8 Iconic Vampires in England
Stories of English vampire folklore are few and far between despite the popularity of vampire creatures in modern books and movies.
But the few tales that come from England are enough to keep you up at night. If you’re looking for a fright, here are eight vampires in England and the most horrifying British vampire folklore from across the ages.
8 Terrifying Vampires in England
The Revenant of Buckinghamshire
The first of our vampires in England is from William of Newburgh, about a medieval monk in the Augustinian order. In his Historia, William chronicles the tale of a husband wishing to lay with his wife. This, in itself, isn’t a noteworthy story, but the husband, a respected citizen of Buckinghamshire, England, had unexpectedly died and been laid to rest by his wife and family.
The night after the interment, the wife was awoken by a weight next to her; she slowly turned to find the dead body of her husband lying next to her. Terrified, the wife lay watching her husband until the sun rose, when he wandered back to his tomb.
The next night, the wife had friends and family lay in wait for her deceased husband to reappear. When he attempted to climb into his wife’s bed chamber through the window, the watchers were able to overpower the corpse and chase him off. He began to riot in the fields, attacking animals and villagers that got in his way.
When word of the revenant reached the ears of the Bishop of Buckinghamshire, he demanded that the husband’s tomb be exhumed. The bishop placed an absolution in the form of a letter of pardon upon the chest of the husband in order to cleanse his sins.
Following the blessing, this English vampire never rose from his grave again.
The Revenant of Alnwick
In the Yorkshire village of Alnwick, an evil man guilty of committing many crimes and, on the run from the law, settled down with a young woman in the town. But convinced of her unfaithfulness, he hid in the rafters of their home to catch his wife with another man. The plan backfired as he fell from the rafters and hit the floor so hard he died upon impact. He was buried, his sins intact.
A few days after his burial, the man was seen wandering the streets of the town, viciously attacking passersby when he found them. Shortly after this, a terrible plague befell the town, and he was blamed for the misfortune.
So upset at the ill fortune that had befallen the town, a group of men exhumed the corpse to find he wasn’t decomposing but had a ruddy complexion and just a small trickle of blood running from his lips.
At the gruesome sight, one of the men proceeded to hack the corpse to pieces, taking the remains and burning them to ashes before spreading them into the wind.
After this, the revenant was never seen again, and the plague no longer afflicted the town.
The Legend of Hunderprest
The next story of a vampire in England takes us to Scotland. On the Scottish border, there is a medieval building called Melrose Abbey. Its occupant, for a time, was an evil priest by the name of Hunderprest. Despite being a servant of God, Hunderprest was a cruel man, even to the woman who enlisted him as her personal chaplain.
Upon his death, he was interred in a tomb, only for him to rise and wander the countryside attacking priests and the women he ministered.
He attempted to enter Melrose Abbey, but the priests were able to drive off the fiend. His former employer, on the other hand, was less lucky.
The priest attacked her and feasted on her blood until she was drained. Following this, the monks of the abbey ambushed the priest, and one was able to land an axe blow upon the revenant.
They followed the wounded Hunderprest back to his tomb, where they dragged him out and set him ablaze, watching the vampire burn in screaming agony. Finally, the British vampire priest of Melrose was no more.
The Vampire of Anantis Castle
Our final story from William of Newburgh tells the tale of a Yorkshire man who took refuge in Anantis Castle, probably to evade the law.
In life, the man had been a terrible person, and in living undeath, he was equally as malicious. The English vampire’s stench poisoned the very air around him, and he could be seen fleeing a pack of howling dogs the devil himself had sent after him.
The townsfolk began to die, and before long, the population was almost depleted. Before the vampire eradicated the whole town, two brothers dug up the vampire’s corpse, finding it bloated and red.
The brothers struck it with their shovel, and it erupted with blood. They cut out the English vampire’s heart and burnt the body, destroying the creature for good.
The Hunchback of Alnico
The hunchback of Alnico is the English vampire folklore story of a hunchbacked vampire that inhabited the Northumberland castle of Alnico during medieval times. The castle itself is said to have been the inspiration for Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, and its resident plagued the town by feeding on the blood of the townsfolk.
Under the cover of darkness, the creature would descend from the quiet refuge of the castle to bring terror, death, and disease to the people, preying on the weak and the vulnerable.
Eventually, the people of the town grew tired of being afraid and preyed on, so a group of villagers with pitchforks cornered the English vampire in the castle and set fire to his flesh, reducing him to ashes. When the smoke settled, the town was finally free of the nighttime terror.
The Croglin Vampire
The Croglin vampire was active in the small town of Croglin following the English Civil War. There were tales of a humanoid creature with long, spindly fingers and brown, sinewy skin that hunted young women at night.
The creature began frequently visiting one young woman at night, draining her of blood and leaving her weak and ill. One night, the young woman’s brothers, who had suspected foul play, ambushed the vampire as it came to feed. One of the men injured the creature with a gunshot to the leg, and it fled into the night.
This allowed them to track the vampire to its tomb, where they found it sleeping in its coffin.
The brothers smashed the coffin apart and set the vampire alight in his slumber. After the ordeal, some claimed that the Groglin vampire had actually been a murderous madman who had been preying on the sister. Whatever the truth about this vampire in England, the attacks at night ceased.
The Blandford Vampire
Our final stop is in Dorset, in the town of Blandford. According to the vampire legends of the area, a man named William Doggett stole a considerable sum of money from his master while he was away travelling abroad.
Upon the master’s return, Doggett was so terrified that his theft would be uncovered that he took it upon himself to end his own life.
But this was not the end of Doggett. For a century afterwards, he was seen prowling the streets of Blandford in a black carriage pulled by jet-black steeds, attacking women in the street to feast upon their blood.
When the English vampire was disinterred, it was found to show no evidence of decay. But what happened to the unfortunate Doggett has never been recorded.
Modern British Vampires
English vampire folklore stories have fallen by the wayside as popular culture and books, TV shows, and films take over.
But there have been some cases of supposed vampire attacks in the last one hundred years.
During the 1930s, in Surrey, a woman claimed she was being hunted by a vampiric creature who repeatedly tried to bite her neck and suck her blood. But this was eventually dismissed as an escaped zoo creature.
Even more recently, in the early 2000s in Birmingham, several people contacted the police alleging they had been attacked by a vampire, with one woman claiming that it bit her hand and took a chunk out of it. This was also dismissed as an urban legend and a lunatic.
Final Thoughts on Vampires in England
It’s interesting how few British vampire folklore stories there are, considering we’re now fascinated by the lore. Even so, there are some gruesome vampire stories dotted throughout English history that make you wonder… are they the ravings of superstitious townsfolk or the whispers of vampiric creatures that once skulked in the shadows?
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