LOUISA CORNELL

The thing about taverns, also known as public houses and now known by the shortened PUB, is that much of a community’s life was lived there. Every aspect of life was celebrated at the local tavern. Every type of business, legal and illegal, was conducted there. And every sort of relationship, passionate or cold, toxic or sweet, loving or murderous was often played out in the local tavern. With so much of life taking place in these microcosms of London, one cannot be surprised that the energy –  good or bad, mad or sane, saintly or evil – has lingered long after those who lived these events and emotions are gone. Don’t believe me? The next time you are fortunate enough to be in London, stop by these locals, if you dare!

TOWN OF RAMSGATE

WAPPING

62 Wapping High Street

London

Should you decide to explore the alleyway to the side of the pub that leads to the Wapping Old Stairs you might encounter the local ghost, a ghost the Thames Police have reported seeing to this day. Judge George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, (15 May 1645 – 18 April 1689) rose to prominence during the reign of James II. He became Lord Chief Justice and eventually Lord Chancellor. His loyalty to the king was without question. However, after Monmouth’s Rebellion in 1685 he was sent to the West Country to conduct the trials of those rebels who participated in the rebellion. He gained a reputation for his abuse of the attorneys of the accused, his sometimes biased application of the law and his tendency to hand out death sentences like drinks at a political rally. He became the most feared and hated judge in England.

After James II fled England and William and Mary ascended the throne, Jeffreys waited to long to follow his king to the Continent. In 1688 he disguised himself as a sailor, shaved his distinctive bushy brows, and waited at the Town of Ramsgate to catch a ship. Unfortunately, a victim of his cruelty – either an accused rebel or an attorney for same recognized the judge. He was captured by a mob at the Town of Ramsgate and narrowly missed being hanged at the top of the Wapping Stairs. He was taken to the Tower of London and died there of kidney failure in 1689.

It is said his ghost can be seen leaving the pub and trying to take the stairs down to the docks to meet the ship he missed, ever looking over his shoulder in search of the angry mob that captured him so long ago.

THE COCKPIT

BLACKFRIARS

7 St. Andrew’s Hill

London

As with all tales of gambling and blood sports, it is rumored The Cockpit is visited from time to time by the ghost of a lady who is seen wringing her hands over her lack of money because of her husband’s gambling debts. The story is she made the mistake of following him to The Cockpit to prevent him from placing yet another bet. Unfortunately the man was in serious need of anger management. He supposedly beat her to death in the cellar of the pub or in the alley just outside the cellar doors and went back to the cockfight as if nothing had happened. On dark and quiet nights one is said to be able to hear their final confrontation and to catch the poor lady bemoaning her fate.

THE SPANIARDS INN

HAMPSTEAD HEATH                             

Spaniards Road

London

Why yes, there are several associated with the Spaniards. One is cautioned not to walk across the Heath from Kenwood House to the inn, especially at night, as one might be overtaken by Dick Turpin and Black Bess as they race for their favorite safe house. Sometimes, if one stands in front of the inn late at night and listens carefully one will Black Bess’s hoof beats on the road. Some even claim to have seen her in the car park on moonlit nights. Of course, the ghost of Juan Porero, killed by his brother in a duel over a woman and buried in the inn’s garden, is said to haunt the tavern as well. The ghost of a devious local money lender named Black Dick, run down by a coach in the inn yard, is said to tug the sleeves of patrons drinking at the bar. And a woman in a flowing white gown is said to have been seen crossing Hampstead Heath to come to the inn in search of her lover, a highwayman who never arrived for their last assignation.

THE GOLDEN LION

ST. JAMES

23 King Street – London

The Golden Lion comes with its own ghost, a barmaid murdered there in the early 19th century is said to prowl the stairs to the theatre bar in search of her murderer.

