Alton Towers (field trip)
The Legend of Alton Towers
Visitors to the world famous Alton Towers Theme Park in Staffordshire may well have taken a ride on Hex. Whilst queuing for the ride you are treated to the legend of the chained oak, but is this any more than a story to add atmosphere to the forthcoming ride? Whilst carrying out a two day field trip at Alton Towers Derwent Paranormal Investigators took some time out to look into the legend.
It would appear that there are two variants on the legend and briefly they read as follows:
Version 1
Shortly after the completion of Alton Towers the 15th Earl of
Shrewsbury hosted a ball for nobility and royalty. The assembled group fell
silent as a scruffily dressed man entered the room offering to tell their
fortunes. The Earl asked for him to be removed from the property. As he was
being led away the guests mocked and jeered him, so much so that just before
he reached the door he turned to the host and said that every time a branch
fell from the giant oak tree by the entrance to the grounds, a member of the
Shrewsbury family would also fall and die. The Earl was so perturbed by what
he had heard that the following day he had his staff secure thick chains
around all the branches of the tree to prevent any of them from falling.
Version 2
One stormy autumn evening, the Earl’s horse-drawn carriage was stopped by an
old woman alongside the old oak tree outside the entrance to Alton Towers.
She begged the Earl for some money but he refused and ordered his driver to
move on. The old woman whispered a curse that every time a branch fell from
the old oak tree, a member of the Earl’s family would die. That night the
storm intensified and a bolt of lightening struck the tree, bringing a
branch crashing to the ground and as had been predicted by the old woman a
death occurred in the Earls family. The Earl immediately ordered that all
the remaining branches of the tree be chained to prevent the chance of any
further premature loss of life. The fallen branch was dragged back to Alton
Towers to see if there was any way the curse could be lifted and secured in
a secret vault.
Although neither version has been documented it should be pointed out that version 2 conveniently fits in with the Alton Towers ride so maybe a bit of poetic licence has been used for the guests entertainment..
Does such an Oak exist though? After leaving Alton Towers following the Sunday field trip we ventured into the woods alongside a stream. Surely enough, about 150 meters in, part way up an embankment we spotted an oak tree with its branches secured by thick metal chains. Some of these chains had cut into the branches and over the many years since the bark had grown back over the top of them. This seems to give some credence to the legend or the possible paranoia of the 15th Earl of Shrewsbury.
