***Paranormal Metrou***(imported post) Highgate Cemetery History The cemetery opened in 1839 and it was part of the plan of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries outside of London. During that time, church cemeteries were unable to cope with the number of dead people which needed burial. The cemetery was initially designed by Stephen Geary. The cemetery was originally dedicated to St. James by Right Reverend Charles Blomfield. Two acres were for Dissenters and fifteen acres were for the use of the Church of England. The rights of burial were sold to people for a limited period or for perpetuity. Just like the other burial places included in the Magnificent Seven list, Highgate became a very fashionable place for burials. Even people who had no deceased relatives or friends in the cemetery came to visit and admire it. During the Victorian times, Gothic tombs were made with wealth and pageantry. The South-facing hillside site of the cemetery is spectacular. The grounds of the cemetery are full of wild flowers, shrubbery and trees. All of these things grew without human influence. There are also lots of animals in the grounds, such as foxes and birds. Some of the most notable parts of the cemetery are Egyptian Avenue and Circle of Lebanon. The oldest part of the cemetery has an impressive collection of mausoleums and gravestones from the Victorian era. There are also tombs carved elaborately. Today, admission is strictly limited to tour groups. The newer sections can be toured without any escort. The cemetery houses illustrious names which are admired the world over. Some of the famous people buried in the cemetery are Karl Marx, Feliks Topolski, Jane Arden, William Michael Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal and Ellen Wood. Besides having such famous people buried there as Karl Marx, Douglas Adams, and the parents of Charles Dickens, Highgate Cemetery has long been known for its ghosts, sinister activities, and other strangeness, including: • The most famous spook in this cemetery is The Highgate Vampire, who is not really a vampire in the classic sense, but a phantom that is described as a 7-foot-tall, dark male figure with piercing, hypnotic eyes and wearing a long black coat and high top hat; he seems to vanish into thin air. There have been several dozen sightings and encounters since the late 1960s. • A man whose car broke down near the cemetery came face to face with a ghoul with glowimg red eyes that peered at him through the graveyards iron gates. • The ghost of an insane old woman has been seen racing among the gravestones, her gray hair flowing behind her as she searches for her children, whom she allegedly murdered. • A dark shrouded figure has been see standing stock still and staring into space. When it is approached, it vanishes then reappears a short distance away, still staring into the void. • A businessman was terrified by a phantom that jumped over the fence and landed right in front of him. He described it as having pointed ears, glowing eyes, and large nose. This might have been the infamous Spring-Heeled Jack. • The floating ghost of a nun has been seen passing over the graves. Designated Grade I on the list of English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Highgate Cemetery has two parts, the East and West Cemetery. With more than 170,000 people buried and 53,000 graves, Highgate is not only a cemetery but a nature reserve, as well. Ghosts of Highgate Cemetery, London Monuments to the dead in Highgate Cemetery became more and more ambitious and families started to outdo each other desperately on providing ostentatious resting places for their loved ones. However, by World War II the cemetery saw its fortunes dwindling and the once proud necropolis was then abandoned. Rumours about cults meeting in the cemetery and holding ceremonies in the ruins of the cemetery started. The local newspaper, Highgate Express and Hampstead started receiving letters from frightened individuals who went through various ghostly encounters. One man wrote that his car was broken down near the cemetery and he was terrified to have seen an apparition with red eyes glaring at him through the gates of the cemetery. Another man who was walking down Swains Lane was knocked on the ground by a creature which seemed to glide from the walls of the cemetery. The gruesome creature just dissolved into thin air when an approaching car shone its headlights on the man. There is also the story of a ghostly cyclist who was working his way up a steep incline and frightened young mother almost out of her wits. It was also once suggested that a vampire was on the prowl in the cemetery and this led to a barrage of cameras, television crews and journalists coming to the cemetery. The hunt for the un-dead was underway but unfortunately, they did not find any. The cemetery’s history and reputation has made it one of the most visited places in the UK for people who would like to investigate or experience the paranormal. Highgate and the Macabre No Victorian cemetery would be complete without some macabre tales, and the one that stuck me most was that of Elizabeth Siddall. Elizabeth was the beautiful wife and muse of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the foremost Pre-Raphaelite painters, and herself a talented artist. Elizabeth died tragically young, only 32, possibly as a result of addiction and depression. She was buried in 1862 by a grief-stricken Dante Gabriel who tenderly placed a sheaf of manuscript poems by her cheek – how romantic. But Elizabeth was not to rest in peace for long. In 1869 Dante Gabriel must have been feeling considerably less grief-stricken and romantic because he ordered her exhumation in order that he could retrieve his manuscript….Hmm. The Highgate Vampire First reports of the Highgate Vampire In the 1960s and early 1970s, many people reported to the local newspaper, the Hampstead and Highgate Express that in the early evening they had seen a figure that they took to be the Highgate Vampire inside Highgates Western Cemetery near the main gate. The phantasm was described as a tall, red-eyed man wearing a black cloak and tall black hat. When the newspaper published the reports, thousands of people flocked to the cemetery in the hope of catching a glimpse of the spectre. At that time, the Western Cemetery was in an appalling condition. The graves and tombs were overgrown and the graveyard was vandalised. Bones could often be seen falling out of rotting coffins and also from those coffins that had deliberately been set ablaze by vandals. The cemetery even had its own satanic sect that frequented the place after dark. The used the