This Ghost Story was first told to me some years ago by word of mouth and I've enjoyed telling the story upon many occasions since. Although the story is often quoted as being The Croglin Vampire, and told to a more elaborate verse. I've always known the story as being purely a Ghost Story.
There are supposed to be elements of truth in the story, there's a house and a churchyard and the players could well be real, but clearly, other parts of the story are down to your imagination.
The story is set about two-hundred years ago, in the Cumbrian village of Croglin Grange, a dozen or more miles to the south-east of Carlisle. There were two brothers and a sister, there name said to be Cranswell, came to rent a house in the village for the Summer. One night the sister retired to her bedroom which was on the ground floor of their house. There was a light dusk outside and through the window, she became aware of a figure, outside, who slowly approached the house, and as it was a warm evening the window was slightly open and the figure was able to clamber in and sought to attack the young woman. She rushed to the door screaming, which was locked from the inside and struggled to open the lock as the creature now seized her from behind, at last she managed to get the door open as her brothers who were trying to enter the room from the other side rushed in and the intruder made his escape. However, one of the brothers had a pistol and was able to take a shot at the fleeing figure and was sure he'd hit him in the leg.
The next day, the brothers decided to organise a search party and with the help of several other villagers set out to find the intruder. Eventually they entered the nearby Croglin graveyard and were surprised to discover the lid of an old stone tomb had been disturbed and inside there was an old and withered body, but with a fresh gunshot wound on one leg. As a result the horrified villagers removed the corpse from the tomb and it was burnt to ashes and the tomb was completely destroyed in an attempt to remove any trace of the ghost.
