TEXT:  
  THE SCREAMING HORROR OF 
  CREECH HILL  
   
  SOMERSET, ENGLAND 
   
  The Legend 
  Creech Hill in Somerset has the grim reputation of being haunted by the figure of a 
  tall gaunt man (known locally as a bullbegger or ghost), whose insane laughter echoes 
  from the hillside, the eerie cackling terrifying all who hear it… Those foolhardy 
  enough to walk at night on the hill have heard heavy footsteps and a soul piecing 
  scream, which makes the blood run like ice. The truly unfortunate report glimpsing 
  the tall spectral figure through the trees… 
  The best known story associated with the apparition is that of a farmer making his 
  way home from market and coming across a body lying in the road. As he bent down 
  to help it, it rose up till it was far taller than he and let out a terrifying shriek. The 
  awful thing proceeded to chase the terrified man all the way home.  This event could 
  easily serve as a catalyst for investigations; date the event during your campaign, or 
  have it happen again, and place the first time in the 1880’s. 
  Other stories tell of a phantom black dog and another of a chilling encounter by a 
  traveller on his way to an important appointment. As he walked over the hill carrying 
  his lantern he entered an area of icy cold, whereupon a tall black figure grew from the 
  ground in front of him. As the evil being shrieked with hideous laughter, the man 
  struck at it with his staff which passed through it. The traveller found himself frozen 
  to the spot and unable to flee until dawn, when the apparition vanished. 
   
  The story may have been invented in the 1880’s after the discovery of two skeletons 
  intertwined here.  They are thought to be the remains of a Norman and a Saxon who 
  fell having given each other mortal wounds, and speak of the possibility of bloody 
  conflict in the vicinity. Local newspaper archives and antiquarian journals can tell of 
  the discovery of the bodies; modern investigators can find much ghost lore and this 
  fact on the internet. 
  Explaining the Legend 
  If the Keeper decides to use the story in his campaign there are four main 
  possibilities; Witchcraft, the Roman Temple to Mars, a Shuck (see page XX) and the 
  ghosts from the Norman Conquest.  There is also the intriguing possibility that for 
  many years someone quite mortal has tried to keep locals from the hill, to cover their 
  nefarious activities; it could be as mundane as poachers, as a cult performing dark 
  
  rites in the old temple precincts, or something more unusual.  We provide no solution, 
  just facts…  The Keeper must decide what would work in their campaign. 
  Note the Temple has not been found in the 1990’s or 1920’s, and will have to be 
  unearthed by the investigators actions, perhaps literally. 
  Involving the Investigators 
  There are many ways to involve the investigators in the mystery of Creech Hill.   
   They could be Country House Weekend guests staying at Greywood Lodge, and out 
  on a shooting trip.  As the sun sets and twilight settles over the woods on the hill, 
  when a terrible scream is heard, (causing san loss to those close enough) and then a 
  single shot.  One of the other guests is dead, with shotgun wounds, probably from 
  their own gun.  As they look around they see a tall dark figure moving away through 
  the trees, cackling wildly, and yet if pursued the figure simply vanishes. This works 
  especially well in Victorian or 1920’s games.  In the 1990’s Greywood Lodge is 
  probably a Country House Hotel; the investigators may well be guests at a wedding, 
  or following a suspect who is staying their, or any other device which brings them 
  close.  The locals are frightened of the hill, and not keen to go up there except in an 
  emergency.. 
   A fun option for a one off scenario from any period uses one of the Boarding 
  Schools as a basis.  If you have any knowledge of British Boarding School fictions, 
  such as Frank Richards’ Greyfriars stories featuring Billy Bunter,  the Jennings 
  stories of Anthony Buckeridge, or even Harry Potter, you might want to make the 
  characters a group of 13 year old schoolboys who learn the legend while on a nature 
  ramble, and choose to investigate with terrible results. 
   Those playing in the Hauntings TV campaign may well find they are sent to 
  investigate Creech Hill for a three day live event.  This one is a special;  I is a 
  crossover show with the famous British Live archaeology show Unearthed (look up 
  Time Team, the real show for inspiration)  where the Hauntings Crew are looking at 
  the folklore and investigating the hill by night, while the Unearthed Team are doing a 
  daytime dig over the three days on the Roman Temple.  The crews don’t necessarily 
  get on, and the archaeologist are bemused and confused by the ghosthunters; you need 
  to design six archaeologists, with varying attitudes towards ghosts and ghosthunters, 
  and have names for the other teams producers, camera crew etc.  This idea reappears 
  later I the discussion of the Vanishing House, Suffolk, and the Unearthed Team may 
  well reappear in other stories, such as Hermitage Castle, Scotland.  Things can range 
  from friendly rivalry to simmering tension, but once night falls… 
  A Victorian/1920’s variant has the ghosthunters as folklorists while antiquarians or 
  archaeologists do the digging. 
  Location 
  Somerset is a county in the West of England. It is a mostly rural and agricultural 
  county with no large population centres. The local dialect is a variant of the regional 
  
