Apr 05 2009
Ghost Stories: Owd Nance
When I still lived in England I had a book of ghost stories, and this is one of the ones that I remember. I’ve been meaning to share ghost stories more often so I thought this one would be an interesting one to start with.
Owd Nance and her skull
This takes place around Burton Agnes Hall in Yorkshire. Burton Agnes Hall is between Bridington and Driffield, and was originally built by three sisters. They never married and inherited a good deal of money from their father, and at the urging of Anne built the hall to suit their wealth and standing. Anne organized almost everything to do with the hall’s construction, hiring architects, craftsmen, and watched over their work like a hawk. Anne was called “Owd Nance” by those who lived in the area, and they believe she watches over and haunts the place still.
One day shortly after the house was finished Anne went to visit a family who lived in a nearby town. She walked with her dog the mile or so to the village of Harpham, and set of home at night fall, as she got to St. John’s Well she saw two tramps lying on the grass near the side of the well. As she got closer to the tramps and saw how rough-looking they were she got more and more nervous given it was well known that many tramps made their way by robbing defenseless people in out of the way places such as the one she was in. But then that was why she had brought her dog with her, to protect her, so she carried on. The tramps stood up and begged for money, figuring that she should keep in their good graces, she gave them a few coins, but as she was doing so they saw the ring that she was wearing and demanded she give them it as well.
Anne refused. She had inherited the ring from her dead mother and so it was precious to her.
The tramps didn’t care. They demanded again that she give them the ring or they would take it by force. Then one of them grabbed her hand and tried to take the ring from her finger anyway. They fought, the dog barked and tried to bite the tramps, while one of them held on to Anne the other drove the dog away. Anne screamed and shouted for help. The tramp then yelled at her to be quiet and hit her on the head with the stick he’d been attacking the dog with. Anne fell to the ground, unconscious from the blow, but her screams had alerted people in the village and the tramps ran off without their prize.
The villagers found Anne, still unconscious, with a gaping wound on her head. They carried her body back to Harpham Hall and nursed her. The next day, although weak, she had recovered enough to be taken back to her home, where she was put to bed as soon as she arrived.
For many days Anne lay in pain, she continued to weaken despite the attention of her sisters and the best doctors in Yorkshire. During her days of illness she spoke often of the house that she had been so involved in building and how much she loved the place. When she was close to death she called her sisters to her and told them, “I shall never sleep peacefully in my grave unless a part of me, at least, remains in my home for as long as it lasts. Promise me, that when I am dead my head shall be taken from my body and preserved within these walls. Let it be here forever and never removed. Make it known to those who will own the house after us that if they disobey my last request my spirit will render the house uninhabitable for others as long as my head is kept from it’s home.”
Her sisters were mortified by the request, but Anne would hear no counter-argument. To calm her and appeased what they felt must be a delirious request they agreed. Although secretly they felt the idea was ridiculous and when Anne died soon after. They had her interred at a nearby church.
The sisters missed her bitterly, of course, she had been the most active of them and now that she was gone their life was not the same. They wished that she was back with them.
A week to the day after Anne’s death, the two surviving sisters were going back to bed when suddenly they heard a loud crash from one of the upstairs rooms. They rushed to the bottom of the stairs and listened. A few moments later the servants joined them, also startled by the noise, and wondering what was going on. The sisters ordered to of the male servants to go up and see what had happened, but when the men went upstairs and searched all the rooms they found nothing out of place. Everyone grew very frightened, and for a long time they stayed down there unable to rouse the courage to go to bed, but when nothing more happened eventually they went to their rooms, and after nothing else happened for a few days calmed down, but then exactly a week after the first incident, the house hold were woken in the dead of night by the sound of doors being slammed shut in every part of the building.
Sisters and servants met on the landing, disheveled and carrying candles. They kept together for support and searched the entire house. Every door was shut fast, but as they moved from one room to the next they heard crashes all around them, always from a part of the house away from where they were. The noise stopped as suddenly as it had started, but still they were worried about going on, afraid that it might start up again, but the house stood silent and eventually they decided that it was safe and went back to bed, but hardly slept.
Another week went by, and again, the house hold were woken. This time by the clatter of people running along the passageways and up and down the stairs. The house shook and thundered with the noise, until it suddenly stopped. But then a spine-chiling death groan echoed through the Hall. Then the clattering feet stormed around, and then the groan, and then the stamping feet, and again the groan, and on and on it went, so much so that no one dared leave their rooms to find out what might be causing the ruckus.
Next day most of the woman servants left the hall, unable to deal with the terror any longer. The sisters tried to calm them there had to be some other explanation than ghosts, but the servants insisted it had to be, because what else could it be? and with that they left the Hall.
At their wits end the sisters asked the vicar of the parish to visit them. They told him all that had gone on for the past month, and discussed every possible solution. During the course of the conversation one of the sisters remembered the promise they had made to Anne on her death bed, and they realized that the noises had been heard on the same night of the week on which Anne had died. Could it be that their dead sister was keeping the “threat” she had made with her dying breath? She had said she would make the house “uninhabitable” if her head was not kept at the home she loved.
The vicar and the two sisters continued discussing various options, but in the end, in desperation, the vicar finally suggested that they open Anne’s grave in the hopes they could find some sort of answer. The sisters reluctantly agreed, and the following day the vicar and his gravedigger opened Anne’s grave. When they opened the coffin itself they were horrified. Anne’s body was as it had been three weeks before when the vicar prepared the funeral robes, but Anne’s head…
Anne’s head was severed from it’s body and all the flesh and skin had shriveled away leaving just the skull.
This settled the point for the vicar and the sisters. Hideous as though her wish had seemed, the dead woman had her way and Anne’s skull was brought into the Hall.
So it was Owd Nance came home. While her skull was left in peace the house was also left in piece. From time to time new residents have tried to get rid of skull, but always have come the bangings, the footsteps, the slamming of doors, and the blood-curdling death groans.
Another legend that I remember about her skull goes:
One day a maid threw it out of an upstairs window and it landed on a horse-drawn cart carrying manure, and the horses froze right there. The drive whipped them, shouted at them, all in vain. Until the maid admitted what she’d done and the skull was retrieved. Then the horses were able to move once again.
