Above BONE OF CONTENTION: The skull at Burton Agnes Hall is said to be that of Anne Griffiths, known as ‘Owd Nance’, whose ghost is also said to haunt the Hall. But no Anne Griffiths is recorded as living at Buron Agnes. © Fortean Picture Library Right CURSE YOU: The screaming skulls of Calgarth (Cumbria). An illustration from Elliott O’Donnell’s Famous Curses (1929). © Fortean Picture Library
north in Cumbria, the skulls of Calgarth Hall are the best known (see ‘Curses!’ in Paranormal, issue 27); others in that county are at Threlkeld Place, Hayfell, and Brougham Hall. The stories of ‘screaming skulls’ demonstrate two aspects of human nature that are still active today: the widespread (though rarely acknowledged) belief in the power of magic to protect against evil spirits, and also the inventiveness of human storytelling. It is possible that very little
‘Poltergeist phenomena broke out … and calm only returned when the skulls were replaced on the Bible.’ of any of the tales is factual, and even the reported poltergeist effects may simply be a way of emphasizing that the skull should never be removed from the house it protects. Forced removal and burial by people who do not subscribe to the belief in the power of a skull has not been followed by any retribution at all. The imagined effects are always far more powerful than the reality, which tends to be rather more prosaic. ‘Screaming skulls’ therefore throw a fascinating light on magical beliefs and human nature.
(The most comprehensive description of ‘screaming skulls’ is Andy Roberts and David Clarke, ‘Heads & Tales: The Screaming Skull Legends of Britain’, in Fortean Studies Volume 3 (John Brown Publishing, 1996). There are full descriptions of the most famous skulls in Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson, The Lore of the Land (Penguin Books, 2005); and for heads generally, see John Billingsley, Stony Gaze: Investigating Celtic and Other Stone Heads (Capall Bann Publishing, 1998).) @
Janet Bord
Janet Bord lives in North Wales, where she and her husband Colin run the Fortean Picture Library, the premier collection of images of the weird and unexplained. Singly or with Colin, Janet has written more than 20 books on folklore and mysteries since their first successful joint venture, Mysterious Britain, in 1972.
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JULY 2009 //// www.paranormalmagazine.co.uk Paranormal Magazine