Post by Spooky on Mar 16, 2005 14:41:04 GMT
West Drayton Church was haunted for over a century by a large black raven, that was reported to have been as big as a vulture and “as black as hell”. It was said to have been seen flying inside the chancel and in the vaults, and was also seen on several occasions perched on the communion rails.
In 1749, knockings and other sounds were heard in the vaults underneath the church, where the De Burgh and Paget Families lie, and where a murderer and his victim are thought to have been buried. On one occasion some bellringers saw the bird on the roof and to prove that it was real, and not a ghost, they threw sticks and stones at it and apparently crippled one of it’s wings. It was seen to drop into one of the corners of the church and screeched and flapped it’s wings wildly. Yet when two of the bellringers approached the bird in an attempt to capture it, it simply disappeared in front of their eyes.
On another occasion three men approached the Parish Clerk and told him that they had heard a screeching noise coming from the vaults, and upon looking through the grating had seen a gigantic bird pecking at one of the coffins. This was no fresh news for the Parish Clerk because not only he, but his wife and daughter, had seen the same bird fluttering it’s wings there and also in the church. It always appeared to be seen on a Friday.
In 1869, two ladies, arranging flowers on the altar, saw the bird perched on one of the pews, and in 1883, the wife of a former vicar said that in the 1850’s she had often heard the sound of a big bird fluttering it’s wings round the church, the noise appearing to start in the chancel, although she had never actually seen it.
Local people believed that the bird was the returned spirit of a murderer who had committed suicide. Owing to the strong influence of his well-established family, he had been buried in the vault instead of being buried at the cross-roads with a stake through his heart, as was the prescribed custom for suicides in those times.