Hedge of Horror…

Driving to Scarborough one morning last week I had a Hammer House of Horror moment. What were those thick white webs clinging to the bushes? It looked like the bushes were covered in a shroud. Not spiders surely? No, not spiders the webs were too thick. They reminded me of those fake spray webs that you can buy in aerosol cans and that I had such fun with one Halloween long ago.

I’d heard about these webs from a colleague of mine, but even so as I passed them the sight of the thick white webs clinging to the branches of the bushes came as a shock. It looked unreal.

Parking the car I walked through the rain with my camera. The thick webs covered the almost bare branches. Most of the leaves had been stripped - something had been eating them. Not spiders then thoughg, spiders are carnivores.

After a little research I found two possible explanations:

The first was that the webs might have been caused by Ermine Moth caterpillars. The caterpillars are mainly seen from spring to June and feed in huge groups under a web, protecting them from birds and other predators. I looked long and hard but couldn’t see any caterpillars, it was a possibility though.

The second explanation was a little more unsettling. Walking back through the drizzly rain and wondering why on earth I felt so compelled to record these things, I came across an old, crumbling, brick building set back in the hedge. The building had a sign - S. Bowes & Son. Joiners, Painters and Funeral Directors.

Funeral Directors, and was that a half-completed coffin I could see through the window? Coffins hold corpses, corpses wear shrouds, and shrouds are made from…

No it couldn’t be… could it?

Footnote: I was in Scarborough today and, over a week later, the webs were still there. I wonder if they will ever disappear.