easily obtained bones along with small animals which they caught and killed, in their rituals. Raising ghost Raising Hell A group calling itself the, British Psychic and Occult Society decided to investigate the Highgate Vampire. Members visited the cemetery one night, cast a protective circle and attempted to invoke the demon. The police had been warned and when they turned up, the society members scattered. Their president, David Farrant, was caught and arrested. A wooden stake was found in his possession. It was pretty obvious the use to which they planned to put it. At the subsequent court case, Farrent was acquitted because Highgate Cemetery was legally open to the public at any time of the day or night. The society allegedly gave up its investigations of the vampire in 1973. However, David Farrant was again in court in 1974 in connection with Highgate Cemetery. He was charged with maliciously damaging a memorial, interfering with a dead body, attempting to influence witnesses and, most seriously, possession of a firearm. For this latter offence, Farrant spent some time in prison. One writer, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, in her book Vampires Among Us suggested that the Highgate Vampire was nothing more than Farrant in costume because the sightings ceased upon Farrants incarceration. Shades of Dracula However, David Farrent wasnt the only one looking for the Highgate Vampire. Sean Manchester of the British Occult Society said that he was investigating phenomena at the cemetery in 1967. He claimed to have discovered several girls who had the traditional puncture marks on their necks after they had visited the cemetery. A couple of them even involuntarily sleep-walked. In this state, one girl is supposed to have made her way back to the cemetery at night and Manchester saved her by throwing a crucifix in her path. Manchester told the media the date when he intended to lay the Highgate Vampire and hundreds of people turned up to watch. Despite police being there, Manchester and his friends managed to make a hole in the roof of a tomb. Inside they found three empty coffins. These, they sprinkled with garlic and holy water and put a circle of salt around each. But the mutilation of the corpses and the killing of small creatures did not end with this exorcism. Sometime later, the body of a woman was found in the middle of a path. She had been dragged from her grave, her head had been cut off cut off and a wooden stake had been driven through through her heart. King Vampire If all this was not bizarre enough, in 1973 Sean Manchester claimed to have found the King Vampire in a black casket in an abandoned house in Highgate. He and his assistant dragged the casket outside and kicked in the lid. In the book which Sean Manchester wrote, he describes the occupant as having, Burning, fierce eyes beneath black furrowed brows stared with hellish reflection. Yellow at the edges with blood-red centres, they were unlike any other beast of prey. Manchester claims that he drove a wooden stake though the ghouls heart, covering his ears from the fearful scream as the body turned to brown slime. The casket and body were then burnt on a bonfire built for the purpose. Unfortunately, Manchesters assistant who was supposed to record events was so upset that he forgot to film anything. Isnt it always the way! Highgate Cemetery Today The people interred in Highgate Cemetery can now rest in peace. The vampire has gone and those intent on desecration can no longer get in at night. In 1975, the Friends of Highgate Cemetery was set up. They cleaned up the graveyard, provided proper gates and had the remains they found out of place respectfully re-intered. The FOHC now provide a guided tour of Highgate Cemetery which is absolutely fascinating. However, of the Highgate Vampire they will make no mention. One thing that the tour did not mention was the legend of the Highgate Vampire. This legend seems to have begun sometime in the late 1960′s, the cemetery was neglected and overgrown and attracted not only vandals but those interested in the occult. There appears to have been some reports of strange goings on the cemetery and in Swains Lane: reports of dead foxes and of a tall dark figure with burning red eyes (Christopher Lee – I wonder?) scaring dog walkers and generally lurking in a sinister way. In 1970 an occultist called David Farrant contacted the local newspaper the Ham and High Express and the legend was born…further sightings were recorded (although accounts often varied) and it was proclaimed by Farrant that the figure had Vampiric characteristics and that he and the British Occult Society that he was part of would exorcise it. Another flamboyant figure, Sean Manchester, appeared at about this time. The ‘Bishop of Glastonbury’*[please refer to comments section for more information] soon became a rival vampire hunter and a bitter enemy of Farrant (so much so that the best ‘hammer horror’ tradition he is alleged to have challenged his nemesis to a magical duel). Whatever the truth of the legend, the impact was devastating. On the night of the ‘vampire hunt’ hundreds of ‘vampire hunters’ (many valiantly armed with cans of beer), stormed the police cordon around the cemetery and began basically trashing the place. Needless to say no vampire was found. During the whole Highgate Vampire frenzy not only were monuments damaged but vaults were broken into, corpses attacked and even beheaded. One gruesome story is that a local resident found a headless corpse sitting behind the steering wheel of his car. This might sound funny, but really, it’s not, these desecrated corpses were not vampires or demons, just ordinary people who had hoped to rest in peace. Perhaps the real vampires of Highgate were Farrant and Manchester who fed off the media hype they created. A modern tragedy Burials are still carried out in the Cemetery, and one of the modern interments the tour visited was that of Alexander Litvinenko the Russian exile and spy buried in 2006. Litvinenko was poisoned using Polonium after taking tea with two of his Russian contacts, he died from the effects of the posion. I still remember the news footage showing him fighting for his life in his hospital bed. He is buried here because the Victorian vaults are lead lined and therefore radiation proof. His story reminded me that everyone buried in Highgate, however long ago, was once a living breathing individual with their own personal story. And that one day, despite our iphones and our apps we will all be dust just like them.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 01:40:03 +0000
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