We all know about vampires and werewolves, or at least we think we do. The legends and myths that inspired these monsters are sometimes surprisingly different, but no less chilling. In this series of posts, Monster Monday, we’ll investigate the monsters that have informed our modern notions, as well as some lesser known monsters. Today, we talk about the Vampire of Croglin Grange.

The Vampire of Croglin Grange is a legend from Cumberland, England. The events supposedly took place in the 1870s. Croglin Grange was an estate near a churchyard. The family that owned it moved into a bigger home and rented it to two brothers and a sister–Edward, Michael, and Amelia Cranswell.

One summer evening, Amelia was alone in her room when she saw a figure at her window and was so terrified she couldn’t scream. The creature had glowing demonic eyes and long talon-like fingers it used to pick out the lead between the panes of glass in the window. When it was able to remove a pane, it reached through and unlatched the window and came into the room. The creature grabbed Amelia and bit her on the neck. She was then able to scream and alert her brothers.

They came rushing into the room after breaking down the door and chased the creature off, saving their sister, who nonetheless lost a great deal of blood. After some time spent in Switzerland helping Amelia recover, the three siblings returned, vowing to take revenge on the creature.

One evening shortly after their return, the creature again picked the lead from between the window panes and entered Amelia’s room, but the brothers were hiding in wait. They both shot at the creature, which howled in pain and fled back through the window.

The next they they followed the trail of blood to the churchyard. In the crypt, they discovered a number of upturned coffins. The only one intact contained a corpse wrapped in a moldering shroud with a fresh bullet wound in its leg. They dragged the body out of the crypt into the daylight and burned it. After that the creature never returned.