Over the weekend I decided to visit a Grave belonging to a Richard Smith. His grave is situated in a graveyard in hinckley in lecistershire in the UK and over the years there as been a rare phenomena associated with it…it bleeds.
In 1727, Richard Smith had got into an argument over the name of a pub within hinckley with a sergeant – called Simeon Stayne.
Simon was a recruiting officer sergeant for the army, and was standing in Regent Street, informing a crowd of potential new soldiers about the benefits of joining the army.
Simon had suggested to the crowd that the George Inn was named after King George II, however Richard disagreed with this and began to heckle him and said that it was actually named after St. George.
Losing his patience, Simon struck Richard with a halberd leaving Richard in a pool of blood on the floor. Richard who at at time was only 20, died from his wounds.
Simon fled hinckley after the attack but was Soon found and arrested and sentenced to death for Richards murder.
According to folklore, the grave of Richard is alleged to sweat blood on the anniversary of his murder – 12 April.
DEBUNKED?
However the phonemona was debunked by F. Bedford who wrote a guide on the phonemona. He suggests that the gravestone used to be positioned under a block of ironstone by a window of the church. He thought that the ‘blood’ being sweated was actually due to some sort of chemical reaction of water dripping from this block on to the gravestone.
The gravestone has since been moved away from the church wall to another location within the churchyard to preserve the grave.
However, visitors still feel that Richard’s spirit is still in turmoil over his death to this day.