BELLA’S  MYSTERY    

AT  HAGLEY-WOOD?

 

Hagley Wood lies about half-a-mile from the road running from Kidderminster to Birmingham. It is a quiet spot, situated on the estate of Lord Cobham of Hagley Hall, and is well known as a haunt for lovers. Local historians tell us that in years gone-by witch covens and Devil worshipers met therein the shadows of the Clent Hills.

Long ago one summers evening at dusk when a gardener on the estate was making his way home along the Woodland paths, his work done, and his supper awaiting him. He did not know that the first day of August coincided with the Pagan festival of Lammas, the witches eve of Lugnasadh in the Celtic calendar.

As he passed through the heart of the woods he was startled to hear a woman’s scream from nearby. It silenced the birds and prompted him to stop in his tracks, listening and looking all around. Moments later it came again – the shrill cry of someone in terror!

Although he searched among the trees he saw no one. For many minuets more he waited there. And then continued on his journey treading more gingerly along the beaten track. But now the woods were quiet again.

That night he reported the incident to friends at a local tavern, and later he led a band of villagers to the place where the screaming was heard, because that summer morning a young woman from Halesowen had set out from home and had not returned by nightfall. No clue pointed to the young woman’s whereabouts, but they could not find anything odd and heard nothing more alarming than the cry of a screech owl.

Throughout the following day neighbors continued the search retracing steps, combing the woods from edge to edge. But, although the story was reported to the local magistrates and further parties were organized, the missing woman was never found. Two summers passed and her disappearance remained a complete mystery.

Then one afternoon, while walking in the woods, two young girls from the village stopped to rest beneath a wych-elm. Amongst the fallen leaves they found what at first they took to be an eagles talon. However, on closer inspection, they discovered to their horror that it was the bones of a hand with two fingers broken away. As they searched around, another gruesome sight was revealed. In the hollow of the tree they found a human skeleton wedged behind the bark and crudely concealed among a heap of withered leaves and bracken. The arms were twisted grotesquely upwards and backwards over the scull, and decayed fragments of clothing were still attached to the bones.

The girls ran screaming from the wood, not suspecting that they might have unearthed a victim of witches or Devil worshipers, for it was believed that a human hand was much coveted by servants of Satan. (Long ago, tales of the ‘Magic Hand’, or ‘Hand of Glory’, were well known throughout Europe, Africa and the voodoo Islands of the West Indies). This grisly charm, often hacked from the corpse of a hanged murderer as he wasted on the gibber, was used to point out the whereabouts of buried treasure or mortal enemies, and sometimes to ward off offending spirits.

That night the lamps were burning long after dark, and neighbors gathered together, wondering who the culprit might be, among them, who had done this dark deed? That had now been brought to light, and whose well kept secret had been unveiled?

At each of the girls doorways the following morning was found a circle of yew trigs and gravestone chippings, And each knew well how to read this warning sign – to speak no more of what they had discovered in the woods, or their tongues would be silenced forever. The mystery of Bella lives on to-day, for many years now you will see painted on the side of the obelisk*. Next to the woods ‘Who put Bella in the Wych-elm’ a poignant reminder of a weird unsolved murder.