Haworth Hall
Extracts from The Advertiser, 31 December 1971
Few stories are more fascinating than the legend of Howarth Hall, the lovely, yet tragic house - demolished in 1965 - which for centuries stood in isolation on Canklow Meadows.
Details of the legend are contained in an old manuscript which came into the possession of the Mountain family - the last occupants of the haunted hall.
It tells the story of Sir Hubert Vayne of Tickhill Grange, Tickhill, who died on the scaffold at York for the murder of the woman he wanted to marry.
Vayne died on the common gallows for the murder of young Elaine Howarth of Howarth Hall, near Rotherham.
The script, a copy of which has been given to "The Advertiser" by Mr. Oswald Parkin, of Morthen, reveals the full tragic story of Howarth Hall and a ghost which still walked the floors of the hall, even in the 20th century.
Ghostly Figure
Although Mrs. E. G. Mountain never saw the spectre when she lived at Howarth Hall, she says that her late husband, Mr. R. D. Mountain, her daughter, Christine, and visitors claimed to have seen it or heard it.
Sceptics may scoff. But Mr. Mountain (who used to be in business as a butcher with his father, the late Mr. C. D. Mountain, who also lived at the hall) was convinced that it was haunted.
There are stories of mysterious footsteps and of tight fitting doors suddenly rattling. Daughter Christine once felt something go past her.
One Christmas, a relative woke in the middle of the night and said afterwards that there was a figure at the bottom of the bed beckoning to her. She never stayed there again.
If the house was haunted, there is little wonder, as readers will see for themselves after reading the legend of Howarth Hall.
Doubts have been cast on the story's authenticity, But true or not, it makes interesting reading. We aim this week and next to re-tell the legend and tragedy of Howarth Hall ...
Few local stories are sadder than the history of Father Wilfred Howarth, the Jesuit Priest of Howarth Hall.
The reign of Elizabeth was marked by terrible penal laws against the emissaries and the adherents of the Church of Rome.
More political and religious prosecutions were carried on by the State. Very often, penal laws were evoked for the purpose of personal spite and revenge, and not to safeguard either personal liberty or religious freedom.
An example of this is the tragedy we now tell.
A special feature of interest in Howarth Hall is the oaken wainscot of the great dining room.
Interesting too, is the massive old fireplace, with its large iron cage or grate, capable of holding huge logs of wood fuel. Equally massive are the fire-iron holders, of 'dogs' as they are termed, which are splended specimens the ironwork being of the Elizabethan period.
Early in the eighteenth century, the tenants of the hall were a family known as the Kitsons, and it is to Miss Cecilia Kitson that we are indebted for the discovery of the old Latin Manuscript, from which our tale is taken.
Reading one Winter night by the fire-glow in the great dining room, as she read her hand unconsciously reached out to the great crossbar of the iron dogs. The huge fire irons were not in their proper place, but had been, after use, merely thrown down on the hearth. Miss Kitson holding her book in her left hand, began, as we have said, unconsciously playing with one of the iron dogs with her right hand.
Why she tried to turn it she did not know, or even why, when it moved, she kept on turning it, she could not tell, but she did, after several minutes of this turning round of the top bar of the iron dog, she felt herself being slowly, but most certainly moved along with the portion of the hearthstone on which she was cosily sitting in perfect obedience of the iron bar the whole frame of the massive fireplace moved forward.
Astounded at the result, she still kept her nerve, and continued to work the hidden mechanism of the movable fireplace.
When at last the handle would turn no more, she began to investigate the full extent of her discovery, taking care to lock the room door to prevent the entrance of possible talkative servants.
Secret Chamber
On either side of the cavity left by the moving hearth and firegrate, was room to penetrate behind and see what might be hidden there, for surely so elaborate and costly mechanism must have had a purpose or use.
Lighted taper to hand, Cecilia ventured behind the fireplace and found herself in a square room, perfectly ventilated, and fit for human habitation.
That it had been used was quite evident, chairs table, bed and all were there. Still investigating her strange discovery, she drew the mouldering curtain off the bed, and as she did so it was with a great effort that she could keep herself from crying aloud in her surprise and terror, for there stretched upon the bed was a skeleton of a man, covered here and there with fragments of clothing that the slow process of decay still had left to mask,the variations in the time for the consumation of the inevitable end of all things mutable - 'Dust to dust' - 'Earth to earth' - still keeping her nerve, she took note of the various things in the secret chamber.
Her most important find, next to the body of the prisoner, was a closely written vellum book. This she brought away with her. Fearing discovery she left all else, and set to work again at the iron handle bar of the dog. With the reverse action the inner casing of the fireplace moved back again into its place.
