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Boogymen, Bogeymen & Boggarts

I'm very excited to report that my Society's excavation project next year will be on a site attached to one of the many Boggart folktales.
Old Hall Farm, Spaldington, East Yorkshire is built on the site of Spaldington Hall, an Elizabethan manor house which was the home of the Vavasour family and was supposedly haunted by a boggart known as Robin Roundcap.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobgoblin
The story (printed in the Goole Times in 1875) is identical to the more famous boggart at Boggart Hole Clough near Manchester and various other versions of the story.
The Vavasour family were staunch recusants and our dig will attempt to find the remains of a chapel in the grounds which was destroyed soon after the Reformation.
Now here is one for the folklorists, is it possible that this story became attached to Spaldington Hall because of the Vavasour's heretical beliefs?
I will report back if any supernatural events occur!
 
A friend who was a bit of a handy lad being a amateur boxer lived near Boggart Hole Clough in Manchester, the local Bobby would not go near the place on is own and would call and ask my mate to go with him, my mate said there were many strange noises but he thought it was due to the wind blowing through tunnels under the place.
 
I have a few times have meet a few people who I believe had no soul.

I could see it in their eyes and I think killing somebody would not even bother them.

These people really gave me chills.
 
charliebrown said:
I have a few times have meet a few people who I believe had no soul.

I could see it in their eyes and I think killing somebody would not even bother them.

These people really gave me chills.
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Do you think they would qualify as boggarts or bogeymen, or just as psychopaths?
 
I know , I didn't say please. Please...@frankiefelix
 
Well, we paid our first visit to Old Hall Farm, Spaldington on Tuesday to discuss our project plans with the owners. What a place it is! As well as talking shop, the conversation obviously turned to the ghostly reputation of the place. Apparently they have been visited a number of times by various ghost hunting groups with little to report. They all asked about the well that Robin Roundcap was trapped in (Google it!) which tells me that they didn't do much research before visiting..
However, the owners related quite a few tales of thumps and bumps in the night and various 'poltergeist' type incidents, one involving an old bedside teas-maid (which was never used for making tea!) where a milk jug would always be found on the floor.
3 generations of the family have lived in the property and one story I found particularly interesting was told by the owners daughter. She remembered that when she was a girl she asked her grandfather why he had all of his framed pictures on the floor propped up against the wall. He told her that it was pointless to hang them as they would never stay on the wall.
Interestingly, the family said that things are a lot calmer now and I wonder if this is due to there now being no children around.
We will be back on site in a couple of weeks to do some geophys so more to learn hopefully!
 
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My grandma, an old Lincolnshire country girl born around 1914 I think, was full of local folklore - she would often entertain us as kids - 'Don't go down such and such a Lane there's a bogart lives down there'.
Lincolnshire then (and now) has many isolated villages often lonely spots.
 
Blind Davey said:
My grandma, an old Lincolnshire country girl born around 1914 I think, was full of local folklore - she would often entertain us as kids - 'Don't go down such and such a Lane there's a bogart lives down there'.
Lincolnshire then (and now) has many isolated villages often lonely spots.
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I wonder if 'boggart' wasn't occasionally used to warn children away from predators of a more human persuasion, just as 'Jenny Green-Teeth' was used to keep children away from deep water.
 
eziofan said:
I'm very excited to report that my Society's excavation project next year will be on a site attached to one of the many Boggart folktales.
Old Hall Farm, Spaldington, East Yorkshire is built on the site of Spaldington Hall, an Elizabethan manor house which was the home of the Vavasour family and was supposedly haunted by a boggart known as Robin Roundcap.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobgoblin
The story (printed in the Goole Times in 1875) is identical to the more famous boggart at Boggart Hole Clough near Manchester and various other versions of the story.
The Vavasour family were staunch recusants and our dig will attempt to find the remains of a chapel in the grounds which was destroyed soon after the Reformation.
Now here is one for the folklorists, is it possible that this story became attached to Spaldington Hall because of the Vavasour's heretical beliefs?
I will report back if any supernatural events occur!
Click to expand...
Well, after some online detective work I think I have made the connection between Spaldington's Robin Roundcap and the sprite of Boggart Hole Clough. Spaldington really is a tiny little village so I couldn't really see how it could have an identical story to a village 70 miles away across the Pennines.
Well, while researching the local lords of the manor during the Elizabethan period (the Vavasours) I discovered that in 1680, Mary Vavasour of Spaldington married Sir Ralph Assheton of Middleton, which just happens to be 3 miles away from Boggart Hole Clough! A coincidence? Could be, but.......
 
eziofan said:
Well, after some online detective work I think I have made the connection between Spaldington's Robin Roundcap and the sprite of Boggart Hole Clough. Spaldington really is a tiny little village so I couldn't really see how it could have an identical story to a village 70 miles away across the Pennines.
Well, while researching the local lords of the manor during the Elizabethan period (the Vavasours) I discovered that in 1680, Mary Vavasour of Spaldington married Sir Ralph Assheton of Middleton, which just happens to be 3 miles away from Boggart Hole Clough! A coincidence? Could be, but.......
Click to expand...

That's rather nice!
 
