Highgate Vampire Episodes of alleged vampire activity reported in Highgate Cemetery in north London. The case reached a peak in the media in the early 1970s, but reports of vampire activity continued for years.
Consecrated in 1839, Highgate Cemetery is famous for its Victorian crypts and tombs, which lend it a spooky atmosphere. Rumours of ghosts and dark figures moving about the Cemetery at night are a permanent part of its
history.
The Highgate Vampire case began around 1967 with reports of a phantom figure seen gliding about the older, western side of the cemetery at dusk. Dead animals, mostly foxes and other nocturnal creatures, began to appear in nearby Waterlow Park and the cemetery. The animals reportedly were lacerated around the throat and drained of blood. In February 1970, the local press speculated on the presence of a vampire, and suddenly the âHighgate Vampireâ was a sensation.
A mass vampire hunt by self-proclaimed Vampire Hunters was organized for the night of Friday, March 13, 1970. Hundreds of vampire hunters invaded the cemetery, armed with wooden STAKES, GARLIC, and CROSSES. No vampire was found, but the cemetery suffered vandalism and theft damages amounting to ÂŁ9,000 to ÂŁ10,000. The vandals left behind graffiti and the exhumed remains of a female CORPSE, and stole lead from COFFINS.
As lurid stories fueled more interests, vampire hunters and the curious continued to enter the cemetery at night. In 1974, a group of vampire hunters claimed they had found the vampire and had destroyed it, but others disputed this.
In October 1975, the Friends of Highgate Cemetery was formed to protect the interests of Highgate Cemetery as a national monument and historical burial ground, to represent the interests of grave owners, to secure public access to the grounds and to sponsor conservation of the cemetery. To discourage occult activity and vandalism, the cemetery was closed at night and access was severely restricted.
From 1977 to 1980, mysterious animal deaths were reported in the areas near Highgate Cemetery. The bodies of pets and various small wild animals were found with wounds in their throats. It was speculated that dogs or wild animals were the culprits, but the âvampire theoryâ also stayed in circulation.
SEE ALSO:
FURTHER READING:
- Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Vampires Among Us. New York: Pocket Books, 1991.
- Slemen, Thomas. Strange But True: Mysterious and Bizarre People. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1998.
SOURCE:
The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters – Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley – Copyright © 2005 by Visionary Living, Inc.
It is natural that this large, dramatic Victorian cemetery should be the subject of ghostly rumours. What is more startling is that its most notorious spectre has been classed as a vampire, since physical revenants have scarcely figured in British folklore since medieval times, and blood-sucking ones are unknown. The Highgate Vampire owes his title to the literary and cinematic Dracula tradition, in which Draculaâs London base is represented as being in the Hampstead/Highgate area. When the apparition was first discussed in the local press in 1970, it was merely called a ghost.
The publicity was initiated by a local group interested in paranormal phenomena; they began roaming the cemetery in the late â60s, and on 21 December 1969 one member, David Farrant, spent the night there and glimpsed a very tall figure with inhuman, hypnotic eyes. He wrote to the Hampstead and Highgate Express on 6 February 1970, asking if anyone else had seen anything similar. On the 13th, several people replied that there was a tradition of a âtall man in a hatâ seen either in the cemetery or in Swains Lane, which runs alongside it; there was also a ghostly bicyclist said to chase women down Swains Lane, a woman in white, a face glaring through the bars of a gate, a figure wading into a pond, bells ringing in the disused cemetery chapel, and voices calling. Some related personal experiences:
âMy fiancĂ©e and I spotted a most unusual form about a year ago. It just seemed to glide across the park. I am glad someone else has spotted itâ ⊠âTo my knowledge the ghost always takes the form of a pale figure and has been appearing for several yearsâ ⊠âSuddenly from the corner of my eye I saw something move ⊠which seemed to be walking towards us from the gates, and sent us running up Swains Lane as fast as we couldâ ⊠âMy advice is to avoid Swains Lane during dark evenings, if at all possible.â
Hardly two informants gave the same story â quite a common situation when famous local âeerie placesâ are discussed â but this natural diversity was about to be subsumed into a single melodramatic image.
Besides Farrant, another local man, Sean Manchester, was keen to identify and eliminate the supernatural entity in the cemetery. He told the Hampstead and Highgate Express on 27 February that he had seen corpses of foxes drained of blood, and deduced that what the paper called a âKing Vampire from Wallachiaâ had been brought to England in a coffin in the eighteenth century and interred on the site which later became Highgate Cemetery, and that modern Satanists had roused him; unfortunately, said Manchester, the traditional staking, beheading, and burning were now illegal. The paper gave this the headline âDoes a Wampyr [sic] walk in Highgate?â The influence of the Dracula story is blatant, but Farrant took the same line, and the label stuck.
The ensuing publicity, enhanced by an escalating rivalry between Farrant and Manchester, culminated in an ITV interview with both of them on Friday 13 March. Within two hours, a mob of would-be vampire hunters from all over London, and beyond, swarmed into the cemetery and were with difficulty expelled by police. Over the next few years, Farrant and Manchester both independently explored the cemetery with their supporters, claiming to find traces of black magic; both conducted rituals of exorcism; each poured scorn on the otherâs expertise. The affair received further press publicity when rumours arose that the rivals would hold a âmagical duelâ on Parliament Hill on Friday 13 April 1973, which never came off; and when Farrant, who had persistently entered Highgate Cemetery at night to conduct ceremonies, was jailed in 1974 for damage to memorials â damage which he insisted had been caused by Satanists. The feud between Farrant and Manchester has remained vigorous to this day; both continue to investigate and combat various supernatural phenomena, and both have written and spoken repeatedly about the Highgate events, each stressing his own central role.
The Highgate Cemetery vampire has featured in several books of popular ghost lore, and inspired various Halloween pranks; it looks set to become a permanent part of Londonâs folklore.
SEE ALSO:
SOURCE:
Haunted England : The Penguin Book of Ghosts – Written by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson –
Copyright © Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson 2005, 2008