Our first story is a very Romeo and Juliet-esque true crime story. Our first story is a love story. A love story between a young couple very much like Romeo and Juliet.
It’s only apt that it takes place in my favourite place in the entire world. Castleton in which is located in a place called Hope Valley Derbyshire England.
This story features Alan and Clara, a young couple madly in love but forbidden to match by Clara’s father.
This couple, destined to be together, decided to runaway on horseback. Their location was peak forest chapel; the gretna green of its day, where you could marry with fewer restrictions than at normal chapels.
Unfortunately Clara and Alan never reached their final destination. Let’s find out what happened.
About Winnets Pass
To fully understand the depth of this case we need to have a quick look at Castleton.
Castleton is a beautiful little village surrounded by hills. It has a lot of underground cave systems. Some of the caverns are still open for public use today.
Located in the cornerof castleton is winnets pass, which was part of a now collapsed limestone cave system. The steep hills on either side of the valley were formed by the action of water eroding the limestone overhundreds of years.
The pass itself is very steep, very steepindeed, it is a 28degree incline.
About Alan & Clara
As we’ve just discussed our story is of the star crossed lovers, Alan and Clara. In 1785 this couple were madly in love. Unfortunately due to a wealth divide; that’s right Clara’s parents had a bit of money, wereas Alans parents were a fair bit poorer, and because of this wealth divide Clara’s family said nope absolutely not! Not happening, we cannot allow this match to go on!
Obviously in very much Romeo and Juliet fashion the couple were adamant that they needed to be together. Unfortunately their parents were just as adamant, that it weren’t to be.
One day clara’s brother threatened Alan and this obviously shook the couple a fair bit. The very next day they rounded up as much money as they could.
The money they collected was £200 which were £35 000 pounds “in today’s money” (factoring in Inflation). So it was an admirable amount for a young couple to start a new life.
The plan was to head to Peak Forest Chapel. Peak Forest Chapel was special, It was very much the “Gretna Green of England”. You could get married there with fewer, legal restrictions. For example they didn’t need their parents consent to get married. So the next day they rode off on horseback with the £200.
Unfortunately they would never reach Peak Forest Chapel.
Their Journey
Staying at inns along the way, to rest themselves and their horse. Eventually they got to castleton.
Castleton’s only six miles away. I can’t be sure of Alan and Claras exact location of starting, but it’s believed that they started in Scotland; which is 155 miles away by today’s roads. They’d travelled all the way down to Castleton and they’d got this far with just six miles left to go.
The Day of The Murder
Alan and Clara decided to go into the in Clastle Inn to rest their heads and rest the horse. And the next day or that night they’d set off, on their final leg of their journey to the chapel.
However while Alan and Clara was sat, chilling out, having some rest, they was seen by five miners.
Now these miners look at Alan Clara and obviously Alan and Clara just run away together, planning to get married. So they’re trying to look nice for eachother and perhaps even only had their wedding clothes on. Either which way, they look really smart and and in turn quite wealthy.
These miners see this as an opportunity to put a quick book in their pocket. So the miners agree they’re going to follow this couple when they set off and we’re going to take all their money.
So alan and clara set off on their final leg to peak forest chapel. Unbeknown to them only half a mile down the road, at Winnets Pass they would be ambushed by these five drunken miners.
Now Imagine that we’ve got this dark steep damp, probably slippery, hill. Alan and Clara who are sharing a horse are trying to get up this pass safely and there’s five miners that jump out of nowhere and pull them off their horse.
The men managed to get the £200 pound but unfortunately, they didn’t stop there.
Alan had his throat slit and quite devastatingly Clara was took to with a pickaxe. To hide the evidence, the miners hid both bodies and any other evidence in a nearby mine shaft.
Their bodies remained in this mine shaft for 10 years. It was only then that some miner sunk an engine pit and then their skeletons were found. 10 years later.
That does sound like a long time, but what you have to remember, is they ranaway. Their parents weren’t expecting them to turn up any time soon, because they’d ran off to get married. Nobody knew where they were or anything else. There weren’t phones, it’s not like they’d phoned th echapel a week before to arrange a wedding.
Nobody knew or expected them to turn up anywhere.
Ten years later these miners find their bodies.
But this is not the end of the story. Although it is for Alan and Clara, unfortunately, It doesn’t end there.
Karma
There was something in the air thatt night; maybe it was karma, maybe it was a greater force at work, but the miners didn’t get away so easily. All five miners suffered a tragic fate.
The first of the miners to get his comeuppance was Nicholas Cock. Nicholas Cock fell to his death from a nearby cliff.
Next up was John Bradshaw, and again near the scene of a crime, a falling rock killed him.
Thomas Hall was next, he couldn’t handle the pressure of killing this young couple. So he hung himself.
Next up was Francis Butler, he went mad and died in the most miserable manner after having several failed suicide attempts.
The last surviving miner / co-murderer was James Ashton. He was a local coal carrier and he used his share of the money to buy horses. All of which, he had bad luck with; they all had ill health, so obviously that didn’t go very well, which meant John had to do a lot of work to keep them safe and healthy.
This eventually put john into a lot of financial ruin and debt. He was so guilt-ridden on his deathbed that he confessed the names of all the other minors on his death bed, 20 years after the murders to the methodist preacher; Thomas Hamberg. Hamberg wrote about the incident, saying James Ashton was most miserable affected and tormented in his conscience.
Today Alan and Clara are buried in St Edmonds church, castleton.
On the night of their murder, their horse was wearing a red saddle. Claras red saddle and that exact saddle is now apparently in the museum at the bottom of Winnetts Pass.
Some say that the ghosts still haunt Winnetts Pass and on a windy miserable night, you can still hear them howling out for help.