THE RISING SUN                  

CITY OF LONDON

38 Cloth Fair – London

Close to Smithfield Meat Market, The Rising Sun dates back to the early 17th century, when it was originally called the Starre Tavern. Around 200 years later the pub acquired a rather grisly history. This was the time of ‘body-snatching’ when there was a market for fresh bodies for dissection and medical research. Once all the graves had been depleted, to fill the demand for bodies the body-snatchers turned their attention to real-life victims. People began disappearing from local taverns – where they were drugged and then later murdered – and it’s said that two men, John Bishop and Thomas Williams, earmarked innocent drinkers at the Rising Sun and other nearby pubs, perhaps due to their proximity to St Bartholomew’s Hospital. Indeed, the evil pair are said to have sold up to 1000 bodies to anatomists. Little surprise, therefore, that The Rising Sun is no stranger to the supernatural, with employees hearing the sound of running footsteps and feeling ghostly presences. While two employees who lived above the pub have said that a spirit would regularly pull the duvet off their bed, one former landlady felt an icy-cold hand run down her back when she was showering.

THE HOOP AND TOY

SOUTH KENSINGTON

34 Thurloe Place

London

The oldest tavern in Kensington, dating back some 500 years. When the nearby tube station was being built, while boring a tunnel, construction workers accidentally unearthed the pub’s cellar which was found to contain the bound bodies of several dead priests. It’s said they woke these souls and since that fateful day, phantom priests have been spotted around the pub, especially on the stairs, which they’re said to be using as an alternative route back to their places of worship.

THE FLASK

HIGHGATE

77 Highgate West Hill

London

The Flask dates back to 1663 It also boasts not one but two ghosts: a Spanish barmaid who hanged herself in the pub’s cellar (now a seating area) over unrequited love, and a man in Cavalier uniform who likes to appear in the main bar every now and then. Staff and patrons have reported glasses moving of their own accord, lights swaying without explanation and temperature drops. To add to its grisly past, the pub’s Committee Room is said to have witnessed one of the first ever autopsies, performed during the days of grave-robbing from Highgate Cemetery.

THE WORLD’S END

CAMDEN

174 Camden High Street

London

This pub has been a North London landmark for hundred of years. Though there are records of a tavern in the area as early as 1690, it wasn’t until the late 18th century that the Mother Red Cap (as the pub was formerly known) Legend has it that the pub is on the site of a cottage belonging to the witch Old Mother Red Cap (hence its former name). Known to practice black magic, it’s said that when she died, the devil entered her home and never left. Though no apparitions have been seen, shrieks have been heard from down below, though these could also be from the torture chambers and gallows allegedly once located in the basement.

The dark hauntings said to happen in The World’s End can possibly be traced back to a local woman, Jennie Bingham, or as she was known in the area, Mother Red Cap. Mother Red Cap, was a nickname given to a woman for one of two reasons, either as a landlord. Or, it’s more sinister reason, because a woman was a witch. And Jennie Bingham may have been both.

In life, Bingham, whose cottage stood on the site in the 17th century where the club now stands. She was known to live a life very few women would have dared to live especially in those days. She smoked, cursed like a shipwrecked sailor and reportedly had numerous lovers. Bingham, was also suspected of being in league with Lucifer and a poisoner of those she disliked. Back in the 17th century such charges could bring swift justice and the death penalty if proven.

According to legend, when Jennie Bingham was on her deathbed, Satan appeared at her bedside to collect her soul. However, it appears the devil did not get his due, as the troubled soul of Jennie Bingham is believed to haunt The World’s End.

Loud screams and blood curdling shrieks have been heard throughout The World’s End. Loud bangs and footsteps are commonly heard by staff as they open for the day or close at night. The angry wraith of Jennie Bingham has been witnessed by both staff and patrons lurking about the club. She has been known to rush those unfortunate enough to see her and scream curses into their faces.

THE TEN BELLS

SPITALFIELDS

Corner of Commercial Street and Fournier Street

London

The Ten Bells was a regular for a handful of Jack the Ripper’s victims before they met their gruesome end, including Annie Chapman, who was murdered after a night drinking in the pub. In an unrelated incident, one of the pub’s Victorian landlords was murdered with an axe and to this day, customers and staff claim to see his ghost wandering the upper floors.

