The Haunting of Shawcroft House
By Riley Amitrani
Prologue
Carlisle, Cumbria, England, circa 1976
Carlisle, Cumbria has a rich historical past dating from its status as a Roman settlement to serving the forts on Hadrian’s Wall. During the Middle Ages, it gained note as an important military stronghold based on its close proximity to Scotland. Still standing is the Carlisle Castle which dates from 1066 and did for a time serve as a prison for Mary, Queen of Scots. The industrial revolution in the 1800’s saw Carlisle transformed into a textile center and the population of Carlisle boom as people migrated to the city from surrounding rural areas. As in other parts of Britain, the textile industry saw a rapid decline as new machinery made the demand for manual labor outdated.
With these changes in Carlisle, other endeavors sprung up including the government takeover of public houses and breweries due to large problems with drunkenness among the construction and munitions workers from the surrounding areas. A scramble for adequate housing and suitable employment soon followed making Carlisle proper a less than desirable place to try and raise a family. One of the more unfortunate relics of Carlisle is what is known today as the Shawcroft House. Shawcroft was originally the Hellingly School which was built at the turn of the century. Hellingly School was erected to address the social problems of the day in Carlisle, the large numbers of mentally underdeveloped children that many parents had no means or desire to care for.
At the time, it was heralded as testament to the progressive and altruistic intentions of the town. All the children admitted to the facility were under the age of 21, and had been diagnosed as needing developmental and learning care based on their apparent underdeveloped mental capacity. As was often the case with many institutions of the day, the intentions got swept aside by less than well-meaning administrators. As parents brought their children to Hellingly, having nowhere else to turn, the children often became abandoned by their families. Sometimes it was sheer neglect and disinterest on the parents’ part, and at other times it was that they were told that their children had been lost to disease. Sadly, the majority of the parents never saw their children again, regardless of the reason.
Children, ranging in ages from babies through toddlers to even young adults were taken from their parents. The scene at the entrance of Hellingly was often fraught with distress while in other cases there was a shocking scene of mere relief, some parents appearing just to be eager to relieve themselves of their damaged offspring. The administrators of the school, while it may seem incomprehensible today, took full advantage of the situation. Once the children were released to them by the parents, they were often used for free labor if possible based on their age. The physicians on staff, working in concert with the administrators, became well-adept at convincing the parents that is was in their best interests to commit their children to long-term institutionalization based on diagnoses ranging from Down Syndrome to Cerebral Palsy to just generic physical or mental retardation.
What was kept quite secret from the parents was that Hellingly would be offering no type of rehabilitation whatsoever. No developmental education. No vocational training. Many of the parents, it seems, had just assumed this would be part of the arrangement. Even simple things such as play things and toys were nowhere to be found throughout the interior of the institution. It was a hideous place, the brunt of what went on there kept well hidden behind the high stone walls of the large Victorian structure. The treatment of a lot of the residents there was truly brutal and inhumane. In some cases, there was actual loss of children’s lives due to disease, pneumonia being the prime candidate. The malady was often the result of aspiration from force feeding when a child was physically unable to properly swallow.
In other cases, the real horror was the neglect and disregard that the babies in the facility endured in those early days. Caregivers tried their best to give the infants proper attention and kindness, but they were more often than not overruled by the unscrupulous administrators who were more concerned with how they could profit from this vast pool of unwanted children, especially the ones of age that they could farm out for unpaid labor. Many of the babies required special attention due to their physical and mental impairments, and they were often left to die alone. In these cases, the parents were informed that a wave of whatever prominent disease sweeping Carlisle at the moment was responsible.
For older children, their fate was often crueler. A favored punishment for “troublesome children” was to gather them all in the bathroom to witness the especially recalcitrant offenders being held under water until they often developed a blue tint. From time to time, a child’s head was not removed from the water in time, and all the children were onlookers to many of their fellow residents being drowned in this manner. It might have been seriously criminal, but what the administrators saw was that the practice had the desired effect of reducing many behavioral problems.
The years went by at Hellingly and nothing much changed in terms of how the institution was run. It was seen from the outside as a model of altruistic care for parents in need and no one anywhere seemed to know the real horrors and abuse that was occurring behind the towering stone facade. Times changed, but the practices at Hellingly stayed the same. One might assume that a lot of this was occurring due to the relatively less civilized eras in which the school had come to be, but upon inspection in later decades, even into the 1960s, the death rates at Hellingly were nearly 25 times that of the general population in Carlisle and the surrounding towns.