I am in need of the services of the collective Fortean hivemind! I am currently researching the activities of a sprite known as Robin Roundcap which is said to haunt Spaldington Hall in East Yorkshire. I have encountered a number of references to this particular sprite but it seems the name does not appear in print until 1875 in an article in the Goole Times. In his autobiography dated 1834, Snowden Dunhill, a notorious local criminal, mentions a fairy haunting Spaldington Hall but does not give it a name.
So, your mission, should you wish to accept it, can you find an earlier written mention of Robin Roundcap before 1875?
 
eziofan said:
I am in need of the services of the collective Fortean hivemind! I am currently researching the activities of a sprite known as Robin Roundcap which is said to haunt Spaldington Hall in East Yorkshire. I have encountered a number of references to this particular sprite but it seems the name does not appear in print until 1875 in an article in the Goole Times. In his autobiography dated 1834, Snowden Dunhill, a notorious local criminal, mentions a fairy haunting Spaldington Hall but does not give it a name.
So, your mission, should you wish to accept it, can you find an earlier written mention of Robin Roundcap before 1875?
Click to expand...
I'm busy this evening but I'll have a gander through the books tomorrow.
 
eziofan said:
I am in need of the services of the collective Fortean hivemind! I am currently researching the activities of a sprite known as Robin Roundcap which is said to haunt Spaldington Hall in East Yorkshire. I have encountered a number of references to this particular sprite but it seems the name does not appear in print until 1875 in an article in the Goole Times. In his autobiography dated 1834, Snowden Dunhill, a notorious local criminal, mentions a fairy haunting Spaldington Hall but does not give it a name.
So, your mission, should you wish to accept it, can you find an earlier written mention of Robin Roundcap before 1875?
Click to expand...
I found barely a mention among my books, unfortunately. Certainly no mention of sources predating the Goole Times article.
 
There's a well! That's the OS grid reference in column three. I'm thinking that you might be able to look for it on pre 1875 maps?

http://www.halikeld.f9.co.uk/holywells/east/eindex.htm


1705867711603.png
 
Adding further well info from the always useful and much missed Source journal. https://insearchofholywellsandhealingsprings.com/?s=spaldington

Robin-Round-Cap Well, Spaldington (SE 761 336)


Spaldington is a hamlet 4 miles from Howden. Until 1838 there was a fine Elizabethan mansion here, where Robin-Round-Cap is said to have made his home. He is a fairy figure, also known as Robin Goodfellow, who is connected with wells in the East Riding of Yorkshire. At times Robin was good-natured and helped the people of the mansion, assisting in the threshing and butter-making; but at other times he became exceedingly mischievous, knocking over the milk pails, putting out the fire, and re-mixing the winnowed wheat with the chaff. Three clergymen were called to charm him or pray him into the well, which has since borne his name; he was compelled to remain there for a given number of years, and to agree to molest the family no longer.
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which gives a definite link between well and entity, if you choose to go down that route.
 
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Frideswide said:
There's a well! That's the OS grid reference in column three. I'm thinking that you might be able to look for it on pre 1875 maps?

http://www.halikeld.f9.co.uk/holywells/east/eindex.htm


View attachment 73127
Click to expand...

The 1889/90 25”/mile OS map reveals that, unfortunately, there were numerous wells in Spaldington; but surprisingly not apparently one at Hall Farm ( the site of the former hall):

IMG_1553.jpeg


Green circle indicates the well recorded as nearest the farm; red circles other wells ( not exhaustive)

The relevant map: https://maps.nls.uk/view/125643025

maximus otter
 
Frideswide said:
Adding further well info from the always useful and much missed Source journal. https://insearchofholywellsandhealingsprings.com/?s=spaldington



which gives a definite link between well and entity, if you choose to go down that route.
Click to expand...
Thanks Frideswide. The Robin Roundcap well was within the grounds of Spaldington Hll which was demolished in 1838 and Old Hall Farm was built on the spot. The 1851 OS map shows one well by the labourers cottages next to the farm and a pump (presumably over a well) in the courtyard of the farm. The one by the cottages has been filled in but the one in the farm is still there. Unfortunatley we have no way of knowing whether that well was there when the hall was still standing and therefore candidate for Robin Roundcaps Well.
 
maximus otter said:
The 1889/90 25”/mile OS map reveals that, unfortunately, there were numerous wells in Spaldington; but surprisingly not apparently one at Hall Farm ( the site of the former hall):

View attachment 73143

Green circle indicates the well recorded as nearest the farm; red circles other wells ( not exhaustive)

The relevant map: https://maps.nls.uk/view/125643025

maximus otter
Click to expand...
Thanks Maximus. Our excavation will be taking place in the grounds of Hall Farm, basically where the cross shows the site of the Church. Confusingly, just South of our site is a later Spaldington Hall which was built much later than the Elizabethan building on our site.
 
Erinaceus said:
This map is a bit later but there is a small circle to the right of the word "Inn". Might it be a well? It seems to be at SE 761 337. SE 761 336 is beside the road.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.0&lat=53.79391&lon=-0.84440&layers=161&b=1


View attachment 73130
Click to expand...
Thanks Erinaceus. Our site is to the left of the old Inn on the over side of the road. Unfortunatly, that map is not detailed enough to show the wells. On that scale that circle is about 10 metres wide!
 
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