23/05/2026
Interesting tale - anyone heard anything similar??
The place name Drakelow actually means "dragon mound", but according to a medieval account one village going by that name was abandoned - not because of dragons...but because of vampires.
Drakelow is still on maps as the location for a modern power station and the former site of a grand mansion near Burton on Trent. The old village was abandoned around 1090 due to "pestilence" - plague - but the abbot of nearby Burton wrote a rather unusual account of events.
Two lay workers had fled the abbey, leaving all of their possessions behind, and begged to move to the land around Drakelow held by one Roger, Earl of Poictou. He took them on and sent men to the abbey to seize the sacks of seed they owned, as the abbot had confiscated them. The abbey offered no armed resistance and their passive blockade was shoved aside, but some of the monks had other ideas.
Ten of the abbot's men arranged to meet a 60 strong delegation of Drakelow retainers at a neutral location but the moot ended in a mass brawl and, incredibly, the 10 monks sent the Drakelow boys packing, bruised and humiliated. The Steward of Drakelow fell during their escape, mortally wounded, but worse was to come.
The two servants who seemingly started the feud fell ill, passing away after three days, and were buried at Drakelow. They rose from the grave, carrying their crude coffins on their backs, which they used to smash against the doors of the terrified residents of Drakelow. One by one they all fell ill, stricken with a new form of pestilence, while the desperate Earl sought a spiritual solution to this nightmare.
Roger apologised to the abbot and began penitence, but the undead pair continued their nocturnal wanderings. By now every single resident of Drakelow was sick, so the abbot advised the Earl to take extreme measures. The open graves of the two men were surrounded, the coffins opened, as shock struck the men gathered at the scene. Blood soaked the shrouds of the dead men, especially around the area covering their mouths!
The bodies were burned in a great fire but then the sinister shape of "a great black crow" rose from the fire, hovered above the smoke then flew up into the sky. From that day "the village of Drakelow was forsaken and desolate", the few surviving residents moving to the nearby settlement of Gresley.
A great story but one has to wonder if the next abbot, who wrote the account, wanted to put a rubber stamp on what happens if you go up against his abbey. Drakelow today is actually a beautiful area with a wetlands reserve and the remains of the sunken garden of the vanished Gresley hall leading down to the river. Is it safe at night though?
There’s another well-known Drakelow in Worcestershire that actually houses a complex of bunkers and tunnels, used originally as a manufacturing plant during the Second World War then repurposed as a military establishment during the Cold War…let’s visit there in another post.
Picture of a relief from Worcester cathedral showing the dead rising from their graves.
