Welcome back to Wyrd Wessex! For this spooky Halloween special, Craig and I, Andy, have put together a couple of dark and chilling ghost stories just for you. Grab your pumpkin spice tea and get ready for tales of betrayal, curses, and restless spirits.
The Cursed Manor of Wild William
I'll start with a dark tale from Little Cop Manor in Berkshire. It's a three-house manor built in 1250, and according to legend, a curse was placed on the building that prevents its owners from having children. The story goes back to 1575 when a midwife, Mother Barnes, was blindfolded and brought to a manor to help a masked couple with a birth. After a successful delivery, the masked man snatched the newborn and horrifically threw it into a fire. This man was later revealed to be the owner, William Darrell, who became known as "Wild Will."
Mother Barnes reported the crime, but Wild Will bribed the judge and got away with it. However, he met his end in 1587 when the ghost of the baby appeared before him while he was out hunting. The sight startled his horse, which threw him off, breaking his neck. Today, the manor is a hotel and is supposedly haunted by a few ghosts from this tragic story. Guests have reported seeing the crying ghost of the mother on the landing and hearing the baby's cries.
The Screaming Skull of Bettiscombe Manor
My story takes place in Bettiscombe Manor in Dorset. This tale of betrayal and ghostly wails begins in the 1680s with a gentleman named Zyra Pinney. After his involvement in the Monmouth Rebellion, he was banished to the West Indies, where he and his family made a fortune running plantations with slave labor.
Fast-forward to the 1800s, Zyra's great-grandson, John Frederick Pinney, returned to Bettiscombe Manor, bringing with him an enslaved man who was freed but soon became ill and died. On his deathbed, the man requested to be buried in his homeland. However, due to the high cost of shipping, John Frederick buried him in a local churchyard instead.
Immediately after the burial, strange things began happening at the manor—doors slammed, windows rattled, and a haunting wailing could be heard. The village also experienced a string of misfortunes. Fearing a curse, John Frederick exhumed the body and moved the coffin to the manor's attic, where the haunting stopped.
After a few years, the body disappeared, leaving only the skull behind. Subsequent owners who tried to remove or bury the skull were met with the same terrifying screams and poltergeist activity. The story goes that the skull remains in the manor to this day, locked in a cabinet, and is known as the Screaming Skull of Bettiscombe Manor.
Houdini and the Halloween Séance
While we're on the topic of Halloween, we should bring up Harry Houdini, who famously passed away on Halloween 98 years ago. He had promised his wife he would try to contact her from the afterlife, leading her to hold séances for many years after his death. To this day, it's a tradition for magicians to hold séances on Halloween to try and contact him.
We think it would be a great idea for us to try one for a future episode of Wyrd Wessex! It's an interesting topic, especially since Houdini was a famous debunker of spiritualists, even though he was good friends with a huge believer, Arthur Conan Doyle. We'd love to try and contact him!
Wyrd News
In our weird news segment, we're talking about necrobotics (scientists reanimating spiders as tiny robots!), and a recently confirmed story from 1942 about a group of men who claimed to have chopped up and incinerated the body of the Loch Ness Monster. We also get into a debate about the psychology of mediumship, the history of spiritualist frauds, and whether we're believers or skeptics at heart.