Settlements don't last forever. These towns and villages all had their day before succumbing to floods, storms, economic conditions, plague or simply the requirements of cities - but there stories and the folklore they leave behind can be quite interesting. Without further ado, let's take a look at...
- The Revenants of Wharram Percy
- Scraping a Living on Samson
- The Seabirds of Hirta Island
- The Ghostly Girl of Dode
- Scar House Reservoir and Dead Man's Hill
- Doomed and Drowned Dunwich
- The Ghosts of Oxney
- The Haunted Ruins of An Port
- Divine and Devious Travelers in Fairfield
- The Flooded "Kingdom" of Mardale Green
- The Sunken Port Beneath Loe Pool
- The Ill-Fated Hampton-On-Sea
- The Lost Lands of Lyonesse
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| Doesn't look like it's be home to the restless dead, does it? (Luke Thornton) |
1. The Revenants of Wharram Percy
Wharram Percy was a medieval village in Yorkshire, thought to have been established in the 9th or 10th century and abandoned around the 16th. It may have been bult on an earlier settlement, as artefacts dating back to the 7th century have been found on the site - though it could just have been being used for grazing by earlier farmers.
Things went downhill rapidly for the Percy line in the 14th century. Raids by the Scottish seem to have caused villagers to quietly move away, while the Black Death killed even more. Eventually much of the land was turned over to sheep farming, and Wharram Percy was gradually abandoned.
That's not to say that the place doesn't have some amazing things for modern researchers to find. Perhaps the most fascinating are a collection of human remains that seem to have been mutilated and burned. Based on the strontium isotopes found in their teeth, these particular corpses were locals (so not raiders or outsiders that the villagers may have wanted to desecrate after death.) There's also no signs of cannibalism - knife marks on the bones were not near the usual locations for meat extraction. Instead, the researchers suggest that these bodies may have been intentionally and systematically destroyed to prevent them from rising after death as revenants, mischievous and malicious undead that folklore said could return to haunt the living!
2. Scraping a Living on Samson
The story goes that the last person to die was a seven-year-old girl who'd taken refuge inside the church. Her spirit (known as the Dodechild) is said to haunt the graveyard - legend claims she initially appeared on the first Sunday of the Month, but in modern times that's become once every seven years.
One version of the legend goes that they stayed overnight at an inn run by Jenny Twigg and her daughter Tib - and that was the last time they were seen alive. The two women were found guilty of the murders and hanged from the nearby Pateley Bridge.
A later version of the tale published by "The Spectator" in 1919 pointed the finger at another inn, run by Maggie Thomson and her son. Suspicions were raised when the Thomson family suddenly seemed wealthier after the disappearances - and the two were caught when they attempted (but failed) to kill another traveler.
Local legend claims that the three peddlers can occasionally be seen wandering across the moorland where they made their last journey!
6. Doomed and Drowned Dunwich
With such a gothic setting, it shouldn't be surprising that the woods have built up a bit of folklore. Local folklore features a woman in a gray coat that has a thing for messing with motorists - getting into vehicles (one encounter had the car insisting a that someone was sitting in the empty passenger seat) or leaping out to force swerves and braking. The story goes that this mysterious woman died after being knocked down by a horse and cart, perhaps explaining her grudge.
There's also been reports of ghostly highwaymen riding in the area - which would definitely be in keeping with the area's history!
9. Divine and Devious Travelers in Fairfield
10. The Flooded "Kingdom" of Mardale Green
12. The Ill-Fated Hampton-On-Sea
Frederick Ramuz (landowner and mayor of Southend) stepped up to try his luck, but once again fate had other ideas. The coastline of Kent tends towards being soft clay, meaning that it erodes quickly. This erosion can be slowed by the presence of shingle, but the original oyster pier blocked fresh shingle from washing in to "fill the gap" as it were. Soon, the sea was taking savage bites out of the coast.
During "The Great Storm of 1897" the sea itself crashed against the terraced houses (known as Hernecliffe Gardens and Eddington Gardens) which spurred attempts to mitigate the erosion. The pier was partially demolished and a wall build, but the damage was done. That didn't stop the holdout resident from clinging on - they were even joined by Edmund Reid (who worked on the Jack the Ripper case) in 1903, who did what he could to raise funds for the village... but in the end, the sea bit into their foundations and the unlucky settlement had to be demolished.
13. The Lost Lands of Lyonesse
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| Does it look like England to you? (mgpalmer) |
2. Scraping a Living on Samson
Samson in the Isles of Scilly is an incredibly strange place. Despite being off the coast of Cornwall, they have a surprisingly warm climate thanks to the Gulf Stream, an ocean current that brings warm water from Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.