The Battle of Waterloo took place on June 18, 1815. The actual battle lasted about nine hours. There are varying estimates of the combined death toll of all of the soldiers lost that day, but the most often quoted number is 50,000 men.

With so violent a battle and so high a cost, it is little wonder there are stories of those whose spirits never left that blood-soaked field. Interestingly enough, those of Flemish descent whose ancestors fought in the battle or whose ancestors lived in the area during the battle, are said to have an innate and often undesired ability to see the specters who return to the battlefield to relive the fight or who come in search of someone or something they left behind in death.

Local guides who give tours of the battlefield during the day often refuse to step foot there after dark. Locals who live in the area of the Hougomont farm, the museum, and the battlefield usually give the area a wide berth at night.

Some of the more well-known legends and sightings include:

A French soldier seen wandering the battlefield in the moonlight searching for his fallen comrades. More than one visitor has reported seeing him, especially near the Hougoumont Farm.

Another famous ghost is The Lady in White, thought to be the spirit of a woman who tended the wounded and dying soldiers. She is often seen near the Mont-Saint-Jean Farm which was used as a hospital during and after the battle. She is sometimes seen on the battlefield still in search of wounded soldiers to tend.

Locals often claim to hear the sounds of drums, battle cries, horses and cannon fire at midnight as if the battle never ended.

For an interesting account of a skeptic perhaps converted by his own experience check out this intriguing blog post.

http://hauntedohiobooks.com/news/a-clairvoyant-vision-of-the-battle-of-waterloo/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFi6KBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUnF3B__VLpBR55fVeJ4nDunczN8f6S2nxNu7jviMR-YTBjwE0DNodIjng_aem_q60beDjio8go_ga7nE2uPA

One of the items on my bucket list is to climb to the top of the Lion’s Mound at midnight and allow the profundity of that place to fill me.

I for one do not find it hard to believe a place where so much sudden and violent death took place still retains the spiritual energy so much agony and sorrow produced. As the Duke of Wellington said:

“Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained”

To immerse yourself in the non-military, military, and very human side of the Battle of Waterloo through first-hand accounts I humbly suggest our own Kristine Hughes’s book Waterloo Witnesses. The accounts she has collected, discusses, and weaves together to create a picture of the lives, loves, hopes, fears, triumphs, and tragedies of the people who actually lived this momentous point in history will allow you to see the hearts, minds, and souls that will remind us of the price of war and of the spirits of those to whom we owe so very much. Perhaps some of the very people whose personal accounts she has recorded still walk the battlefield in search of what they lost and what they gave to free the world of tyranny.

Perhaps, though, the very best words ever written about that momentous campaign are the first-person accounts recorded as events unfolded. It is these vivid accounts that Kristine Hughes has collected together in order to convey the hopes, fears and aspirations of their authors. They inject the story of the battle with a level of humanity that reclaims it from the realm of legend and restores it to the people who witnessed it.

https://www.amazon.com/Waterloo-Witnesses-Military-Civilian-Accounts/dp/1399003623

ONE OF THE MOST HAUNTED PUBS IN LONDON

WITH GOOD REASON!

THE PROSPECT OF WHITBY

WAPPING / TOWER HAMLETS                                                                   

57 Wapping Wall, London

LOUISA CORNELL

The Prospect of Whitby is one of London’s oldest pubs and it is believed to be the oldest riverside pub on the Thames. There has been a pub on this site since 1520 which means it existed during the reign of Henry VIII. In fact, the original flagstone floor is still visible in the pub today. Four hundred year old craftsmanship endures.

The first pub on the site was called the Pelican. Because of its proximity to the river it quickly became a den of cutthroats, pirates, thieves, highwaymen, and many other unsavory denizens of the area. Larger ships had to berth in the middle of the river and goods were ferried to shore in smaller boats by men called lightermen. This made it easy for criminals to steal from the ships, and The Pelican often served as a base for these felons to disperse their stolen goods. In spite of the name on the sign, because of the constant nefarious activity the tavern eventually became known as the Devil’s Tavern. Of course, with this sort of clientele the local prostitutes congregated here as well.

