The Vampire of Croglin Low Hall

The Vampire of Croglin Low Hall

Surprise! You’re getting a bonus story for Halloween! And like the last post, this one focuses on another staple of the holiday: the vampire. Today’s story is a classic encounter with this bloodsucking fiend, in one of the last locations anyone would expect to find one lurking: merry old England.

In 1870, two brothers Michael and Edward Cranswell, along with their sister Amelia rented Croglin Low Hall in Cumberland, England. They never could have known this when they signed the lease, but it would prove to be the worst decision of their lives. At first, everything was normal. The Cranswells settled in over the winter and spring, made new friends and had a great time in general.

But that summer, the terror began. On one particularly hot day, Amelia found herself struggling to sleep. As she stared out the window, she spotted something that didn’t belong on the grass outside. Two lights with no discernible were dancing around the nearby trees. Worse still, the glow seemed to be an attempt at preventing her from spotting a mysterious figure heading straight for her window.

Amelia knew she should get out, but the door was right by that window, and she didn’t think she could escape before whatever was coming reached her, based on the speed it approached at. She also found to her horror, that her mouth was paralyzed, keeping her from screaming for help. Then the stranger moved as though it was trying to go around the house and Amelia started running for the exit.

Unfortunately, it had been a trick, and to her horror, Amelia saw a brown face with burning eyes staring at her. She thought she was safe, as the window was firmly latched, but the creature managed to pick the lock with its’ bony fingers and come in. And then it sprung upon the poor young woman.

Hearing Amelia’s screams, Michael and Edward broke the door down, and saw their sister lying in a pool of blood, caused by injuries to her shoulder and neck. Peering out the window to spot Amelia’s attacker, one of the brothers saw the creature fleeing, and chased him into the nearby churchyard, losing him among the tombstones.

As it turned out, Amelia was not the only woman who this vampire had attacked in the neighborhood, with assaults going back as far as 1804. Following this night of blood and horror, the family decided to leave the area so she could recover. However, as they had leased the house for seven years, after Amelia was well, she insisted on returning there, because they were unlikely to find a similar rental that fit their needs.

But when the Cranwells came back, they came back armed. Once again the winter was fine, but this time, their unwelcome visitor showed up in March. The same events started to replay themselves, but Amelia was able to scream before it could attack her, and the brothers chased the monster onto the front lawn, pistols in hand.

One of them shot the creature in the leg, but it still managed to make its’ way back to its’ lair, scuttling into a tomb belonging to a long dead family. The next morning, the mausoleum was opened. The bodies within were strewn everywhere, but one coffin remained intact, and its’ lid was slightly ajar.

When it was taken off, the corpse was not in a similar state of decay to the others’ and the telltale bullet was found in the correct leg. Following this discovery, the creature’s remains were taken out and burned beneath a nearby holly tree (which the locals believed would help ward off evil), putting an end to the monster of Croglin Low Hall.

Today, visitors to the area can still see the churchyard the fiend came from, and the stump of the holly tree where the creature’s corpse was destroyed underneath. However, if you’re looking for the window the vampire of Croglin Low Hall used to gain access to Amelia, it has now been bricked over, with horseshoes covering where it was, just in case.

Sources:

The Inhumanoids

https://www.davidcastleton.net/vampire-croglin-grange-cumbria-england/

https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605661h.html