  West Country one, with rolled r’s and long vowel sounds, and sound quite ‘country’ 
  to outsiders – any strong rural accent will suffice, but Hollywood ‘mummerset’ as it is 
  often called serves admirably. 
  There are small fields and dairy farming is common here. Creech Hill is in the 
  easternmost part of the county near the Wiltshire border. Here there land is hillier and 
  less flat than the Somerset Levels a few miles to the west and not as high as Salisbury 
  Plain to the east.  
  There is a degree of forestation around this area, the remains of the ancient Forest of 
  Selwood and there is a dark and eerie wood on the hill itself. The local geology is 
  sandstone as opposed to the limestone rock to the west and the chalk landscape of 
  Salisbury plain to the east.  
  Creech Hill is about a mile NE of the village of Bruton and reaches a height of 
  approximately 653 ft at the highest point, known as Lamyatt Beacon. As well as 
  Bruton there are the villages of Lamyatt on its western flank and Milton Clevedon that 
  lies beneath the highest point to the north. Both these villages have traditional 
  Somerset towered churches. The B3081 runs from Bruton, along the eastern side of 
  the hill, past Milton Clevedon, then on to Evercreech another two miles away to the 
  NW. By the side of this road in Milton Clevedon is the Ilchester Arms pub, which has 
  had this name since before 1861. A narrow winding lane runs along the northern and 
  western base of the hill between Lamyatt and Milton Clevedon, half way down this is 
  the gravel tree-lined driveway of Greywood Lodge; an isolated moated brick house of 
  the Regency period. 
    
  The name derives from the Celtic word ‘cric’ meaning hill. 
  Bruton 
  Bruton is an ancient sandstone market town with buildings of golden stone dating 
  back hundreds of years. 
  The River Brue winds through the town and is crossed by two road bridges, a tiny 15th 
  century packhorse bridge (Bruton Bow) and some stepping stones next to the 
  packhorse bridge. In Bruton there are the Castle Inn, the Bull Inn and the Sun Inn. In 
  addition to this there is the Blue Ball Hotel, a 17th century coaching inn in Bruton, a 
  possible place to stay… 
  
   
  The Blue Ball hotel 
  It has a continuous history extending back to at least 1588, when it was the White 
  Hart, and provides excellent service and a friendly atmosphere.  Locals can be found 
  drinking here day and night, and good food is served. 
  Bruton had a population of around 1,900 in 1881 and about 1,000 more than that now. 
  It is a small village; outsiders are very noticeable, but folk are friendly and 
  welcoming. The village has a railway station that dates from the 1860’s and St. 
  Mary’s Church that dates from the 14th Century. There is a large buttressed wall by 
  the road next to the church called the Abbey Wall.  
   
  The Abbey Wall 
  The railway line crosses the main road to Castle Cary along a high arched bridge a 
  short distance south from the town centre. Bruton is home to three prestigious 
  boarding schools; where the wealthy send their children away to school. They are 
  King’s, Sexey’s and Sunny Hill. King’s is the most central and the most senior dating 
  from 1519. Sunny Hill dates from 1900 and Sexey’s was founded in 1891.   
  
