The Ghosts of Byland Abbey: Medieval Ghost Stories from Yorkshire

About this episode

The Ghosts of Byland Abbey Executive Porducer: • Michelle Oleander Associate Executive Producer: • Mari Hopegood Around the beginning of the fifteenth century, someone at Byland Abbey in Yorkshire began recording stories about ghosts said to haunt the surrounding countryside. These were not the pale, drifting spirits of later ghost stories. The ghosts of Byland could knock men from horses, tear their clothes, follow travelers for miles, change shape and, apparently, even be physically wrestled to the ground. Most were not simply wandering the earth to frighten the living. They had unfinished business. A debt remained unpaid, a sin required absolution, stolen property had to be returned, or some other wrong needed to be put right before the dead could finally rest. In this Medieval Archives Halloween special, we head into medieval Yorkshire to meet some of the strange spirits preserved in the Byland Abbey stories, including Snowball the Tailor and his shapeshifting ghost, the restless Robert of Kilburn, a dead rector who refused to stay buried, a traveler pursued along a dark road, and a father who encounters the child he never knew. So pull up a chair, pour yourself som