Keeping her secret still to herself, she sat up all the night, and read the story of the man whose remains she had so strangely discovered in the secret chamber.
Next week, the tragic story of the man whose skeleton was found in Howarth House's secret chamber.
This week we continue the legend of Howarth Hall
Catholic Invasion
"The Catholic Invasion of England designed and carried out by the Society of Jesus, included many sons of the Holy Mother Church, who were, according to the ties of kinship, related to the great Catholic county families.
"Among these, I, Wilfred Howarth, was chosen for the work of God in the near neighbourhood of Rotherham, to wit, to make the ancient seat of my family, Howarth Hall, in the Canklow Meadow, the centre of my enterprise for the conversion of England. Here I came, and for a time was able to carry on active work for my church amongst my own people.
"Before my arrival. with the assistance of my uncle, Sir John Howarth, the famed engineer of the Tower of London drawbridge, the secret chamber doomed to be my burial vault was contrived, the whole of its hidden mechanism being made at Sir John's London foundry and secretly brought here and fixed by him, with such manual help as my father and brothers could render.
"Here for the expected time of trouble was a safe harbour or refuge, when the terrible persecution, religious and political, against our Holy Order did break out, it was only by using this safe retreat that I could escape arrest.
"In and around Rotherham the persecution of the Catholic families was bitter and persistent. Plots, many of them imaginary, some, alas, not so, against the Queens life and her leading councillors, inflamed the public mind and many were the narrow escapes I had in the pursuit of my work and mission, the dire misfortune that brought me to the terrible end I now see to be mine.
"I herein record in the hope that some day when the record is found, my poor body may get Christian burial and that no needless mystery may cling to this hiding place of my necessity.
"The moving cause in my eventful story was the mad jealousy of a cousin of ours, Sir Hubert Vayne, of Tickhill Grange. He loved with a mad passion that would not brook denial, my sweet and beautiful sister, Elaine. Alas, for his peace of mind, Elaine detested him, preferring to espouse our near neighbour, Sir George Kennard, of Canklow House.
"This determination on her part to reject his suite roused all the demon in his nature, and he set about his revenge in the most deliberate and persistent manner.
"First he caused my aged father to be attainted as a Catholic recusant, on which charge he was put in bonds in Pomfret Castle. He knew of my activities and set many a trap to catch me, but I mercifully escaped his vile plotting.
"My brothers, Oswald and Edmund, were both charged by Hubert Vayne with connivance in the plot to place Queen Mary of Scotland on the English Throne, and so diabolically were his plans conceived that both suffered for a crime of which they were innocent. Only my sister, Elaine, remained, I dare not for a moment leave my hiding, so hotfoot were Vayne's emmisaries on my track.
"Surprise and search parties in the Queen's name were almost of daily occurence, yet my hiding place remained secure. Only two persons knew of its secret, my sister, Elaine and my uncle, the engineer, who planned and made it. There was one fatal flaw in its construction, and even that was thought an advantage, it could not be worked from the inside. Once imprisoned within, I had to wait until someone worked the secret mechanism without.
"Tracked one day by a company of soldiers to the very Hall itself, I had only time to get into my hiding, assisted thereto by Elaine, when Hubert Vayne strode into the room where my poor sister was seated making pretence of busy employ at her embroidery frame.
Spirited Reply
"Safe behind my prison walls I could hear what passed.
" 'How now' , said the villain, 'Where is that Jesuit brother of thine'.
" 'Where thou canst not hurt him, slayer of the innocent and renegade of thy family', was Elaine's spirited reply
" 'Tell me the priest's hole where he lies hiding, tell me without compulsion, or else I must use force'>
" 'Force, you will use force - brave Sir Hubert Vayne will e'en use force against a frail woman. Well bring hither thy thumbscrew or the toureque whipcord, they will all be apiece of the manner of the man who through spite of a girl, desolates her of her father and brothers.'
" 'I tell you I will find where he is hiding if I have to pull down the whole place and leave not one stone upon another.'
"Then I could hear Sir Hubert sound the walls, panel by panel, he worked around the ancient wainscot, yet without the answering sound of suspicion. At last he grew tired and ceased his search, then evidently purposing further villainy he went from the room into the hall, where I could hear him dismissing the soldiery.
"I had just a moment to whisper a word of encouragement to Elaine through a cunning hole in the mantel, and then he returned.
" 'I have told my men to take away your servants, all of them a tainted brood and now, Elaine you and I must settle our accounts.'
Many thanks to Allan Savile for sending these two extracts
©2004