Naturally with the large criminal contingent in attendance, the tavern also claims its proximity to the execution dock used to hang those condemned to death by the Admiralty Courts. To this day there is a scaffold and hanging noose outside the tavern. Wapping Old Stairs next to the tavern was where some of those sentenced to death – usually pirates – were chained to posts to await the incoming tide and death by drowning.

Like the Town of Ramsgate pub, the Prospect of Whitby was a favorite of the Hanging Judge George Jeffries (1645-1689) (see the Town of Ramsgate post.   https://numberonelondon.net/2021/05/historic-pub-crawl-town-of-ramsgate/) Once he began to frequent the establishment, the criminal element moved their activity elsewhere, or at least conducted their activities out of his sight. He had a special window built in the tavern that overlooked the execution dock so he could watch those whom he had condemned die. To this day people have reported seeing a man’s face gazing out the window where Jeffries used to sit. In an interesting side note, Jeffries supposedly had the bodies of those hanged dumped into the Thames. The body snatchers hid out in boats along the river’s edge to fish out the bodies and sell them to local medical schools.

The most famous criminal hanged at the execution dock at the Prospect of Whitby was Captain William Kidd. Ironic, as the Scottish sea captain was originally appointed by the Crown to hunt down pirates. He discovered piracy was much more profitable than hunting down pirates. He did quite well for a while. Unfortunately, in 1698 he captured The Quedagh, which was sailing under a French pass. The captain, however, was an Englishman and the rich cargo Kidd took was property of the East India Company. Kidd was eventually captured and brought back to London where he was sentenced to death for piracy and for the murder of one of his own crewmen (in 1697) who had dared to cross him.

It took three tries to execute Captain Kidd. The first two ropes broke. The third one held and once he was dead his body was dipped in tar and hung by chains on the banks of the Thames as a warning to other pirates.

After a fire in the early nineteenth century the tavern was rebuilt and renamed. As the owners had tried everything to disassociate their tavern from its dangerous reputation, for a while they had removed all signage. Those who wished to direct someone to the tavern would say “You want the tavern across from the Prospect of Whitby. The Prospect of Whitby was a collier that berthed next to the tavern. The ship hauled coal from Newcastle on Tyne to London. Eventually the directions were shortened to the Prospect of Whitby and the owners of the newly rebuilt establishment decided to adopt the name permanently. Much more amiable a name than The Devil’s Tavern. Even with the new name a few of the tavern’s more lucrative activities continued. The cock fighting pit and the bare knuckle boxing arena were in use well into the nineteenth century.

Of course the pub claims its more upstanding celebrity visitors as well. The diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was said to have had supper at the tavern quite frequently. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was known to visit as well. The artists J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) and James Abbott MacNeill Whistler (1834-1903) both visited and made sketches of views from the pub.

Is the pub haunted, you ask?

According to customers from the eighteenth century forward, the Prospect of Whitby is the grand central station of riverside hauntings. To name just a few:

Supposedly one is often accosted walking to the pub at night by the waterlogged ghosts of the men hanged or drowned at the execution dock in search of their bodies taken by the body snatchers. Other similar ghosts are said to be in search of Judge George Jeffries to exact revenge.

The ghost of a young woman dressed in a doublet, breeches, and smoking a pipe is often seen sitting in the dark corners of the pub watching guests drink. Supposedly, she was a moll cutpurse – a woman who would sidle up to unsuspecting (translation:drunk and in search of feminine company) men and cut their purses from their belts. She is believed to have been caught by one of her marks before she could get away and the gentleman beat her to death in the back of the tavern. One wonders if she is visiting the pub these days in search of her next mark.

