THE SKULL OF ANNE GRIFFITH

Burton Agnes Hall is an impressive Tudor mansion and stately home near Driffield in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It was designed by Inigo Jones and decorated by Rubens. Yet within the majestic confines of its Great Hall there exists the sinister artefact of Anne Griffith’s skull, in accordance with her dying wish three hundred years ago.

During the reign of Elizabeth I the house was owned by the three daughters of Sir Henry Griffith. His daughters all loved Burton Agnes Hall and devoted themselves to improving the property, none more so than Anne. However, whilst returning from visiting friends, Anne was brutally attacked by highwaymen and left for dead. She lingered on for several days in her beloved home beseeching her sisters to preserve her head within the house after her death. Should they fail to carry out this task she swore to return from the grave and make the house uninhabitable.

After her death her sisters felt they could not concur with such a gruesome task, feeling the request was merely the rambling of a dying mind. Therefore Anne’s body was subsequently interred in the family vault.

Shortly after Anne’s passing strange and unexplained things began to occur. Loud crashing noises were heard about the place followed by the slamming of doors. This was later followed by painful groaning sounds echoing about the corridors at night.

The sisters could eventually suffer no more and consulted the local vicar who advised them to keep to the promise they had made to their dying sister. Anne’s body was subsequently disinterred from the vault. Her body had remained in perfect condition apart from her head that was missing. In its place was a hideous, grinning skull.

Once the skull had been placed within Anne’s beloved former home no further disturbances were heard. However, some years later, a mischievous servant girl threw the head onto the back of a passing farm cart. Immediately the horse stopped dead in its tracks and refused to move. Despite a firm lashing from the farmhand the animal refused to budge. Eventually the servant girl admitted to what she had done and the grisly relic was once more returned to the house.

At a later date land owners refused to believe the tale of Anne’s skull and had it buried in the grounds. However, they later began to incur such bad luck that they had the skull brought back into the house. Only then did things start to improve.

To this day the skull of Anne Griffith still exists at Burton Agnes Hall and is built into a great carved screen where it cannot be removed.