place for peaceful souls to paint, read and watch the boats go by. Surrounded by lonely marshes, it suited the reclusive order of black-cowled monks who dwelt here for centuries. The abbey was the only religious house in England to survive Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, although nonetheless by 1540 the last monk had gone. All but one, who’s seen here still…

It’s said gentle Brother Pacificus was given the task of mending an ornate screen at St Helen’s church in Ranworth. At dawn he would row across Ranworth Broad to St Helen’s and at the end of each day, he would row back to the Abbey, his little dog panting eagerly at the prow. One evening he returned to find his brother monks had been savagely murdered by Henry VIII’s soldiers. Devastated Brother Pacificus lingered alone at the stricken Abbey until his death when mourning villagers laid him to rest him at St Helen’s, the church he loved so well.

Some have seen his kindly ghost rowing through the morning mist at first light and some in the haze of a quiet summer evening. Wearing his habit, he rows a small boat across the Broad, his faithful dog still by his side. Others have seen him at prayer in St Helen’s, although if you approach he fades softly into the past.