Oh, and remember that fire in the early nineteenth century? The cobblestone streets around the tavern all but guarantee it is shrouded in fog at night. The cobblestones retain heat and the cold night air pulls that heat out as fog. The fog was even thicker in the nineteenth century when horse and foot traffic kept the roads heated at all times. As a result it was not unusual to see shapes, but nothing clearly, if one happened to stroll by the tavern after closing time. However, people began to say they saw lights in the Prospect of Whitby long after the owners had closed up and gone to bed. Not just lights, but lights enough to see clear through the pub to the river. And in those lights they saw a figure moving about the tavern. A figure very like that of Captain William Kidd. Eventually the owners decided they did not want people coming to the pub after closing in an attempt to see the mysterious figure. So one night they decided to leave the lights on in the tavern. Big mistake. That very night a fire broke out in the back of the tavern and burned nearly to the execution dock. If not for the newly inaugurated fire brigade the fire might have spread throughout the dockside buildings. Needless to say once the tavern was restored the lights were left out after closing. Just in case. A vengeful Captain Kidd is not to be trifled with.  

These days there is no need to imagine what the pub might have looked like when pirates, cutthroats, and thieves occupied the tables there. From the rickety stairs to the stone-flagged floors to the crooked doors and heavy rum flagons the Prospect of Whitby looks very much as it did then. For a trip back in time to the swashbuckling days of yore, this pub is definitely worth a visit. Just pay attention to sudden chills and the hairs on the back of your neck!

Originally published in 2012

Perhaps it’s the season, but it occurred to me recently that, between us, Victoria, Jo and myself have visited an inordinate number of graves in our travels. We even visit graves that are graves no longer – I can well remember that visiting the site where Henry Paget’s leg was (formerly) buried in Waterloo was the highlight of my visit to the battle re-enactment.

When I cross the pond in December, I plan to visit Mary Delaney’s grave in St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, as it will literally be just across the road from my hotel and, oddly, I’ve overlooked it in the past. I’ve also got the Duchess of York’s pet cemetary at Oatlands on my agenda and the pet cemetery in Hyde Park. It’s curious that, centuries on, we continue to visit the gravesites of people we admire. What compels us to do so? I have no answer to that question, regardless of the fact that I’m one of the guilty. Perhaps its a feeling of “one-ship” with the dead person, a chance to quietly reflect upon their lives in solitude at the spot of their last resting place. Odd beings, we humans, but in case you doubt the number of graves we at Number One London have under our belts, I’ve rounded up some evidence and present it below.

Mary Robinson’s grave in Old Windsor (Kristine and Victoria)

The Duke of Wellington’s memorial, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London (Kristine and Victoria)

 The mausoleum at Bowood House (Victoria)

Update: Since this post was originally published, I have, indeed, made it to Mrs. Delaney’s grave and to the pet cemetery at Oatlands, as well as to a few other grave sites along the way:

Happy Halloween!

LOUISA CORNELL

Anyone who knows the Brits knows at least these two things.

1. No one does ceremony as well or for as many events as them.

2. No one assigns specific places to specific events as well as they do.

What else might account for the existence of specific routes known as corpse roads recorded from as early as the medieval era? In fact, some research indicates they might well have been assigned and traveled from a time as far past as the Neolithic period. But more about that later.

These paths were known by a variety of names and whilst many are lost and long forgotten, some are still apparent and even marked by signs. Their names included:

Corpse road                                     Burial road

Coffin road                                       Lyke road or way

Bier road                                           Funeral way

Lych road or way                             Church way

NOTE: Lych is the Old English word for corpse.

Now that we have the “what” out of the way, let us discuss the “why.”

Up until the late 16th to early 17th centuries the larger mother churches in England reserved the right to conduct burials for themselves. And for a very good reason. Burials brought in money to the church’s coffers. As a result, many people who died in rural villages or any distance from a mother church had to be conveyed to these churches for a proper burial. Most of these people were poor. Many did not own a horse or a cart, and if they did, these equipages could not be spared for the long trip to one of these churches. They had work to do at home.

Therefore, more often than not, the dead person had to be carried by men from home or from their home village great distances on foot to be afforded the aforementioned proper burial. Generally the party consisted of eight men who worked in teams of four in a procession that might consist of simply those eight men or might include those members of the family and even friends who could afford to take the time to attend. However, most of the time, the body was conveyed separately over the corpse road whilst the mourners traveled a more direct route.

