2.2 The Cauld lad of hylton

In this episode, we’re debating an incredible case of the Cauld Lad. Well known to our northern listeners, this story comes from Hylton Castle in Sunderland with two very different retellings.

In the first, Robert Hylton, 13th Baron Hylton, either accidentally or purposefully murdered his stable boy - Roger Skelton. In a panic, Hylton concealed the boy’s body by dropping it down a well where the skeleton was discovered some years later. Reports indicate that court records from 1609 show Hylton was tried and acquitted of murder when a servant corroborated the story that the Baron had been scything grass and accidentally struck Skelton in the leg.

But despite the acquittal, rumours persisted that Hylton had murdered Skelton either by cutting the boy down in a rage over his laziness (although one rumour had it that Skelton was caught with the Baron’s daughter) or by skewering him with a pitchfork.

Accident or murder, upon the discovery of Skelton’s bones residents of the castle began to report hearing the cries of a boy at night:

“Aa’m cauld! Aa’m cauld”

And would hear terrible crashes and smashes, waking to find rooms left tidy the previous evening in a mess and places already a mess, cleaned and tidied as if a servant had done their duty. Items would vanish and even fire embers were discovered scrapped from the hearth and shaped as if a child had laid upon them.

Soon, suspicions grew that either Skelton’s restless spirit haunted the castle or that a Brownie had taken up residence.

Brownie or Spirit?

In British and Scottish folklore, a Brownie is a type of house fairy or fae. They could either prove helpful, often tidying and cleaning, or unhelpful if annoyed with the human occupants in the home. An angry Brownie would make a terrible mess, while one kept happy with saucers of milk and bread would be a great boon to a household.

In the fairytale version of the Cauld Lad, where the nuisance is a Brownie, a much beleaguered cook and his wife stay up all night to discover who is destroying the kitchen. To their surprise they see a small, hairy boy-like creature that complains he’s cold and sings:

Wae’s me, wae’s me,

The acorn’s not yet fallen from the tree,

That’s to grow the wood,

That’s to make the cradle,

That’s to rock the bairn

That’s to grow to the man

That’s to lay me!

Taking pity on the creature, the cook’s wife makes a cloak for the Cauld Lad and leaves it for him to discover. Upon putting on the cloak the Lad - as Brownies are known to do when gifted with clothes - becomes so thrilled that he abandons Hylton Castle with the declaration:

“Here's a cloak and here's a hood, the Cauld Lad of Hylton will do no more good."

And vanishes.

Or does he?

Stories of the Cauld Lad still persist to this day, with visitors to the gatehouse, which is all that now remains of the castle, still reporting items moved or vanishing and the ghostly cries of a boy in the night.