History and Haunting of: Shapeshifter of Hergest Court ,Kington , Herefordshire ,England .U.K
History and Haunting of:
Shapeshifter of Hergest Court ,Kington , Herefordshire ,England .U.K
Black bull
Legend has it Black Vaughan came back as a ghostly black bull
Black Vaughan was a Lord, living around five centuries ago at Hergest Croft in Kington.
Phil Rickman says: Every Lord in those days was fairly well feared, but not every Lord was supposed to have devastated the town from the other side of the grave.
Black Vaughan is supposed to have appeared in the market place after his death, as a black bull, and to have so devastated Kington church that an exorcism was carried out, according to Alan Lloyd:
Let's imagine an autumn night, twelve priests accompanied by a wise man from over the mountains, a young mother with a day old child to show innocence, and as many local people as dared to come.
One by one the candles, for this was a bell, book and candle exorcism, were snuffed out - evidently by the spirit of Black Vaughan.
The twelve priests went to their knees and stopped reading from the bible, except for one, the wise man from the Black Mountains, who by heart recited passages from the bible - he didn't need a candle.
He persevered until eventually the spirit of Black Vaughan was reduced to the size of a blow fly. . The ghost made one humble petition—’Do not bury me beneath water’. But the parson immediately had him enclosed in a stone box, and buried him under the bed of the brooks and Hergest thenceforth was at peace.”
Others say he was Buried under the slab just off Offa's Dyke path along the spine of Hergest Ridge
Hergest Court
It is also reputed that the Red Book of Hergest was found here (a large vellum manuscript written shortly after 1382, which ranks as one of the most important medieval manuscripts written in the Welsh language.) from which the Mabinogion were compiled. The court was originally surrounded by a moat.
There are many dark and horrible stories of the evilness of Black Vaughan, who apparently changed his appearance at will and frequently turned up as a bull – scaring the living daylights out of women on a regular basis, more bizarrely he was thought to turn himself into a fly to spook horses. The black dog that was his companion was thought to have been the ghost of Sir Thomas’ own dog, and it was this story that many believe inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write the Hound of the Baskervilles after he stayed at Hergest Court. This remains speculation as there is no proof.
There are legends a-plenty among the hills where Herefordshire tips over into Radnorshire. These days Old Radnor lies as quiet and secluded as can be, tucked into the eastern hem of Wales just across the border from the old market town of Kington. A broad grassy track curved round the flank of Hanter Hill, then on up to the crest of Hergest Ridge. This great five-mile green whaleback, rising just west of Kington, straddles the border and forms one of the oldest east-west routes between England and Wales.
Offa, 8th-century King of the Mercians and subduer of the termagant Welsh, knew that he who holds the heights controls the country. When he ordered his great defensive dyke to be built along the border, Offa had it sited to take advantage of every slope and ridge that commanded a view into Wales. You can Walk Offa's Dyke (a National Trail long-distance footpath) along the spine of Hergest Ridge today,looking out across the same vast view that Offa's sentries must have known - abruptly scarped hills rolling like waves to break on the lowlands of the border country.
Just off the path you will find a great triangular slab of stone encompassed by a little moat of rainwater. The slab of stone known as the Whetstone up on the ridge, That's where the old farmers would do their bargaining - years ago now, that would be.
Is the Whetstone really the Wheat Stone, its name echoing a local folk-memory of the Black Death? Stories say that plague-stricken villagers in those horrific years left their money on the stone's flat top, in exchange for bushels of wheat placed there by merchants too canny to cease trading but too cautious to risk infection. Or was it in truth a whetstone, as others insist - a gathering place where warriors whetted their sword blades before moving off together towards some long-forgotten battle? As for Black Vaughan, fact says he was a 15th-century local lordling, who lived at Hergest Court under the southern slope of Hergest Ridge, and was beheaded after being on the losing side at the Battle of Banbury. But border legend-spinners, of course, have a better story . . .an unlucky accident released the evil spirit, to roam the Borders for ever more in the shape of a ghastly black dog or Bull of a fly :/ (Shapeshifter ).
Pembridge, Weobley and Kington Herefordshire.
This video is about a journey through Pembridge, Weobley and Kington, on the black and white trail of Herefordshire.
Black Vaughan
Some local Herefordshire folklore I heard in Kington Church (specifically the Vaughan Crypt) when I went to school there. I was about 11 and it scared me rotten. Allegedly, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based the Hound of the Baskervilles on it. It's always fascinated me; I've been reading up, this was mostly taken from books by David Phelps, Kathleen Lawrence-Smith and Rupert Matthews, however, there are different versions, I remember something about a tunnel between the crypt and the moat and stuff so it may differ, and I'm sorry for anything incorrect; this was all from memory, so I may be wrong. I don't know that there's much stuff online about it, actually. I'll have to do some googling.