The Scilly Isles have been inhabited for a long time (the Scilly Isles are covered in neolithic tombs) but Samson was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century. The residents had been literally scraping a living off the rocks, subsisting on a diet of potatoes and limpets that led to poor health and malnutrition. Even now, the roofless ruins of stone cottages have piles of cast-off limpet shells outside them. Of course, things could have been worse - in the 17th century, Samson was used as an unofficial penal colony for those deemed "undesirable" in the surrounding area!
The Scilly Isles are often linked to Arthurian legend, and Samson in particular is associated with the story of Tristan and Iseult - it's said to be where Tristan defeated the Irish champion Morholt.
Hirta was evacuated in 1930... (Duncan McNab)
3. The Seabirds of Hirta Island
Hirta is the largest island of St Kilda archipelago in the Hebrides of Scotland, a place that was officially abandoned in 1930 (though a small military garrison is stationed there to man a radar station.)
Evacuation came at the islander's request. They'd been relying on tourism for money, spending what there funds on fuel and foods from the mainland. Communication was tricky - they even resorted to sending letters to the mainland in wooden containers with a sheep-bladder float for buoyancy, dropping them into the water like a sophisticated message in a bottle. The currents would carry most of these messages to either Scotland or Scandinavia thanks to the currents.
Seabirds were a big part of the island's resources, providing meat, oil, feathers and eggs - and as such, they became an integral part of the culture and folklore. Local songs included bird-like calls, recounted tales of cliff-climbers falling to their deaths while searching for eggs or even featured the laments of maidens not brought a suitable gift of bird eggs by their suitors. On a similar theme, it was said that men wanting to prove their braver and skill to a potential spouse would stand on the "Mistress Stone" - which is a stomach-churningly precarious high rock on a stony cliff. On the other hand (or foot) an experienced St Kilda native would be incredibly familiar with navigating these hazards - and a contemporary postcard from around the 1920s allows a direct comparison between the foot of a native and a mainlander. Suffice to say, the natives had a massive advantage.
Folklore also claims that the last of Britain's great auks were killed on the St Kilda archipelago, though it's not clear if the events happened at Hirta, the nearby Stac an Armin or both. The Stac an Armin bird was slain after being accused of being a witch (a storm arrived after it's capture) while the captured Hirta bird was put to death by the "Island Parliament" after it made a huge amount of noise during the night - apparently this was enough to mark it as an emissary of evil.
Even stranger is the tale of Lady Grange. She gained the title after being married to James Erskine... whose brother led the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. James had expressed Jacobite sympathies and feared that his wife would expose him due to his infidelity - so he had her kidnapped and transported to the Hebrides. She spent around ten years on Hirta, living amongst the island folk and unable to escape.
There's one other neat island legend - Tigh Na Banaghaisgich (The House of the Queen) or "The Amazon's House." Folklore claims this ancient building was the dwelling of a female warrior and huntress that once lived in the area!
4. The Ghostly Girl of Dode
The village of Dode in Kent is said to have been built during the reign of William II of England, sometime in the 11th century. The village was more or less wiped out in the 14th century by the Black Death - but legend has it that not all the dead sleep easily.The story goes that the last person to die was a seven-year-old girl who'd taken refuge inside the church. Her spirit (known as the Dodechild) is said to haunt the graveyard - legend claims she initially appeared on the first Sunday of the Month, but in modern times that's become once every seven years.
Curiously, the abandoned village has become something of a haven for alternative religions, even featuring a modern stone circle and barrow. It's also been claimed that the site is at a conjunction of ley-lines!
It would be easy for someone to go missing on the moors... (Hannah Smith)
5. Scar House Reservoir and Dead Man's Hill
Yorkshire's Scar House Reservoir has the dubious honor of having not one but two abandoned villages - a place named "Lodge" and also the Scar village - a temporary settlement for the workers turning the Nidd Valley into the reservoir.
Given that it was a temporary village for working class folk, Scar was surprisingly luxurious for the 1920s - it even featured flushing toilets and hot water. Meanwhile, the village of Lodge was a relic from medieval times that would eventually be submerged below the water, only reemerging when the reservoir started to run dry. Scar suffered a similar fate, being abandoned once the work was complete.
Just north of the reservoir sits Dead Man's Hill. It's both a hill and a an ancient unsurfaced moorland route, once frequented by travelers and peddlers (and in modern times, ramblers and bikers.) It also comes with its own bit of dark folklore - the story goes that in 1728, three headless bodies were found buried beside the path. These unfortunates were thought to be the mortal remains of three Scottish drovers or peddlers bringing their goods from Scotland to Bradford.
