Room number 12 at The George and Dragon in West Wycombe is apparently an ordinary hotel room. But at night Sukie comes. This was her room. The teenager was a maid in the pub at the end of the 18th century. She fell in love with a gentleman passing through, which annoyed three boys of the same age. They themselves were interested in Sukie and decided to play a trick on her. West Wycombe is a historic market town in the English countryside. It is wholly owned by the National Trust, a foundation that cares for valuable buildings. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / NRKWest Wycombe is a historic market town in the English countryside. It is wholly owned by the National Trust, a foundation that cares for valuable buildings. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news Under the pretext of being the nice man, they asked her to come to the village’s Hellfire Caves; an occult cave system excavated earlier in the same century. I’ll get back to it. Thinking she was going to marry the man, Sukie left in her mother’s wedding dress. But down in the caves she understood that she had been tricked, and in her anger she began to throw stones at the boys. They threw back, and she died. Since then, her apparition, in fluttering white robes, has recurred, both in the caves and at The George and Dragon. It says. This room in The George & Dragon pub is said to be haunted by a ghost. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news This room in The George & Dragon pub is supposed to be haunted by a ghost. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news The maid of the day, she who stands at the bar, has spent the night in Sukie’s room twice. Both times she woke up at 2 am. She couldn’t sleep and felt that someone was there with her. There were no more nights there for her. But she keeps renting out the room to paranormal groups from all over the world, who hope for a meeting with Sukie. I have to admit I’m a little disappointed. She didn’t appear to me when I visited room number 12. But maybe I’ll meet her in the Hellfire caves? The George & Dragon pub is located in the middle of the main street in West Wycombe, midway between London and Oxford. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news The George & Dragon pub is located in the middle of the main street in West Wycombe, midway between London and Oxford. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news The village of West Wycombe was owned by the Dashwood family, and it was the nobleman Francis Dashwood who decided to excavate the caves in the middle of the 18th century. The lime from the caves was used in the new main road between London and Oxford. West Wycombe lies in between. The excavation gave poor people work. But the project was also extremely selfish. It gave rise to Francis Dashwood’s somewhat peculiar interests, which are said to have involved the occult, black magic, drunken parties and orgies together with the absolute top of society of the time. Dark and scary in the Hellfire caves. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news Dark and scary in the Hellfire caves. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news An eerie atmosphere spreads the deeper we get into the cave passages. There are long, narrow and dark corridors, and in several places faces that resemble Munch’s “Scream” are carved into the walls. One is a devil, another a pope. The guide says that it is none other than one of Britain’s greatest artists at the time, William Hogarth, who made them. The cold spreads, the guide turns off all the lights. We lose each other and I am suddenly alone in a narrow corridor. I have my ears perked because I don’t believe in ghosts and am determined to be able to explain the sounds I hear. It’s all pretty creepy. The famous British artist William Hogarth is said to have carved the faces of the club members into the walls of the cave. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news The famous British artist William Hogarth is said to have carved the faces of the club members into the walls of the cave. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news I feel forward in the darkness, and feel line after line scratched into the wall. What do they mean? When the dim lighting returns, I find the guide again inside a larger hall. Four alcoves are carved out slightly above the floor, and inside them stand statues of mythological figures. Things must have happened there that led to the lines in the walls. We have gained access to the premises of the highly exclusive and secret Hellfire Club. Have you heard that name before? In the last season of the Netflix series Stranger Things, the name is used for a club with completely different pursuits than the original one. Down here in the cool darkness, Francis Dashwood and his club members are said to have sacrificed animals, and rumor has it humans too, to mythological gods. They are said to have practiced black magic, followed occult rituals and had drunken parties and, not least; orgies. That’s what the lines in the walls show. Each line corresponds to an intercourse. There are lines everywhere. The caves are full of lines carved into the walls. Each line corresponds to one intercourse that took place in the orgies Hellfire Club allegedly arranged. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / NRKG The caves are full of lines carved into the walls. Each line corresponds to one intercourse that took place in the orgies Hellfire Club allegedly arranged. