The Vampire of Alnwick
Alnwick, Northumberland 1200s
Alnwick Castle, a castle to end all castles with it’s majesty and historical intrigue, has seen television stardom being featured in big hits like Black Adder and Harry Potter. Now owned by the Percy family, our bloodsucking tale takes us back to the 11th Century when the castle was in the ownership of Lord de Vesci.
Reportedly, supposedly and allegedly (as all folklore tales have to be prefaced with), a Yorkshire man known for his dastardly ways decided to flee his home town full of his enemies and the cold eye of the law. Needing security of some kind, this man (unnamed as far as I can see) sought work at Alnwick Castle, in which Lord de Vesci agreed to keep him as a servant. Yorkshire man, as I shall refer to him, managed to find himself a wife and the two lived in the castle where Yorkshire man served the Lord.
Yorkshire man, however, began to suspect his wife of unholy mischief (quite rich coming from him and his reputation). He decided the only way of finding out would be to set an elaborate trap to catch her in the act, instead of normal things like communication and listening. He spun a yarn to her saying he would be away from the castle for a few days and that very evening Yorkshire man climbed up into the ceiling beams above their shared chambers. He could not believe his eyes as he saw his wife bring a local man into their room and began the ‘unholiness’ he suspected her of.
So blinded by rage and confusion, Yorkshire man slipped and fell from the ceiling beam onto the cold hard floor. As he came to, he saw his wife helping him from the floor but there was no sign of a man in the room with them. She, understandably, asked what his problem was, whilst he frantically searched for the man he had just seen.
His wife, concerned that her husband had fallen sick causing these hallucinations, asked for a priest to bless him and rid him of the illness. Yorkshire man, exhausted, took himself to bed. But rest would not come to him, as he died from the injuries of his fall. Yorkshire man was laid to rest with a Christian burial. Was the religious funeral the reason for his unrest? Or do bad men always find a way to come back? Yorkshire man did not stay underground, townsfolk reportedly saw him wandering the streets of Alnwick, carrying the foul stench of death with him and attacking any unsuspecting citizen on his path. Dogs, also, seemed to hate him.
Despite the fact the Yorkshire man predated the term ‘vampire’ in the English language by about seven centuries, he seemed to take on a very vampire-esque role in Alnwick, as livestock mysteriously disappeared during the nights he would roam. Was he drinking their blood to keep alive?
As the Plague began spreading through Alnwick, and townsfolk were becoming sick and ultimately dying, there was only one conclusion to be drawn... it was Yorkshire man’s fault! Something had to be done, and on the first Psalm Sunday of the vampire’s arrival saw two brothers (who had just lost their father to the plague) decide enough was enough. They grabbed their shovels and dug up Yorkshire man from his grave... They should have found a decomposing body and yet they found the soil to be recently disturbed and the body of Yorkshire man as fresh as the day he died. Blood was caked around the man’s mouth and fresh blood poured from him.
The brothers chopped Yorkshire man into pieces and burned him on the spot, ensuring every bone and muscle was reduced to ashes. And thus ended the vampire’s reign of terror over Alnwick. The story of the Vampire of Alnwick was first recorded by William de Newburgh in the late 12th Century, William described some attributes of Vampirism with our Yorkshire man, he said the townsfolk ‘did not dare to go abroad on any errand whatever from the beginning of the night until the sunrise’, suggesting Yorkshire man could not entire society in the daylight.
William also stated that this man ‘filled every house with disease and death by its pestiferous breath’, do vampires have stinky breath? Probably... William also says that the brothers found the corpse ‘with its countenance beyond measure turgid and suffused with blood’, and why else would a dead body be filled with blood?
Perhaps I’m too influenced by the Draculas and Nosferatus of the world, but there was no mention of fangs on Yorkshire man, and certainly no mention of sexily drinking the blood from necks of young virgin women... Perhaps he was simply one of the first recorded zombies!
Sources
https://northeastbylines.co.uk/region/north-east/the-alnwick-vampire/
https://hauntedpalaceblog.com/2014/03/03/the-legend-of-the-alnwick-castle-vampire/
https://www.spookyisles.com/alnwick-bloodsucker/
https://moonmausoleum.com/the-vampire-of-alnwick-castle-northumberlands-restless-dead/#google_vignette
