A Brief History of Humpbuckle Manor 1 of 6: 8 to 10 years. Humpbuckle Tales 89

The Manor House has been in the Kemp family for 400 years.

It was built on the site of a Norman Fort, on the Humpbuckle cliffs.

Locals claim the ruins are cursed, masons are brought in from elsewhere.

Construction begins in 1558 and takes eight to ten years to complete.

A Brief History of Humpbuckle Manor 2 of 6: More Conflict. Humpbuckle Tales 90

The Earl of Humpbuckle, accused of treason, is imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1581 and is executed three years later.

His son, aged seven years old, declares war on the neighbouring town of Waghorn.

He's poisoned by his cousin, the same Duke who'd accused his father of treason.
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A Brief History of Humpbuckle Manor 3 of 6: Spiderman. Humpbuckle Tales 91

Lady Kemp, widowed, now mourning the death of her son, is wooed by Richard Webb, known in court as the Spider Man.

He dislikes Humpbuckle-on-sea and constantly insults the town and its people.

He is found three weeks after their marriage hanging from a tree overlooking the ocean.
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A Brief History of Humpbuckle Manor 4 of 6: high temperature. Humpbuckle Tales 92

Lady Kemp's brother, Joseph, takes over the Manor, after she dies in childbirth nine months after the death of her second husband.

For almost half a century peace reigns in Humpbuckle-on-sea, until Christmas 1825. A kitchen fire almost burns the Manor House to the ground, killing four people.
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A Brief History of Humpbuckle Manor 5 of 6: wire basket. Humpbuckle Tales 93

Two hundred years after the fire that almost destroyed the Manor, the current Lady Kemp sits in the Drawing room. Pike, the butler, places a letter in the wire basket beside her.

She learns her husband's been killed in France.

She later finds he has left debts she cannot pay.
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A Brief History of Humpbuckle Manor 6 of 6: richest people. Humpbuckle Tales 94

Already saddled with debt and bad memories, that poor boy falling through the ice and drowning is the final straw for Lady Kemp.

Selling the Manor for below market value she declares herself bankrupt.

Those she had thought of as friends abandon her.

She dies alone in an unheated flat.

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These fifty-word stories were written using the six @freewritehouse freewrite prompts @mariannewest gave us this week (see her weekend freewrite single prompt post. Check out her Three Prompt challenge for more weekend Freewrite fun!
These are the 89th to 94th fifty-word stories in the Humpbuckle Tales series. You can find all the tales reblogged on the @humpbuckletales account.

These six stories are part of the Humpbuckle Tales series I am writing. Each tale is 50 words long. They can be read individually but when read together they make up a much bigger story. The 6 weekend freewrite stories are an obvious example of this because you can see that one follows on from another. The other tales might not be so obvious as they are sometimes set a few decades earlier or later than the others.

There are author readings available of the first 22 Humpbuckle Tales on the Humpbuckle Tales YouTube Channel or you can listen to the Humpbuckle Tales podcast.

On Hive, you can find the first 10 tales read here, and Humpbuckle Tales 11-22 are read here

Hive has it first!

Humpbuckle Tales are always published first on Hive!

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