It is important to remember that quite a few people during these eras could not afford a coffin. Many villages and most mother churches had a coffin that was used to convey a body from home to the church. It would then be left at the church for the next person to use. This multi-use casket could be made of wood or could be made of wicker, a large human-sized wicker basket with two handles on each side. In these cases, bodies were buried in shrouds.

A few logistics when it comes to corpse roads…

Corpse roads could be as short as five or six miles and as long as ten to sixteen miles. The corpse road from Keld to Grinton in Yorkshire, known as the Swaledale Corpse Way is every bit of sixteen miles.

Corpse roads were not a strictly British tradition. There were and are corpse roads all over Europe. Most of these, however, are lost to history. As late as the 19th century Ordinance Survey maps in Britain still documented 42 of these funerary ways.

The directions and locations of corpse roads were determined by a few factors. Some of these factors were practical. Some, frankly, were deeply seated in tradition and superstition.

Practicalities

1. The corpse roads tended to go immediately away from the village. No one wanted a corpse carried by their front door.

2. There was a bit of folklore about corpse roads that declared any road by which a corpse traveled became a public right of way. There is no legal evidence to support this, but even 19th century landowners still posted signs that forbade any funeral processions from crossing their property. This meant large swaths of land were removed from the possible route of a corpse road.

3. There were two schools of thought on the actual path of a corpse road. Some parts of Britain held the belief that spirits of the dead could only travel in a straight line. Therefore routes were planned in a straight line from a particular village to the mother church in order to ensure the spirit traveled with the corpse all the way to the burial ground. They didn’t want him hanging about in fields or worse in taverns along the way because he got lost and couldn’t find his way to his own funeral.

There was also a theory that a coffin sterilized the land along the way it was carried because the dead were forced to walk that path until their soul was purged. Those who believed this made certain the corpse road was a straight route which meant the way passed over whatever terrain was in the way in order to achieve that straight line.

The other school of thought was that since spirits could only travel in a straight line, the corpse road needs must be a meandering path to ensure the spirit did not find its way back home. This accounts for some of the wandering, twisting turning aspects of some corpse roads. As much as one might love the dearly departed, one certainly did not want him showing up at the supper table two weeks after the funeral.

The tradition of the straight line is rooted in those ancient burial routes mentioned at the beginning of this post. Neolithic earthen avenues called cursuses linked burial mounds. In fact,  these routes ran for miles, and as seen especially from the air are straight, or straight in segments, connecting funerary sites. There is even one just outside Stonehenge.

4. In aid of keeping that straight line route, corpse roads passed over every sort of terrain imaginable with little to no thought as to the effort it might take to haul a corpse over said terrain. A section of the Pennine Way follows the historic corpse road from Garrigill to Kirkland over Alston Moor and over Cross Fell, a height of 893 meters. In the 16th century, one funeral party, overcome by a snowstorm, reputedly abandoned the coffin on the fell for a fortnight.

5. All corpse roads were set to cross water at some point in the journey. Whether it be a stream, a brook, or a river the path had to take the party carrying the corpse over water. Why? Because spirits supposedly could not cross over water. Once the body crossed water there was no way a spirit could find his or her way back home.

6. Routes often were extended in order to avoid passing over farmers’ fields. This was due to the belief that should a corpse pass across a farmer’s field that field would be soured and never again produce good crops. Anyone traveling in the UK today will often see an unploughed strip of land along the edge of fields wide enough for two men to walk abreast. These strips were left deliberately so that the corpse road could travel along the fields without crossing and souring the land.

Superstitions

As one can perhaps imagine, there are a great many superstitions associated with corpse roads. Some had explanations. Some defied explanation, but they were held steadfastly by those who were raised to believe them. Which accounts for some of the odd quirks associated with traveling and reaching one’s final destination on a corpse road.

1. Throughout the route, the corpse is carried feet first to the graveyard. In other words the body must be carried with the feet pointed away from the departed’s home. Why? To prevent him from finding his or her way home.

2. The coffin was never to be placed on the ground for the coffin-bearers to rest. Why? Apparently there was a chance if the coffin touched the earth the spirit of the departed might wander off. Therefore, flat stones, known as coffin rests or corpse crosses, were established along the corpse road so the bearers might place the coffin there and rest before continuing on their way. This was often where the team of bearers would switch out so as not to tire themselves along the way.

