The Croglin Vampire

This story dates from just after the English Civil War 1650's. The owners of a nearby ` Croglin Low Hall' rented out the farm to two brothers and their sister - a Miss Cranswell. Their first winter passed peacefully - not so the summer. Miss Cranswell lay in bed when she noticed a dark shape moving towards the house, then she heard scratchings at the window. Then the dark shape swiftly came through the window, its long bony fingers in her hair and its mouth at her throat - it bit her. She screamed, it fled. She later rationalized it as an escaped lunatic and went away to recover. She returned in Winter. All was well until one night in March there was a terribly familiar scratching at the window. Staring in at her was a brown shrivelled face and she saw its long bony hands picking at the lead of the window. She screamed and her brothers rushed in armed with pistols but the creature fled. The brothers went after it and saw it moving towards the graveyard. One aimed and fired and hit it in the leg. They lost it. Next day the brothers summoned their neighbours who as it turned out also had been having visits from the creature with their young daughter sustaining bite wounds to her throat - they had thought that this had been caused by a rat. When they realised what had happened they joined forces with the brothers and made their way to the graveyard. One of the locals had heard rumours that a particular vault had been disturbed so they opened it up. All around were smashed coffins with the remains mangled and strewn across the floor - except one - they lifted the lid and there they saw the shrivelled and mummified figure that had moved as if alive the night before. To confirm their fears they looked at its leg and found a recent wound from a pistol ball. They set alight to the coffin and burnt the vampire in it.

Croglin is a quiet village nearby at the foot of the Northern Pennines. No one ever appears to be on the streets and the local pub which we have visited several times appears deserted. There also seems to be plenty of 'for sale' signs.