The protagonist of the legend is John Lambton, the heir to his family's estate. A rebellious character, young John misses church one Sunday to go fishing in the River Wear. He catches nothing but this strange eel-like creature (the worm), which he throws down a well. He then goes off to fight in the Crusades.
In the well, the worm grows to "an awful size"; the locals begin to notice livestock going missing, and eventually the worm wraps itself round a local hill. The Lord (John's aged father) manages to sedate the creature by feeding it twenty gallons of milk a day (the milk of nine cows). After seven years, John returns from the Crusades; a local witch gives him advice on how to kill the worm, but says that after doing so he must kill the first living creature he sees, or his family will be cursed for nine generations.
John arranges for his father to release his favourite hound after he has killed the worm (signalled by three blasts on his horn), so that it will be sacrificed as the next living thing he sees. He succeeds in killing the worm, but unfortunately his father is so elated to hear his signal that he forgets to release the hound and rushes to congratulate his son. John is unable to kill his father, so the family is cursed.
The popularity of the story has been sustained by the unfortunate fates of several Lambtons: one died in the battle of Wakefield in 1460, and another at Marston Moor in 1644. One died in his carriage while crossing Lambton Bridge in 1761. Several Internet sources (apparently all copying each other) report that another Lambton "drowned at Newrig" – with no further details, including where Newrig is or when this happened.
Possibly the least cursed member of the Lambton family was another John Lambton, born in 1792. He became a member of parliament and a colonial administrator – Governor General of British North America (Canada), and chairman of the company that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand. In 1828 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Durham, and five years later he was made Viscount Lambton and Earl of Durham. His eldest son Charles was painted by Thomas Lawrence at the age of 13, in the portrait that became known as The Red Boy; but Charles, possibly falling victim to the curse, died just six years later.
The 1st Earl himself, cursed or not, lived only to the age of 48; he died at Cowes (on the Isle of Wight) in 1840. Four years later, a monument was raised on Penshaw Hill – the very same hill around which (according to some versions of the legend) the dreaded Worm had wrapped its tail. A half–sized replica of an ancient Greek temple, the monument is now in the city of Sunderland, but can be seen for miles around and is plainly visible from the A1(M). A stylised version of the monument features on the badge or crest of AFC Sunderland.
© Haydn Thompson 2017