It was not until the early 1970s that the truth about the Hellingly School was brought to light to the general public. In 1973, a boy by the name of Sven Potter was released at the age of 21. No one on Carlisle could ever remember anyone ever being released, but on his 21st birthday, Sven’s parents arrived to secure his release from the facility and back into their home. As it turned out, Sven had been just mildly palsied as a child and should never have been institutionalized in the first place. Like many others, his parents had been hoodwinked and manipulated into thinking there were no other options at the time.
Despite his mild physical impairment, Sven was found to have an above average IQ even though he had never learned basic things such as the alphabet, how to read, or to manipulate simple mathematical functions. Grumblings began in Carlisle upon Sven’s release as people everywhere began to ask why the school had apparently not been providing all the services they had claimed to for years in terms of rehabilitation, developmental education, or vocational training. What Sven was capable of, though, was getting his experience to the media and just like that the Hellingly School was exposed for the house of horror that it actually was. The result of the revelation was community outrage as many residents of Carlisle and surrounding locales marched on the grounds of Hellingly. The anger and rage soon turned riotous, and officials finally had the protestors forcibly removed from the grounds by the local police citing fear for their safety.
However, despite this action, animosity against the school and loud vocal demands for an official investigation continued to reverberate throughout the area. The administrators promised a full, public accounting for the institution with local authorities, but before this could occur, if in fact their promises were even genuine, a massive fire overtook the towering 4-story structure early one morning. Due to the very early hour of the start of the fire, no one was around to witness the cause. By the time responders could get to the scene, the first-floor fire had gutted the interior of that floor. Upon interviews, no one had seen or knew anything. The administrators of Hellingly blamed the demonstrators, but in the end, there was no proof.
Sadly, nearly 1000 children and young adults were assumed to have perished in the tragedy. Even more heinous, were reports that the staff of the Hellingly stood by impassively in surrounding gardens, and observed the flames consuming the structure. Not one person on staff at the Hellingly School tried to rescue even a single child. The aftermath was that t
he behavior of the staff seemed to confirm the tales of abuse and neglect and even criminal behavior that Sven Potter had recounted upon his release. That was all the officials in Carlisle needed to hear. After the fire was controlled, the grounds were cleared and the gates of Hellingly were padlocked.
Many of the staff there fled in the night before they could be detained for trial, but a few of the less than opportunistic were tried for their crimes and remain to this day incarcerated. To remove the stain of the Hellingly School from the social conscience of the town, the structure was renamed Shawcroft House after the presiding mayor, Thomas Shawcroft who had been instrumental in working with the police and the legal system to bring as many of the staff of the former Hellingly School to justice as possible. The damaged building remained unoccupied for years as the memory and taint of what had initially been a praised effort hung heavily in the hearts and souls of the residents of Carlisle. It was even rare to see anyone want to walk by the hulking, charred skeleton of a building…residents often choosing to cross the street when they approached the old school rather than walk directly next to it…
Metamorphosis
Wetheral, Cumbria, England, 2017
Cole and Barbara Caruthers had been an idealistic couple dating from the days when they had first met at university. They had high hopes for solving all the world’s ills and this had remained in their collective consciousness even after they married and had children. While many of their contemporaries pursued material goods and fought the hard fight in their careers for the next promotion and the next step up the ladder of career success, the Caruthers had persisted in their vision and held fast to their desires to make the planet a better place for everyone. It was not that they had no desire to be comfortable and successful, but neither Cole nor Barbara could ever understand this need to strive for nothing more than a bigger house, a better car, more of stuff that just did not define them as a couple.
Their friends and family sat stunned and disbelieving as Cole and Barbara set on the adventure that was to define them as only they could imagine. It had been 15 years since, and neither regretted their decision to put the bigger picture of life ahead of what seemed to drive all their acquaintances in England. Over that time, they had worked tirelessly among the peoples across three continents and throughout more third world islands scattered around the globe than they could recall. Barbara often quoted the late Scottish comedian and actor, Billy Connelly, recalling his travels with the UK version of Comic Relief, when she was asked about their work:
“Absolutely lovely people living in absolutely horrendous and horrific conditions. Just the same old shit……”
When they had first begun this path, Barbara was stunned at the level of destitution and degree of hopelessness they encountered. But the more they did and the more lives they had a positive impact on, the feelings of shock and sometimes despair just vanished. The one thing that stayed with her regardless of the location, was how open and friendly and giving all these people were to them, even when they had nothing. It had given her a gift and an outlook on life that she could not put a price tag on. In the process, they had raised 2 healthy and well-adjusted sons while on this quest, Zady, age 13 and Vince, age 6. The boys, though typical for kids their age, seemed to have an appreciation and compassion that Cole and Barbara did not see in the kids of their friends from home when they went back to England for visits.
