Arthur H. Norway

Arthur H. Norway wrote Highways and Byways in Devon and Cornwall, published in 1897. His account of the Gannel describes the tidal plank crossing and names the warning spirit called the Crake.

Norway recorded more than one explanation: the story of a drowned man performing a final good deed, a tradition of souls appearing as birds, and possible natural causes for the unsettling sound. His writing is evidence that these accounts were circulating by the late nineteenth century. It does not establish their original date or prove that the events in the legend occurred.