A later version of the tale published by "The Spectator" in 1919 pointed the finger at another inn, run by Maggie Thomson and her son. Suspicions were raised when the Thomson family suddenly seemed wealthier after the disappearances - and the two were caught when they attempted (but failed) to kill another traveler.
Local legend claims that the three peddlers can occasionally be seen wandering across the moorland where they made their last journey!
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| Greyfriars Monastery - can you see why people think it's haunted? (Whitechappel79) |
6. Doomed and Drowned Dunwich
Dunwich isn't just a place in Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos - it's a real place in Suffolk, England, though most of it now resides beneath the waves.
Back in the Domesday Book (an old term for doomsday) of 1086, it had around five-hundred households and was considered amongst the larger settlements in England. However, powerful storms throughout the 13th and 14th centuries ravaged the town - coupled with erosion, only a few streets, eateries and a museum remain.
As you might expect, the area has built up a large stock of folklore. They say you can sometimes hear the bells of lost churches ringing underwater during storms - and interestingly, sections of churches have been found beneath the waves.
A darker tale is that of Eva, a 13th century woman who fell for a sailor - only for her lover to sail into the sunset and leave her broken hearted on the shore. In her despair, she plucked her heart from her chest and cast it into the sea. Her spirit is said to still haunt the shores, while her heart occasionally washes back up onto the shore. It's said that the heart resembles a small piece of driftwood, but picking it up will curse you with awful luck. The tale was adapted into a folksong and can be heard here.
Dunwich also plays host to the ruins of Greyfriars Monastery, which are also said to be a hotbed of the supernatural. Folklore tells of ghostly monks continuing their duties in life, a man searching for his adulterous lover and the presence of hobby lanterns - glowing lights similar to a will-o'-the-wisp that try and lure wanderers off the cliff edge. There's a story that the deadly Black Shuck (a ghostly black dog in the region's folklore) made an appearance in the ruins!
7. The Ghosts of Oxney
The deserted village of Oxney in Kent may have been inhabited for hundreds or even thousands of years before being abandoned. Now it's a vegetation-choked ghost town, concealed in dark woodlands.With such a gothic setting, it shouldn't be surprising that the woods have built up a bit of folklore. Local folklore features a woman in a gray coat that has a thing for messing with motorists - getting into vehicles (one encounter had the car insisting a that someone was sitting in the empty passenger seat) or leaping out to force swerves and braking. The story goes that this mysterious woman died after being knocked down by a horse and cart, perhaps explaining her grudge.
There's also been reports of ghostly highwaymen riding in the area - which would definitely be in keeping with the area's history!
8. The Haunted Ruins of An Port
An Port (or sometimes just Port) is an abandoned coastal village in County Donegal, Ireland. The settlement's death seems to have been a slow affair rather than a mass exodus, with people just drifting away over time - the last residents had moved out by the late 1960s.
The silvery ruins of stone cottages still dot the grass, and legend has it that Port is haunted by one of its past residents - Siobhan Neill. This unfortunate woman was the daughter of Tarlach Neill (head of "Clann Ui Bhaoill" or the O'Boyle clan) and in 1576 is said to have either drowned in the sea whilst swimming... or been murdered by her betrothed while attempting to escape an arranged marriage.
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| Eerie, isn't it? (Zoltan Tasi) |
9. Divine and Devious Travelers in Fairfield
The isolated Fairfield in Kent's Romney Marsh is an eerie looking place. The only thing left standing is a 13th century church (St Thomas a Becket) on a grassy field laced with waterways. Legend has it that an Archbishop was traveling across the marsh when he lost his footing and began drowning. He prayed to St Thomas for help, and a farmer miraculously appeared and hauled him out of the water - the church was built in gratitude for the saint's help.
The striking looks of the location have seen it used as a filming location, but in days past another sort of clientele patronized it - smugglers. Romney Marsh is pretty close to the coast, and would have been a great way to smuggle wool out or tobacco and silk into England without troubling the authorities. Many of the locals would turn a blind eye to such activities (after all, they tended to get little gifts or good prices as a reward for not making a fuss.) Several churches (including St Thomas a Becket) were thought to be involved, offering smugglers a place to conceal their wares. I guess they must have expected a generous handout for the contribution plate in return!