These coffin stones were usually found in lonely places away from any houses or villages. Many had their own legends attached to them. The one found on the corpse road between Keld and Muker in Yorkshire lies on Kisdon Fell just over Ivelet Bridge. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of a headless black dog. No explanation. Just a headless black dog hanging about the coffin rest.

As you can see, the coffin rest came in a variety of styles, but they all served the same purposes – to give the bearers a rest and to keep the departed from wandering off on the way to his or her funeral.

3. The corpse candle is another tradition associated with the corpse road, especially in Wales, the land of my ancestors. This was a mysterious light that supposedly was seen traveling a corpse road the night before a death. The light would be seen traveling from the churchyard to the front door of the person destined to die and then back to the churchyard. This was the spirit of the soon to be departed tracing the route they were about to take.

The light would travel close to the ground and disappear into the ground where the burial was to take place. Some said the lights were the spirits of the dead trying to lead travelers astray. Other legends declared them to be the spirits of unbaptized or stillborn babies caught between heaven and hell.

4. Crossroads were considered the most dangerous part of a corpse road. According to superstition, crossroads were where the veil between this world and the next and this world and the underworld was at its thinnest. It was believed the devil could appear at a crossroads. Crosses were placed at these intersections (hence the name) to protect travelers from the devil and any wayward spirits who were lost on their way to the graveyard. Other talismans called witch balls were also hung at crossroads. A witch ball consisted of a bottle or enclosed glass vessel which contained threads and charms. The threads were there specifically to ensnare passing spirits thus trapping any evil or negative energy and keeping the way safe for the living.

The final stop

Once the bearers reached the mother church there was one last tradition that marked the end of the corpse road. The bearers would take their burden to a specific door or gate at the church and wait for the clergy to come and assume responsibility for the body. Members of the clergy and their staff would be in charge of making final preparations to the body for burial. Here was also where the community coffin would be left for the next person in need of it.

These doors were often called leper doors and the gate was called the lych gate. (Remember, lych was the Old English word for corpse.) Again these gates might be very simple or quite elaborate. My first encounter with a lych gate was in the village of Kelsale in Suffolk where I lived for three years as a child.

For more about lych gates check out our earlier post on the subject.

https://numberonelondon.net/2017/06/meet-me-at-the-lych-gate/

Corpse Roads Today

As stated at the beginning of this post, many of these corpse roads are still known and visible today. In fact, hikers include these pathways on their lists of places to hike throughout the UK. There are, in fact, road signs that will direct hikers to these roads when possible. Some of the most popular are:

Ambleside to Grasmere, Cumbria

Black Mountain, Carmarthenshire

Lych Way, Devon

Coffin Route, Outer Hebrides

Buttermere Corpse Road, Cumbria

Kintail, Highland

Garrigill to Cross Fell, Cumbria

Swaledale Corpse Way, North Yorkshire

The obligatory ghost story

Of course there are ghost stories aplenty associated with nearly every corpse road in England. Along the Elksdale Corpse Road there is the story of the family who made the mistake of carrying their departed son on horseback to the mother church. Crossing Burnmoor the mist was thick and eerie. Something spooked the horse which took off with the coffin and body strapped on his back. The party searched and searched but found neither the horse nor the son.

The news of what had happened to her son’s corpse so devastated his mother that she collapsed and died. Low and behold, the funeral party had not learned their lesson. The horse on which they conveyed her body took fright and bolted as well. In their search for her they found the son’s horse, alive, body and coffin still strapped to his back. However, no matter how far and wide they looked they never found the mother or her horse.

To this day there are reports of a ghostly horse with a coffin strapped to its back appearing out of nowhere to frighten the wits out of anyone foolish enough to follow the Elksdale Corpse Road.

Some advice? Don’t hike the corpse roads at night. Even the locals won’t do that. Just in case.

“Now it is that time of night, that the graves all gaping wide, every one lets forth his sprite, in the church-way paths to glide.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

William Shakespeare