Trim up the tree with clanking
chains and floating orbs, it’s Christmas! As in years past, Skullduggery in the Smoke follows the
most Victorian of Christmas traditions: Ghost Stories. For the entire month,
I’m searching through Peter Underwood’s Gazetteer
of British, Scottish, and Irish Ghosts for hauntings fit for a gaming
table to pull out adventure ideas, historical connections, and bizarre details.
So bring a torch, Jeannette Isabella, we’re telling Ghost Stories for
Christmas!
In 1210, Bramber Castle in Sussex
was the happy home of William de Braose, the 4rth Lord of Bramber. Through war,
murder, and the patronage of King John, de Braose rose in power in the ranks of
Norman nobles. After the de Braose’s capture of Arthur I (a threat to King
John’s claim to the throne) and the subsequent suspicious disappearance of
Arthur I, his fortunes should have risen even further. Unfortunately for him
and his family, King John turned against de Braose, claiming his family owed
taxes from the estates given him by the crown. The king took all their land,
invaded their holdings in Wales, and captured de Braose’s four children.
According to legend, King John had them starved to death.
The few remaining ruins of the
Bramber castle sits on the western edge of the village of Bramber. Only the
gatehouse tower and a few crumbled fragments of walls stick up out of the hill.
The land now belongs to the Duke of Norfolk, but aside from stones for local
civic improvements, the ruins provide little more than a pleasant place for
picnics. In 1855, the village of Bramber numbers about 150 inhabitants. Most
visitors come for an idyllic rest in the country. Tea rooms, tea gardens, and
hotels stand next to mills and sheep pens.
At Christmas time, mysterious and
emaciated children pleadingly hold out their hands and follow pedestrians
through the streets of Bramber. They voicelessly cry for food, but if anyone
tries to talk to them, the children vanish. Witnesses claim the apparitions beg
around the ruins of the castle as well. Local rumor murmurs the children are
the spirits of de Broase’s children, doomed by the death in their bellies to
beg for eternity.
Adventure Ideas
Between 1844 and 1855, rail
companies tried and failed three times to build a railway north of Bramber with
a train station near the castle. While the marshy ground slowed the work, the
creepy silent children stalking the worksite didn’t help either.
Given Bramber’s reliance on
tourism, local leaders might pay good money to prevent dirty, ghost children
from bothering guests to the village.
A peculiar number of children and
teenagers in Willaim de Braose’s life died tragic deaths. Aside from this own
children, Arthur I vanished in de Braose’s care at age 16. While committing
atrocities against the Welsh, de Braose personally tracked down and killed the
7-year-old son of an enemy leader, earning de Braose the nickname "Ogre of
Abergavenny". Perhaps the ghostly begging children are the embodiment of
de Braose’s crimes for the crown, a cosmic stain looking for charity and justice
at Christmas. Does the Ogre still seek out children during the winter?
In reality, King John captured de
Braose’s family, but only de Braose’s wife Maud, and eldest son, William, died
while imprisoned at Windsor castle or Corfe castle. Their cause of death escaped
record. The rest of the children were released in 1218 although other accounts
claim two of de Braose’s sons died. There are similar inconsistencies with the
number of ghostly children and their genders. Are the children even connected
to de Braose? The Victorian age was no stranger to tragic deaths. Is someone
covering up their crimes and blaming their ghosts on the story of de Braose?
Bramber is also home to William
Potter’s whimsical and naively creepy taxidermy tableaus on display in his
families’ pub, the White Lion. Each diorama incorporates scenes of everyday
life reimagined with stuffed small animals such as hamsters, birds, rats,
kittens, and squirrels. If Potter’s art is as popular with dead Norman children
as it is with living Victorian children, all sorts of macabre poltergeist
activity could occur. Spectral hunger may manifest as stuffed animal bites.
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