   
  Creech Hill Roman Temple 
  The record of human habitation of Creech Hill dates back to at least the times of the 
  Romans who built a temple on Lamyatt Beacon there, which was probably dedicated 
  to the god Mars. It was built out of mortared stone in the late third century and stayed 
  in use till the late 5th century. The roof was made out of hexagonal limestone slates 
  and the floor had some paving. It fell out of use as a pagan temple around 370 AD and 
  became a Christian shrine in the latter part of its existence, functioning as an oratory 
  and a cemetery.  
  The temple was square and built of local stone.  Today it is largely hidden under 
  undergrowth and trees; there is plenty of scope for archaeology. There was a sunken 
  room to the south. There was a road that connected the temple to the Fosse Way at 
  West Pennard Hill. Niches in the walls contained statues and a statue of what is 
  believed to be Mars was on a podium in the east side of the building.  
  Offerings have been found in the form of a coin in a jar, miniature spears and axes, 
  pots, beads, antlers, a brooch with the image of a horseman on it and two bronze 
  figurines of Mercury. The temple was probably that of a local cult of the war god 
  Mars, because of the miniature weapons. Among the archaeological remains were 
  thirteen pits containing antlers. This is symbolic of Mars combined with the Celtic 
  horned god Cernunnos.  Perhaps your characters turn up these artefacts in the course 
  of a dig they organise? 
   The temple stood in isolation without any attendant buildings such as bath houses. 
  Nearby there was a cemetery containing the graves of fifteen women and one man, as 
  well as a small building contained within a boundary bank. These were most likely of 
  a later period than the temple and the fact that the bodies were laid east to west would 
  indicate they were Christian, probably 6th to 8th century Saxons. This would indicate 
  that the site was still considered sacred after the abandonment of the temple. 
  In reality the site was excavated in 1955-60 by Mrs G. M. Bennett and the boys of 
  King’s School and re-excavated in 1973 by Roger Leach. Treasure hunters later 
  destroyed any further remains on the site. 
  
   
  Witchcraft Traditions 
  While today you mention witchcraft and most people immediately think of  the 
  benign and friendly Wiccan tradition, which dates back to the 1950’s, older British 
  Witchcraft Traditions are far darker.  There can be little doubt that while there were 
  many completely innocent little old ladies who were hanged as witches during the 17th 
  century, many of those who faced trial admitted without torture to attending coven 
  meetings.  Imagination under terrible pressure? Maybe. 
  What is clear is that the were plenty of folk who enjoyed the reputation of witches, an 
  some, male and female alike, used this reputation to intimidate and terrify their 
  neighbours.  There well have been a genuine witch tradition in Britain, practising 
  peculiar sorceries related to agricultural practices, and long since lost from view as 
  Wicca has become dominant as people’s idea of witchcraft.   
  The older tradition would have had great knowledge of herbs, used both as medicines 
  and poisons, and peculiar spells, quite unlike mythos magic yet based perhaps upon 
  the same arcane scientific principles.  The Cunning Men as they were known were 
  most feared and respected in East Anglia, and one of their spells gave the ability to 
  bind a person or a horse and cart to one particular spot, making it almost impossible to 
  use.  We have given this spell below, but many others may exist. 
  Bind Them That Would Wander ; A Traditional Witchcraft Spell 
  This spell may be cast on a living target.  Its effects last till dawn or sunset, whichever comes first.  The 
  person, horse, ox, or other animal targeted is immediately trapped as if mired in mud, or glued to the 
  ground.  It relies upon a brief incantation and ceremony, and the target must be in sight.  Common rural 
  ingredients such as an earthworm, rooks feathers and a bit of damp clay are needed to cast the spell, 
  and the victim must be in sight, so sometimes it is cast in front of them following a row, or sometimes 
  from cover while spying on them. 
  The spell costs one permanent power point to cast, and a variable number of magic points.  Each magic 
  point holds the victim to the ground with an effective strength of 5; so if ten magic points are used, it 
  requires strength 50 to  move the victim and break the spell.  The victims own strength is useless 
  against the spell and they will rapidly tire themselves out trying to move. 
  It is entirely possible that some of the older witch traditions still exist today, and 
  certainly they were still feared as recently as the 1920’s.  keeper s interested in such 
  things may wish to look up the Lower Compton Witch Murder of 1920, in which a 
  suspected elderly witch, Charles Walton, was found dead pinned t the floor by a 
  pitchfork through his neck,  and with an upside down cross slashed in his chest with a 
  billhook. 
  The present of expensive men and women’s shoe marks and car tracks led Inspector 
  Fabian of Scotland Yard to speculate the involvement of wealthy outsiders.  Do the 
  investigators know more about this grisly enigma?  
  
   
  
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