Happy Spooky Saturday guys and girls. Here is another ghostly tale myself and aimee covered late in the summer last year.
Winnat pass is a limestone gorge set within the peak district in the UK. The windy roads set a scene for a rugged and majestic drive through the pass…its simply stunning and you can clearly get lost in your own thoughts whilst here.
Winnat pass is also known for its ghostly tale of two lovers, Clara and Henry – who were murdered there. Their apparition has been sighted many times a long the road and their crys heard by passerbys begging for their lives.
The story goes that that Henry (some sources say Alan) and Clara were riding to Peak Forest Chapel (some sources say greta green) to marry, as their families disapproved of their match. They stopped at Castleton on their journey and whilst staying at a public house, they met some drunken miners.
Thinking that the couple were rich due to their fine clothes, the five miners followed the pair as they rode through Winnats Pass. After dragging them from their horses and stealing £200, they murdered them and threw their bodies down a mine shaft. Although nobody was ever convicted of their murders the local legend is that all the perpetrators faced a tragic end to their lives.
Henry and Claras bodies was found some 10 years later when miners came across their skeleton remains.
A Methodist preacher Thomas Hanby, came forward some 20 years later to confess to admitting who knew had murdered them. He explained how a James Ashton of Castleton confessed on his deathbed in 1778.
Ashton described how he and his four companions, whom he named; had slit the man’s throat and then killed the woman with a pick axe, ignoring her desperate pleas for mercy. After the terrible event, the miners divided the money between them. However, after the event Ashton faced financial hardship, Nicholas Cock fell from a precipice near to the spot where the lovers lives were taken, and John Bradshaw was killed by a falling stone, also near the scene of the crime. Thomas Hall hanged himself, and Francis Butler ‘went mad, and died in a most miserable manner’ after several unsuccessful suicide attempts.
It would seem that all those involved may have had a piece of karma for their sins and suffered at the hands of their crime.
It is said that Henry and Clara are buried at St Edmund’s Church, Castleton.
Upon visiting the cave, myself and Aimee had a wonder to this graveyard to see if we could see their grave. Unfortunately, I think it could be unmarked…
Both myself and Aimee sat on the bench within the church yard and both our reaction to the story was ‘something just was not right’. I went on to say I think the story feels like a ‘curse’.
This graveyard has ghostly sightings too. A old work friend messaged me in the early hours one morning to seek advice as she was staying in one of the B&Bs that back on to the graveyard and had been awaken by a noise from outside her window. On inspection she had seen a ghostly figure within the graveyard and was not quite sure what to do and was a bit scared and didn’t want to stay the rest of her holiday within that room. She stayed…she was fine but it was a experience she always talks to me about.
When myself and aimee got to the cave, we realised that it had a sign up by the national trust stating the cave was named the ‘suicide cave’. National trust goes on to say on this sign that is this nothing more than a myth….
We looked up this information and came across a blog by Victorian Supersleuth. She details how national trust also documents it as being a myth however she had came across newspaper articles to suggest otherwise.
Of course, I had to see and one of our amazing viewers sent the articles over to me and these articles document that there was a suicide in 1927 of a couple.
The victims were Marjorie Coe Stewart, 17, and 26-year-old Henry Fallows, a motor driver. Strangely national trust dismiss the same named women committing suicide here as nothing more than a myth!….
The story goes that On Year New’s Eve, Marjorie had sent her father a telegram telling him that she had ‘gone away’ with Harry. Two years previously, her father had banned her from seeing Henry, but the couple had continued their relationship in secret. Since their departure, various family members from both sides received letters from them, but with no indication that they were planning to commit suicide.
However, it was later revealed that Fallows was already married and without work, which might be one of the reasons for taking their own lives..
Fallows, had gained quite a name for himself being in connection with a famous murder at the time and it makes me wonder if he was living with some other kind of secret.
Let’s just remind ourselves of what happened to the 5 miners who killed Henry and Carla….it seemed karma was at play for these men, was it for Fallows too?
It’s worth mentioning that this couple is also buried within St Edmunds Church too and allegedly not too far from Henry and Clara but again must be unmarked…
I don’t know why but as I said to Aimee, and we both agreed, we felt there is a connection between the two couples and maybe another connection of revenge from beyond?
We did capture a interesting catch from here, make sure to check it out.
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