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Macabre tale of Betty's Ghost
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Macabre tale of Betty’s ghost
In 1788 Betty Wilkins was working as a servant to the miller of Willsbridge.
Her home was ancient Clack Mill, a corn mill situated near the road leading to Keynsham (the farmhouse still stands), by Siston Brook.
When the mill wheel turned it would click-clack noisily and the old name for Siston Brook at Willsbridge was Mill Clack Brook.
Betty’s world, of farmhouse mill, mill-pond, willow grounds and brook, was more cheerful in summer than in winter.
The mill site (which dates from the early 15th century at least) was a dank place hemmed in by gloomy hills.
To either side lay marshy fields whose names are now all but forgotten – Whaddon Moor, near the Keynsham Road junction at Willsbridge, and Doverley, which ran down towards the River Avon.
During the bleak months of winter low mists would cling to the area like a shroud.
On Tuesday, September 23, 1788, Betty Wilkins died in great physical and mental agony.
Her corpse may have been found floating in the mill-pond or washed up amongst the willows – trees symbolic of death, lost love and despair.
But when her body was opened up and examined at an inquest on Thursday, September 25, the actual cause of death given was arsenic poisoning.
The stuff had burned into the poor woman’s stomach.
Mr Sherring, a Keynsham surgeon, also observed that Betty was pregnant, so the jury put two and two together and assumed a verdict of felo de se (ie self-murder suicide) carried out for reasons of fear and shame.
She was a married woman but had not had any contact with her husband for some time.
The identity of her lover was either unknown or deliberately suppressed.
Suicide in the 18th century was classed as an act of crime committed by individuals in league with the Devil.
So, as was customary, she was ordered to be buried “in the crossroads”, rather than in consecrated ground.
Her body was taken up from the premises of Mr Robbins (possibly Rollings), miller of Willsbridge, buried in a crossroads and probably staked. It is not known for certain where she lies.
Unlike some suicide crossroad graves, such Tucker’s Grave at Faulkland and Webber’s Grave near Wellington,the site of Betty’s burial has not survived in folk memory.
If she was indeed interred within Bitton parish then it would have been at a remote spot, such as Beach Hamlet (there was a field called Coffin Tyning at a crossroads in Beach) because of the very real fear of hauntings.
Suicides were buried at crossroads, usually with a stake through the heart, to deter them from walking.
Ideally, the wood used was from elm or ash, the protective trees, and the stake served the same purpose as a cockerel on a weather vane – acting as a guard against evil from the four points of the compass.
But Betty Wilkins may not be completely forgotten.
Is it sheer coincidence that a famous crossroads grave situated to the north of Poulton, Gloucestershire, is called Betty’s Grave and possibly dates from the time of Wilkins’ death?
If Clack Mill Betty was not a Bitton parish girl then could her remains have been returned to an earlier home?
No one has ever satisfactorily explained who the restless Betty of Betty’s Grave was, though a few stories do linger on.
One tells that she was a housekeeper who poisoned herself. Another, somewhat intriguingly, suggests that she was poisoned by her employer.
The past is a cold and creepy land.
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