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news The 18th-century “gutteklubben grei” thus hired prostitutes or lured young girls down into these caves. It is not known with certainty who the women were. But one means to know who some of the men were. Benjamin Franklin joined the parties here, one of the founders of the United States. The son of the Archbishop of Canterbury attended. It was also the king’s personal physician. Rumor has it that the crown prince was also there, but this has not been confirmed. Several parliamentarians and artists, and also the Earl of Sandwich, the man who gave the sandwich its name. And thus Dashwood himself, who later became British Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Dashwood family’s church and mausoleum is located directly above the caves, and constitutes heaven where the cave’s “inner temple” is hell. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news The Dashwood family’s church and mausoleum is located directly above the caves, and constitutes heaven where the cave’s “inner temple” is hell. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news The holiest of caves lies directly below the Dashwood family’s Italian-inspired church and family mausoleum. These are located on a hilltop above the village, overlooking the family’s distinguished estate. Francis Dashwood’s descendants live there to this day. When I meet Edward Dashwood, he overflows with stories about Norway. He fished for salmon in Vefsna this summer, knows several Norwegian social figures and knows that King Harald was pheasant hunting in Windsor on the Saturday before our visit. To mention something. Edward Dashwood lives in an Italian-inspired mansion on the West Wycombe Estate. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / NRKE Edward Dashwood lives in an Italian-inspired mansion in the West Wycombe Estate. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news He also says that his ancestor Francis Dashwood was sent to the European mainland in his youth. His opposition and blasphemous tendencies were supposed to be tamed. It didn’t work well. He is said to have been expelled from the Vatican at the time, to have made fun of the Swedish king and tried his hand at the Tsar of Russia’s wife. He returned with inspiration for new pranks. The king had his own bedroom at the estate in West Wycombe. Each room on the estate has its own style, but all are lavishly decorated with ceiling paintings and art. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news The king had his own bedroom on the estate in West Wycombe. Each room on the estate has its own style, but all are lavishly decorated with ceiling paintings and art. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news He gradually rebuilt the estate in West Wycombe to resemble an Italian palace, surrounded by a huge park with small temples here and there. Inside it is full of busts and paintings of himself and his friends in satirical poses, done by renowned artists. You may have seen the estate in Downton Abbey, The Crown or Fast and Furious. It has imagined everything from a Russian mansion to the White House and Buckingham Palace. The estate in West Wycombe is Italian-inspired and features in countless films and TV series. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news The estate in West Wycombe is Italian-inspired and features in countless films and TV series. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news The big trip abroad probably inspired Dashwood to form the Hellfire Club and establish the caves that are talked about to this day. In the middle of the family church, which symbolizes heaven, lies the cave’s “inner temple”, meant to be hell. And as I look at the sacrificial table in the middle of the temple room in the semi-darkness, I can vividly imagine that it was just that; a hell for those who were brought down here involuntarily. It’s scary enough for us who are here of our own free will. The entrance to the Hellfire Caves in West Wycombe. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news The entrance to the Hellfire Caves in West Wycombe. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news – Where did that breath of wind come from? – What was that sharp sound? – Who grabbed my hair? It is the guide who asks. When the 19-year-old is alone in the cave and is about to shut down for the evening, she is convinced that she has Sukie for company. Or Paul. There are two ghosts in the Hellfire Caves. Paul Whitehead was a satirical poet and the club’s secretary. He was also a close friend of Francis Dashwood. More than a friend, it is implied. When he became seriously ill and was about to die, he deleted the club’s documents and thus all evidence of what really happened down in the cave passages here. The historic market town of West Wycombe hides dark secrets. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / NRKThe historic market town of West Wycombe hides dark secrets. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news But he did something more, he gave his heart to Dashwood. I don’t mean in a figurative sense. Paul Whitehead’s heart was placed in an urn, which still stands in one of the cubicles in the cave. But the heart itself was later stolen. And since then he has been walking again in the dark, narrow cave passages, it is claimed. I take an extra breath of fresh air when I finally get outside. Up from the reality version of Stranger Things’ “Upside Down”. Out in the market town which turned out to be far more than an idyll worthy of preservation owned by the National Trust foundation. Read more correspondent letters from Gry Blekastad Almås:
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West Wycombe – the village that makes “Stranger Things” fade – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
