Blog Tour Guest Post: The Box of Locks by Sam Hay

Hello! Today I’m really excited to be sharing a post from Sam Hay with you to celebrate her new book Questers’ Academy: the Box of Locks with a guest post.

Strangest Things! 

Questers Academy trains kids to protect terrifying mythical objects such as the ‘Seer’s Eye’ – a scary doom stone that can cause disasters, and the Berserker Claws – Viking weapons that are lethal in the wrong hands. Not to mention the powerful ‘Quill of Fate,’ which allows you to change the future, with a stroke of a pen. Luckily these objects are straight out of my imagination. But in real life there are loads of mysterious – (and often just plain weird!) objects with exciting stories attached. 

Next time you’re in the Natural History Museum check out a potential real doom stone – the Cursed Amethyst! This purple gemstone has a troubled past. Stolen from an Indian temple in the 1800s, it’s said to bring bad luck to whoever has it. The last owner, a writer named Edward Heron-Allen, threw it in the Regent’s Canal to get rid of it, but it mysteriously returned. Thereafter, it was kept in a locked box for years for safety, (just like the Seer’s Eye in Questers), until it was donated to the Natural History Museum. While it sounds scary, some people reckon the owner invented the legend to promote a story he’d written about a cursed gemstone!  

The Basano Vase is a creepy, silver vase which according to legend, was made in the 15th Century for a bride in Napoli in Italy. She was said to have been found dead on the night of her wedding holding the vase. It was then hidden away, believed cursed. But every time it resurfaced more people died. The last reported sightings are in the UK in the 1980s, when it was buried in a lead box, location undocumented. 

Another strange object is the Hand of Glory. A mummified hand, said to belong to a hanged criminal and now held in the Whitby Museum. Folklore says thieves used hands like this when they broke into houses to send the inhabitants to sleep – lighting the fingers as candles, and if anyone was awake the flames would go out! Whitby Museum is full of mysterious objects, including a creepy doll of a local witch. And a hangman’s locket, which was a grisly souvenir sold to spectators of hangings. It’s a glass pendant containing a replica of a skeleton on a gallows, with a piece of the actual rope used in executions! Eek!    

If you like creepy old stately homes, check out Burton Agnes Hall, in Yorkshire, which has a ghostly skull buried in its walls. It belonged to Anne Griffith, whose father built the house in 1620. Anne was said to have been obsessed with the house, but didn’t get to enjoy it! She died after being attacked, just after it was built. On her deathbed she made her family promise to keep her head in the building. Instead, they buried her whole body in the local graveyard. That’s when she began to haunt them! When the skull was brought back into the house, the hauntings stopped. Over the years people tried to get rid of the skull, but whenever they did, the ghostly happenings began again! If you visit the hall, you can see a portrait of unhappy Anne. 

The Hexham Heads. When two stone heads the size of tennis balls were discovered by kids playing in a garden in Hexham in 1971, neighbours began to report sightings of a werewolf-like figure! The heads were sent off to an archaeologist to examine them, and she too apparently saw the werewolf – as did her daughter. The heads then got lost, whereabouts unknown! Maybe keep a look out for them next time you’re at a car boot sale. Though if you find them, you might need to call Questers for help! #QuestersAcademy     

Thank you so much for reading! If you’d like to see my review of the book, it’s over on Instagram @goldenbooksgirl . Amy x