The story of the Highgate vampire featured on the front page of the Ham&High in the 1970s

Highgate vampire brought back to life

Sarah Johnson, Reporter Tuesday, January 3, 2012
6:11 PM

The infamous tale of the Highgate vampire is to be brought back to life in a book and feature film based on the legend.

Author Asa Bailey with his book The Highgate Vampire to be published in June

The Highgate Vampire by Asa Bailey will be published in June with a film directed by the author set to coincide with the novels release.

Both the book and the film are based on the legend which dates back to the time of the Black Death, which peaked in Europe between 1348 and 1350.

Mr Bailey, who lives in Hillfield Road, West Hampstead, said: Weve built a fictitious world around the legend.

Weve taken the concept right the way back to where we believe it started and followed it through to today.

Much of the action revolves around Highgate Cemetery which, according to the legend, is the resting place of the vampire.

Theres always been a burial ground on that site right the way back to Roman times, said the 38-year-old author. Its one of the oldest burial grounds in London.

Mr Baileys inspiration for the book, the first in a possible trilogy, was a conversation with a taxi driver who used to work as a stonemason at Highgate Cemetery in Swains Lane.

He told me this story about how he and his father used to mend and renovate the mausoleums at Highgate Cemetery, but the weird part about it was that, no matter what time the sun went down, they were made to leave, said Mr Bailey.

He then asked me if I had heard about the Highgate Vampire, the concept of ley lines and the magic surrounding Highgate.

I thought, This is a bit strange. The story had come to me on a plate.

The vampire was the focus of a great deal of media attention in the 1970s.

The Ham&High published a letter in its edition of February 6, 1970 from a Highgate resident named David Farrant, now president of the British Psychic and Occult Society.

He said he had seen a ghost-like figure inside the gates on Swains Lane.

Later that month we recorded that the Right Reverend Bishop Sean Manchester of the Old Catholic Church, then 25 and president of the British Occult Society, said the ghost at Highgate Cemetery was a vampire.

Both the police and the press investigated the claims as a series of bizarre incidents followed.

In March that year the Ham&High reported David Farrant as saying he had seen dead foxes in the cemetery with no outward sign of how they died.

Numerous books, websites, and television and radio programmes have been produced on the subject.

The Highgate Vampire is published by Hachette and is available to pre-order now.

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2 comments

Just for the record, and as someone who was central to the so-called Highgate ‘vampire’ affair back in 1969early 1970, it is not possible to copyright the title of a film or book; which is why many duplicitous titles appear in the book and film industries. As a matter of interest, the title “The Highgate Vampire” first appeared in an article published in connection with myself in the London Evening News on October 16th 1970. This headline ran “Midnight Vigil for the Highgate Vampire” and followed a BBC television transmission the evening before which featured myself and my investigation into a ‘vampire-like figure’ that had been sighted in and around Highgate Cemetery. That is now but all a matter of ancient history; but the point is, the term “The Highgate Vampire” was thus first coined by that newspaper. That this title may have been copied by some other people, is really an academic one; it is not possible to hold exclusive rights to a figurative term of speech, anymore than it would be the term “The Loch Ness Monster” could be owned by any one given individual. I have not yet seen Asa Bailey’s film of the same title, though I look forward to doing so, when I would then be in a more appropriate position to comment on its content. In the meantime, I wish him the best of luck with his project. Although I have to say that to date, not many people have even come close to portraying the true facts that surrounded that matter! David Farrant, President, British Psychic and Occult Society The Highgate Vampire Society.

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David Farrant

Tuesday, January 10, 2012
I wish Mr Bailey well, but just wish he had not adopted the title of my most popular book. This is bound to lead to some confusion. Audiences will obviously anticipate my well documentated account and are bound to be be disappointed when they experience something entirely unrelated and different. For the record, my non-fiction work The Highgate Vampire (published by Gothic Press) is currently optioned with a major film production company for eventual cinematic release in the not too distant future. Whilst I appreciate acknowedgement of my style and title, one normally employs either "Right Reverend" or "Bishop," but seldom both (unless one resides in Eire where it denotes a retired bishop - I reside in England and am some way off from retirement). Let us hope that any renewed interest in this topic will not witness the pandemonium of yestercentury caused by a supernatural presence which, allow me to reassure everyone, no longer exists within the confines of Highgate Cemetery.

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Bishop Seán Manchester

Thursday, January 5, 2012