'Dracula Church' in WhitbyHopefully if you're living in the shadow of an ancient cathedral known as the "Dracula church" for the role it plays in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, you have a relatively high tolerance for creepy stuff. Like, if you're going to choose to live in a town like Whitby, a seaside village in North Yorkshire, probably you're okay with eerie, centuries-old cemeteries like the one surrounding the crumbling stone facade of St. Mary's, built in 1110 -- maybe you're even a bit of a goth.
That would be a good thing right now, because if you happened to live in Whitby and didn't have a bit of a macabre side, the eroding cliff currently causing human bones to rain over the town might be kind of a downer.
Uh, yeah. Apparently an already-existing soil erosion problem got a lot worse after a recent period of heavy rains, and that's when skulls and hip bones and such began to "emerge" from their graves. Wow, and Bram Stoker thought the place looked creepy back in the 1800's! He wrote:
For a moment or two I could see nothing, as the shadow of a cloud obscured St. Mary's Church.
Then as the cloud passed I could see the ruins of the Abbey coming into view; and as the edge of a narrow band of light as sharp as a sword-cut moved along, the church and churchyard became gradually visible...
'It seemed to me as though something dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone, and bent over it. What it was, whether man or beast, I could not tell.
Clearly a sequel starring the new, super-horrifying setting is in order. Not that Stoker is alive, obviously .. or ... hmmm. Could a certain undead presence be responsible for the skeleton storm over Whitby?
Whatever the cause, some residents are reportedly packing up and moving away already (probably because they're afraid of plunging property values, not vampires, but still). And I can't say I blame them. I've got a bit of the goth in me, but while Whitby sounds like a nice place to visit, I wouldn't want to live there.
What would you do if you lived in Whitby?
?
Image via fiomaha/Flickr
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