St Mary’s Church and cemetery in Whitby was given a star role in the Gothic horror novel as the point where the villainous count made landfall in Britain after his journey from Transylvania, and the area has become a major tourist trap for Dracula fans.
However, the building and its grounds is in danger due to subsidence, which has been accelerated by recent heavy rainfall in the U.K.
Part of the cemetery is now starting to fall away and bones from ancient cliff-top graves have been tumbling onto the buildings and street below.
Reverend Canon David Smith of St Mary’s Church tells Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, “The church has been trying to muck in (help out) to try and get things done and we have had a civil engineer and people working to sort it out…
“The cemetery has been closed since 1865, so if any graves are exposed it’s only bones. If they are exposed we collect and re-inter them…”
Dracula has inspired countless film and TV adaptations over the years, with actors including Bela Lugosi, Sir Christopher Lee and Gary Oldman among the most famous to play the lead role.
