There are told of certain houses many weird skull stories, the popular idea being that if any impious hand should be foolish enough to move, or in any way interfere with, such grisly relics, death and misfortune will inevitably overtake some member of the family. I had heard so many stories of screaming skulls in various parts of England that I determined to find some haunted skulls myself - or the people who have seen them.
I put an advertisement in the newspapers... "Will anybody who can give me information about haunted skulls please send particulars or telephone me.." The advertisement produced some surprising letters, and some bizarre telephone calls. One voice said: "If you want to hear all about a famous haunted skull come to Burton Agnes, near Driffield, Yorks. This village has been mixed up with the mischievous habits of a haunted skull for 300 years. It still breaks loose occasionally and goes spinning along the lanes like a travelling humming top. Everybody here calls it 'Owd Nance.' It plays bowls with itself; and puts up bottles in a row and throws itself at them with terrific gusto... chuckling and screaming all the time."
Now it isn't often that you hear of a skull which has remained "active" for 300 years. This telephone message was therefore of particular interest. I decided to investigate. Burton Agnes is a very beautiful spot possessing sturdy cottages, a hoary twelfth century Manor House and a stately Hall built in 1598. It has a magnificent old church, containing several tombs of the Boynton, Griffiths and Somerville families. Members of the Boynton family have lived at the "new" Burton Agnes Hall for three hundred years.
About "Owd Nance." Well, it all started in the days of Sir Mathew Boynton, who was enrolled a baronet in 1619. He married the daughter and heir of Sir Henry Griffiths of Burton Agnes - thus the Hall passed to the Boynton family. A painting of the three Miss Griffiths, daughters of Sir Henry Griffiths, may be seen in the small hall at Burton Agnes. This portrait introduces the original owner of the skull - "Owd Nance" - who is the spirit which haunts this ancient mansion. The skull of the lady sat grinning on a table in the great hall for some hundreds of years, and at times it caused "most diabolical disturbances," resenting any attempt to bury it or even hide it in a cupboard.
One of the girls, Anne, was brutally attacked by robbers and died as a result of her injuries. She was buried in the church of Burton Agnes. Before she died, she said: "Never shall I sleep peacefully in my grave in the churchyard unless I, or a part of me at least, remain here in our beautiful home as long as it lasts. Promise me this, that when I am dead my head shall be taken from my body and preserved within these walls. Here let it for ever remain, and on no account be removed. And make it known to those who in future shall become possessors of the house that if they disobey this my last injunction, my spirit shall, if so able and so permitted, make such a disturbance within its walls as to render it uninhabitable for others so long as my head is divorced from its home."
Her sisters, to pacify her, promised to obey her instructions, but without any intention of keeping the promise, and the body was laid entire and unmutilated under the pavement of the church. About a week after the interment, as the inhabitants of the Hall were preparing one evening to retire to rest, they were alarmed by a sudden and loud crash in one of the upstairs rooms. The two sisters and the domestics rushed up together in great consternation, but after much trembling came to the conclusion that some heavy piece of furniture had fallen. The men servants, of whom there were two in the house, went upstairs to ascertain the cause of the noise, but were not able to find anything to account for it.
Nothing more occurred until the same night in the following week, when the inmates were aroused from sleep in the dead of night by a loud banging of doors. Things went from bad to worse. The noises took place on the same night of the week that Anne had died, and then the sisters remembered her dying words, and their promise that some part of her body should be preserved in the house; also her threat that if her wish were not complied with she would, if she were so permitted, render the house uninhabitable for others, and it appeared evident that she was carrying out her threat.
The question then was: What was to be done in order to carry out her wish! A clergyman suggested that the coffin should be opened to see if that could throw any light on the matter. This was done the following day, when a ghastly spectacle presented itself. The body lay without any mark of corruption or decay, but the head was disengaged from the trunk, and appeared to be rapidly assuming the semblance of a fleshless skull. This was reported to the ladies, who, although terrified at the idea, agreed to the suggestion of the vicar that the skull should be brought to the house. So long as it was allowed to remain undisturbed on the table where it was placed, the house was not troubled with visitations of a ghostly nature.
Many attempts have since been made to rid the Hall of the skull, but without success; as whenever it has been removed the ghostly knockings have been resumed, and no rest or peace enjoyed until it has been restored.
R. Thurston Hopkins, Aberdeen Evening Express, Monday 21st December 1953.
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