Dark Histories Farrant, Manchester & The Highgate Vampire
Early Highgate Ghost Stories
- Thornton heard a bell while photographing Highgate Cemetery, then saw a tall spectre and lost consciousness.
- Bourne encountered a shadowy figure with red glows for eyes, radiating immense evil and causing intense fear.
Farrant's First Encounter
- David Farrant, a Wiccan and psychical investigator, spent the winter solstice of 1969 in Highgate Cemetery.
- He saw a 7-foot-tall figure with non-human eyes, sparking his investigation into the Highgate vampire.
The Vampire Hunt Begins
- Farrant and Manchester's differing theories on the Highgate vampire led to public disagreements and media attention.
- A televised documentary on Friday, March 13th, 1970, fueled public interest and led to crowds of vampire hunters at Highgate.
In the 1970s, the shadowy depths of Highgate Cemetery, London became the centre of what would go on to become an enduring urban legend. As two men, both with their own views on what the cemetery was hiding, dug deep into their investigations of the grounds, reports spread of a dark, otherworldly figure stalking its overgrown graves. Sometimes tall, sometimes with glowing red eyes, and other times with a dark, top hat, the press reports of the unknown figure stoked a public fear of a secret occult world that lay just out of sight, crawling beneath the surface of an otherwise decent society.
SOURCES
Saker, hugh (1958) Baby Sacrifice Probe By CID. The Daily Mirror, Fri 19 Dec 1958, p3. London, UK.
Lucas, Norman (1958) Baby Sacrificed: Probe Starts. Daily News, Fri 19 Dec 1958, p5. London, UK.
Farrant, Della (2015) Haunted highgate. The History Press, London, UK.
Adams, Paul (2014) Written in Blood: A Cultural History of the British Vampire. The History Press, London, UK.
Ellis, Bill (1993) The Highgate Cemetery Vampire Hunt: The Anglo-American Connection in Satanic Cult Lore. Folklore, Vol 104, 1993. The Folklore Society, Worthing, UK.
The People (1895) The Highgate “Ghost”. The People, Sun 29 Sep 1895, p3. London, UK.
Manchester, Sean (1975) The Highgate vampire: the infernal world of the undead unearthed at London's famous Highgate Cemetery and environs. London, UK.
Farrant, David (1997) Beyond the Highgate Vampire: A True Case of Supernatural Occurrences and Vampirism That Centred Around London's Highgate Cemetery. London, UK.
Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail (1970) Vampire Hunt In London. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, Sat 14 March 1970, p1. Hartlepool, UK.
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