The Yarmouth Mummy

Two stories inspired by an incident at a Great Yarmouth school in the early twentieth century when an ancient mummy kept in the science laboratory caused quite a stink.

In the early 1900s, a school linked with the Church began to be troubled by an awful smell. When nothing else was found to blame, they opened the casket. After much debate, it was decided that the contents ought to be buried in the church graveyard. In the middle of the night with the agreement of the local vicar, a grave was dug and the mummy was tipped in. This solved the problem of the smell. A few days later the vicar of St. Nicholas was woken from a deep sleep by a steady rapping at the door. Standing at his door stood nothing. Just an hour later the same thing happened again. Outside the church some children noticed a tapping sound. Once they went inside it stopped. When they left the church the tapping started again. A while later they discovered the smell had come back to the school. They found one of the mummy’s arms left in the casket. Once it was buried with the mummy the tapping stopped.