Specific Location: Highgate

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Swearing on the Horns

Between the 17th and 19th centuries there was a folk custom in the Public Houses and Inns of Highgate known as the ‘Swearing on the Horns’.

The Spaniards Inn

Dating from 1585 the Spaniards Inn on Spaniards Road is a listed building and was built to accompany a tollhouse on the boundary of the Bishop of London’s estate. It is said the father of famous highwayman Richard (Dick) Turpin (1705 – 7 April 1739) was landlord of The Spaniards Inn and that Dick spent much time here, probably watching the road for potential coaches to rob.

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The Highgate Vampire – How It All Began – by David Farrant

LONDON 1969, AND WIDE REPORTS WERE COMING INTO the British Psychic and Occult Society concerning a tall black apparition that had been seen lurking among the tombs of London’s Highgate Cemetery. Most of these reports were from people who claimed to have been confronted by this apparition which invariably took the form of a tall dark figure and petrified people both in, or passing, the cemetery.