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Curses

Location:derbyshire
Most people have heard of the theme park Alton Towers but what is not widely known is the chained oak tree and the legend around it.

On an autumn evening , Earl of Shrewsbury was traveling home to Alton Towers when he came across an old woman , begging in the road. The Earl refused to give her any money so the old woman placed a curse on him , "For every branch on the Old Oak Tree here that falls, a member of the Earl's family will die." The Earl laughed this off and carried on his way.

That night a violent storm swept across the land causing a single branch from the old oak tree to break off. A few hours later, a member of the Earl's family mysteriously died. This caused the Earl , to take action by ordering his servants to chain every branch together to prevent other branches from falling.

There is slight variations of the legend but what is know is that still to this day the old Oak tree remains chained.

On the 9th April 2007, one of the tree's main branches broke off. The Talbot family confirmed that when the branch fell , no one out of the family died.

So was there really a curse on the Talbot Family?

The cursed chest
It's believed 150 years ago a man named Jacob Cooley wanted a chest built for his first child , so he asked one of his slaves Hosea To build one .When he finished making the chest , Cooley became aggressive and beaten Hosea to death. Cooley's other slaves heard what happened and made a pact to seek avenge. They scattered the blood of an owl over the chest and put a curse on it.
The family was cursed with multiple deaths including Cooley's first born son who died as a baby. In total 17 deaths were attributed to the cursed chest. It's believed the curse has now been lifted and is at Kentucky History Museum .