Cole supposed that part if it was that neither Zady nor Vince had ever known anything in their whole lives except what they had experienced travelling the world. They often had trouble connecting with kids their own age back home, but neither he nor Barbara saw this as such a bad thing, overall. The family had never imagined living any other way, but suddenly a surprise hit them while on a trip in Indonesia one day. A few months earlier, Barbara arrived home one afternoon to announce that she was pregnant again. The boys were bouncing off the walls with the news, and though Cole was happy it had come as such a surprise that his reaction was a bit more subdued that Barbara had expected.
“You don’t seem so thrilled, Cole…”
He smiled and pulled her close, kissing her on the forehead.
“It’s not that…it’s…well…”
“It’s what?”
“Twins you said?”
“Yep. Twin girls if the tests they ran today are accurate.”
“I am just not sure this nomadic lifestyle we have been pursuing all this time is the best for this new development. For new babies, as well as you.”
“We’ve done fine up ‘til now…Zady and Vince have had no problems with it at all. What’s to change all that now?”
“Barbara…we are not 20 year-old kids anymore. The world is not the same place it once was either. Remember that incident in Ghana?”
Barbara nodded her head in grim remembrance of the riot in Accra as they were about to depart for South America. It still gave her the shakes from time to time how close they had come to losing Zady that day.
“And, as your pregnancy goes along, we might find ourselves in a situation where we cannot get you the help you need. Maybe it is time to tweak our lives.”
“Meaning?”
“I have loved what we have done with our lives, Barbara. Absolutely no regrets, but times have changed and I am not so bold and daring as I once was. Especially with two new babies to consider. Maybe it is time to go home.”
“Really? You sure?”
“We can still do what we always have, but now maybe it is time to put down some more permanent roots with this growing family.”
Barbara nodded as she considered his words. She knew he was making valid points. And in her heart, she had known that one day they would have to pull the plug on how they were currently living. She just had not considered that it might come to them so soon. She knew the kids could adjust easily…they always did. It was more of the culture shock that she and Cole would go through as they came back to the civilized UK after so many years abroad.
“Perhaps you are right. You have a time frame in mind?”
“I was thinking maybe we could finish up the last project we have going here and then the one proposal we had for Sri Lanka next month. Hand that one over to Peter and Linda once it is up and running. They are ready to take over. Let the board know we need to go back to England. I don’t want you to push yourself, though, with your due date.”
“That should be fine. I am not due for 6 months. You ready for all the changes that await us by going home?”
“Most people say that when they are moving in the opposite direction we are.”
“They do. But make no mistake. For as long as we have been roaming the globe, living out of suitcases and backpacks, it is likely to be just as much of an adjustment.”
Cole smiled warmly and hugged her again, knowing she was, as usual, way ahead of him in seeing the road ahead.
………..
They arrived back in England in what Cole guessed you would call their hometown of Wetheral. The last few projects had gone well, and as Cole had predicted, Peter and Linda Hampton, their replacements from America had stepped up admirably to take over the work. The agency that had recruited and then hired Cole and Barbara as young, wide-eyed activists so many years ago were saddened by the news of their resignation. They had known the day would come for it, but when the reality of it set in, it was hard to tell who was weepier, the agency or Cole and Barbara. They understood the decision they were making to finally go home, and they did not make it harder on them than they knew it was already. Adam Borders, the agency CEO supposed he could make a pitch to try and convince them otherwise, but it just did not seem right. Cole and Barbara had done their bit and now it was time for some fresh blood.
One of the perks that Cole and Barbara faced as they arrived back in England was that their families had left them property that they could use when they finally decided to return for good. As well, Cole and Barbara had saved what they could during their travels as the agency had been paying
the bulk of their expenses during their service. They arrived in Wetheral to much fanfare and celebration from their friends and it was days before all the hoopla quieted and they were left alone with just themselves once again. There were three rental properties that they owned across Britain and after considering possibly taking up residence in one, they decided none of them felt quite right.
They knew they would eventually continue the same type of work here at home that they had been involved in so far, but what it might be was still being discussed and debated. With the contacts and reputation they had cultivated in the last 15 years, Cole knew they could have the same type of impact without the risks they had taken routinely in various third world locations. Likewise, from the wise investment of money, funds for whatever path they chose to pursue would not been an issue. One night as they were going to bed Barbara came back to a conversation that they had had many times over since getting married concerning what they might take on if they ever found themselves firmly attached in one geographic location.
“Remember that idea we used to always talk about when we were first married? You know, if we even got settled in just one place? When our days of roaming were over?”
Haunted House Tales Page 33