From hauntings to hangings, stories of the cobblestone tower ruins on Gibbet Hill (pronounced jibbit) have become local legends. Kate Webber, co-owner of the Gibbet Hill Grill restaurant and barn, dispelled some of the mystery surrounding Groton's castle on a recent walk through the fieldstone structure. Webber's family bought the Gibbet Hill Farm in 2000. Webber, a writer and freelance editor, was also a keeper of the castle.
Q: What exactly is a gibbet?
A: A gibbet is a gallows. In England, gibbets were usually situated on hills and used for public executions, typically for people who committed crimes that involved textiles. The hangings were a way to deter others from crime.
Q: Was there ever a public execution on Gibbet Hill in Groton?
A: No one has ever been gibbeted on Gibbet Hill (laughs). There are legends that people have been hanged, but there is no proof of it actually happening. Gibbet Hill most likely got its name after a hill in England.
Q: Is the Gothic stone tower on Gibbet Hill the remnants of a real castle?
A: No. Actually, it is the remnants of several things. It was a retirement bungalow built in 1906 by General William Bancroft, a Groton native who became the head of the Boston railroad and the mayor of Cambridge. Bancroft's dream was to build a retirement home on the crest of Gibbet Hill called Shawfieldmont.
Q: What inspired Bancroft to build it?
A: He was a man with a lot of aspirations. After building the house and tower that people refer to now as "the castle," Bancroft wanted to add a castlelike mansion and a horse stable, but he ran out of money before the project was finished and had to abandon it. Rocks were hauled from all over Groton to construct the tower. The stonework was done by a crew of Italian masons.
Q: Is it true the castle was once a sanitarium?
A: Yes. Bancroft sold the property to Harold Ayers in 1918. Ayers was a prominent physician who turned the building into a private sanitarium that accepted all but insane and contagious patients. Basically, it was a place for wealthy people to come and rest for $20 a week.
Q: What other purposes did the building serve?
A: In the 1920s, it became the Groton Private Hospital, a place for tuberculosis patients to get treatment. Then in the 1930s, the Groton Hunt Club used it to host fox-hunting parties, dinners and dances.
Q: Why is it in ruins today?
A: The exact date is still questionable, but between 1930 and 1932, there was a Fourth of July fireworks display that sparked a fire, burning down everything that wasn't stone.
Q: Are the stone ruins on private land?
A: Until 2002, the castle was on private land owned by my family. Now it's part of conservation land.
Q: Can anyone visit the castle?
A: The castle is accessible by foot, and anyone can go up there whenever they want. You can park at Gibbet Hill Grill and walk down Route 40 to get to the entrance gate. In 2004, three couples were married up there in a single wedding ceremony.
Q: Stories about the castle at Gibbet Hill are legendary. What are some of the strangest you've heard?
A: A lot of people are determined that the whole hill is haunted. Before the castle was public property, someone had snuck in and said when they looked through a window, (they) saw a severed foot with a green sock on it. People have reported seeing old colonial couples walking up and down the hills, a man in an old soldier's uniform who walks the property, and a Native American who was rumored to be chased down and killed. I'm convinced there aren't any ghosts roaming. But people look at the stone tower and think there has to be some wonderful and terrible Gothic stories that go with it.
http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_4052968
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