It's thought that there were once twenty-eight settlements in Romney Marsh, but the modern figure is down to seventeen. Varying factors (periods of violent storms, the Black Death, etc.) may have contributed to this loss of population, but the simplest explanation is that living in a marsh isn't great when you have other, dryer options!
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| England's Lake District - you can see why someone would think "reservoir" (Tobias Keller) |
10. The Flooded "Kingdom" of Mardale Green
In 1929, the Manchester Corporation was granted permission to destroy and flood the ancient village of Mardale Green in the Lake District. The location would be transformed into a reservoir to help serve the water needs of Manchester - and little thought was given for the folk who lived there or the location's history.
One of the Canterbury Conspirators (Hugh Holme) fled to Riggindale Valley after the plot was foiled in 1212. Not wanting to face King John's retribution, he went to ground in the secluded area. When the king eventually passed on, Holme elected to stay in the valley - and the locals referred to him as the King of Mardale.
The dead of Mardale Green had to do without their own graveyard until 1729. Until then, they were transported on pack-ponies over the Corpse Road to nearby Shap. History seems to have a dark sense of humor, as Mardale's dead were disinterred and moved to Shap when the reservoir was being constructed.
The village may be drowned, but its remains still occasional rise from the surface of Haweswater Reservoir when the weather is hot and water short.
11. The Sunken Port Beneath Loe Pool
The Low (or Loe Pool) is a large freshwater lake in Cornwall, separated from the sea by a sandbar. It's said to be rather dangerous for swimmers, with local lore claiming that (thanks to strong currents on the seaward side and deep waters with tangling weeds in the pool) a life is lost there every seven years.
It's thought that the River Cober that skirts the town of Helston once flowed straight into the sea, but at some point in the 13th century the bank formed across the river mouth and blocked passage for both boats and water. One local legend claims that the bar was created in a single night by a violent storm, one that tossed shingle across the river and dammed it.
It's a neat idea, but the bar was probably formed at a more leisurely pace. Geologists believe the core of the bar was formed by bits of chalk and flint washed in from the seabed thousands of years ago. There's also references to the sand bar being "cut" from time to time, allowing fresh water to escape into the sea and reducing the risk of flooding - but each time, the bar would seal itself back up over the course of a few days. If you want a more supernatural explanation, you could also look to the legend of Jan Tregeagle - the gigantic ghost of a greedy man set to perform endless menial tasks, lest the Devil drag him off to hell. One of these tasks was hauling bags of sand, and a burst sack of this sediment formed the Loe Bar!
Where things get really murky is a local tale that Helston was once a sea-harbor town, with the port facilities now lost beneath the pool. This may seem far fetched, but sonar scans have revealed what might be the remains of a harbor wall and LiDAR data suggests that the Loe could have once functioned as an estuary, provided humans maintained a gap in Loe Bar!
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| The coast of Kent erodes quickly... (Kate Russell) |
12. The Ill-Fated Hampton-On-Sea
Kent's Hampton-On-Sea was an ill-fated village. It began in the 1860s with the establishment of the Herne Bay, Hampton and Reculver Oyster Fishery Company, which led to the building of a 300m pier for boats, inland oyster pools and a set of twelve terraced houses for workers. Despite all this, the company never really took off and slowly dwindled away.
Sensing an opportunity, Thomas Freeman (owner of a local paper called "The Herne Bay Argus") bought shares in the land and set to work creating a seaside resort. Things seemed promising - an event organized to drum up interest brought so many attendees that they ran out of tea (in England, no less!) Things were not to be - Freeman succumbed to a stroke in 1880.
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| How much more land would they have had when the sea was lower? (Annie Spratt) |
13. The Lost Lands of Lyonesse
The folklore of Cornwall (and Arthurian legend in general) speaks of the lost lands of Lyonnesse, a region stretching from Land's End to the Isles of Scilly. The land was fertile and the people of fair aspect - and the crowning jewel was the city of Lions.
All that changed one dreadful night. It's not known what caused the sea to strike down Lyonnesse, but it's said that a terrible storm was followed by a colossal wave that drowned the region. The only survivor was a lone huntsman who (being far from the city) managed to ride to Land's End. Local fishermen say that one can still sometimes hear the chiming of sunken bells rising from the depths.
There may actually be some truth to the legend. Thousands of years ago, the rising sea levels may have submerged previously inhabitable land between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly. It's been suggested that the legend may be a real historical story, passed down through the ages and gently modified over time. There's even some evidence to back such a theory up - traces of submerged settlements have been found in the area, while the Cornish name for St Michael's Mount is "Karrek Loos yn Koos" or "gray rock in the wood" - which is an odd name for a tidal island!
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