The North’s Spookiest People

As we head towards Halloween, it is time to explore our fair lands and find the spookiest folk ever to inhabit these northern counties. Those people whose role in life was to creep us out and strike fear into the hearts of northerners through their words, actions, suggestions and more.

BRAM STOKER

Although a Dubliner by birth and Londoner by choice, author Bram Stoker’s most famous character was inspired by Yorkshire. The Victorian novelist liked to travel and it was whilst on a stay in Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast that he was inspired to tell the tale of the leader of the vampires. Whilst holidaying in Whitby in 1890, Bram headed to the public library and came across the word ‘dracula’ in his reading. It literally means ‘son of the devil’ in Romanian, and that seemed fitting for the undead super villain that he had begun developing in his mind. He located his main character initially in Transylvania, the noble Count Dracula, but ensured that he would visit the town in which the idea originated, washing up on the shore and plaguing Whitby with his thirst for blood. The ruined abbey, windswept headland and abundance of black jet used in mourning jewellery set the scene perfectly for this Gothic masterpiece and ensured Whitby was the perfect inspiration and location for Stoker’s major contribution to the vampire myth. He may have only been on his jollies in Yorkshire, but it was a trip that helped birth one of the spookiest characters ever to appear in literature, television and film. Not bad, right?

 

THE CHILD WITH A FACE ON ITS BODY

There are times when you hear a tale that is so fantastical that you assume that it was passed down verbally between generations and people have embellished it with each retelling. However, the story of the child with a face on its body was actually written down at the time, with reputable witnesses attesting to its truth. That is what makes this story so spooky. In 1643 in Kirkham in the Fylde countryside, a woman was so dedicated to the side of the Royalists in the English Civil War that she declared “rather than I shall become a roundhead, or bear a Roundhead, I may bring forth a child without a head.” So far, so melodramatic. However, the story goes that this exact occurrence happened. The local vicar and midwife both attested to the fact that the woman bore a child who “had a face upon the breast of it, two eyes near unto the place where the paps usually are, and a nose upon the chest, and a mouth a little above the navel, and two ears, upon each shoulder one.” In fact, this child was heralded as a “strange and wonderful monster.” What is spookier still is the mother’s prediction. It’s probably too late to ask her for the lottery numbers, though.

 

JOHNNY HART

Imagine being able to make budgerigars appear from thin air. That’s a pretty spooky talent, right? And also, very handy if you are launching a fledgling budgerigar retail operation. Well magician Johnny Hart might not have made his living hawking tiny parrots, but his most famous act involved making the birds magically appear in front of the eyes of his adoring audiences. Born in Lytham St Annes, this Lancashire lad was not just a local hero. He took his act around the world and even became the first British magician to appear on the hallowed stage of the Ed Sullivan Show on American television. Even at school at Harris Technical College in Preston in the 1950s he was showcasing his spooky skills. One classmate recalled him performing in the end-of-year show with a cane dancing around him on stage to the strains of ‘Rock Around the Clock’. Another event from his schooldays saw him summoned to the front of class by a teacher who didn’t believe he had been paying attention. His task was to write a summary of the lesson on the board, but Johnny made the chalk disappear from his hands, eventually locating it behind his ear. Even the stern schoolmaster was won over by the trick. After winning the first ‘Young Magician of The Year’ competition in 1961, organised by The Magic Circle, he went on to perform at Sunday Night at the London Palladium and in residencies in the US. His signature trick involved making tens of birds appear under silk handkerchiefs with no obvious solution as to how he was achieving it. Pretty downright spooky.

 

THE LOST DRUMMER BOY OF RICHMOND

Whilst routing around Richmond Castle at some point in the 18th century, a group of soldiers found an old tunnel. They thought that it might provide a route to Easby Abbey and so they headed down underground to investigate. No one really knows why they were interested in making the mile-long journey underground rather than in the open air, but we can guess that, it being Yorkshire, they probably wanted some respite from the rain. Before realising that it was too small and filled with rubble for grown adults to explore. Not wanting to spend time and effort digging it out if it didn’t travel in the direction they wanted it to, they hatched a plan. Get a child to walk through the dangerous passageway. They were different times. The idea was to have a drummer boy walk the tunnel, banging away, and they would walk on land, following the beat emanating from below. And it worked. For a bit. They followed the drum to Easby Woods and then it went quiet. Rather than attempting to dig out the lad, the soldiers instead assumed he’d been eaten by some kind of subterranean beast and so decided not to investigate further. Other theories were that he had discovered a huge chamber filled with the bodies of King Arthur’s soldiers and the slightly more realistic suggestion that the tunnel collapsed and killed him. But they never found out because they didn’t bother investigating. However, the little drummer boy has the last laugh now as he is said to revel in freaking out visitors to this gorgeous part of North Yorkshire by mournfully banging his drum from time to time. So, if you’re exploring the beautiful countryside in the vicinity and you hear a petrifying paradiddle, spare a thought for the lost drummer boy and the cowardly soldiers.

NorthernLife Sept/Oct 22