Maesmawr Hall

Posted by admin as 14: Season Fourteen

The area around Maesmawr was occupied during Roman times. Due to its location near the banks of the River Severn, the Romans built a road through the area. A Welsh Long House was once located in the grounds. A listed building, it was built in the Tudor style in 1535. In the early 19th century it became a notable sporting estate for shooting game.  In the 1870s it was known to have been owned by John Pryce Davies and was owned for many years by his family, the Davies sisters in the 1900s. In August 2008 the hall was purchased by Nigel Humphryson.

Today the hall is used as a hotel with 18 bedrooms and is often hired for wedding receptions, proms and social evenings. The original rooms from the 1535 building have the original beams and uneven floors. In the Victorian period a wing was added to the hall; those rooms are larger and brighter

An old Roman road passed through the grounds of the hall and people have reported seeing Roman legionnaires.  One report was of a businessman staying at the manor who was previously a sceptic of ghosts and when staying there one night reported that when he looked out of the window he could see a road disappearing under the building with a Roman legion marching along.

Manor groundsMid Wales Paranormal (MWP) investigated at the hall and reported that, “There were light orbs and anomalies at the hall, and while investigating in a room upstairs, there was movement and the floor actually moved.”  Sightings of an Elizabethan housekeeper have been seen going through the wall in the panelled hallway and the ghost of a wicked man named Robin Drwg is said to haunt the woods on the grounds who assumes the form of a bull. A man and his dog and a servant are said to appear in the cellar and the Davies sisters who ran the hall in the 1900s have also been reported as being seen.

Nigel Humphryson, the owner since 2008, has not reported having seen anything. However, he has confessed to hearing voices and banging which he could not account for.

News Article from Country Times

MAESMAWR Hall Hotel is set to feature in the next season of Living TV’s Most Haunted.

The ghost hunting crew from the popular series visited Maesmawr, near Caersws, last week to film for the show – following up on the County Times own ghost hunt last year.

The hotel was featured in the County Times last October when deputy editor Mark Lingard and photographer Rob Davies joined forces with Newtown Paranormal to investigate the legend of Maesmawr ghosts.

Living TV has now visited the hotel to conduct its own investigation and has confirmed the show will form part of its series 14 and will most likely be televised next year.

The hotel has been on the site since the 1600s, a location which previously housed a Welsh Long House and a Roman road and fort. Legend has it that Maesmawr was inhabited by a ghost called ‘Robin Drwg’ (Wicked Robin) who was said to assume the form of a bull.

He was eventually overcome by the united efforts of seven parsons and laid in Llyn Tarw (the Bull’s Pool).

The County Times’ own investigation found several strange goings on, such as a skeletal hand caught on camera, a black mist hanging above a chair in one room and most inexplicably Mark Lingard witnessed the figure of a lady walking in the grounds.
Maesmawr Hall’s owner, Nigel Humphryson, revealed the Living TV’s crew, including Yvette Fielding and a medium, took over the hotel for three days to complete the filming.

Although unable to reveal details about the team’s findings, Nigel did confirm that they held a seance and had found some “interesting things”.

He said: “I think it all went really quite well, most of the filming is done without any of us around so we didn’t actually get to see what they found. From what I can gather it went really very well. They held a seance and picked up on a number of things.”
Nigel said there had been a number of incidents at the hotel since he took over in August last year.

He said: “Since we have been here there have been some strange happenings.

“One businessman came down in the morning to check out and said he wasn’t into ghosts and ghouls but had been woken up in the night by the sound of steps outside.

” He said that when he looked out of the window he could see a road disappearing under the building with a Roman legion marching along!”

Nigel said he has not seen any ghosts but had encountered strange happenings: “I’ve just heard voices and noises, banging doors and stuff like that, I haven’t seen anything.”

Verdley Woods Fernhurst

Posted by admin as 14: Season Fourteen

Fernhurst is a large village on the A286, Haslemere to Midhurst road, in West Sussex, but close to the Surrey border, and includes the settlements of Bell Vale, Kingsley Green and Henley Common.

Although an active village with a modern outlook, Fernhurst is steeped in history, beginning life as a small scattered settlement in Saxon times.
Once called Farnhurst, the name is derived from the Anglo Saxon – “fern covered hill”. The village is surrounded by hills, including, to the northeast, Blackdown, at 919ft, the highest hill in Sussex.

Verdley Woods

The legendary ghost of the last bear to be killed in England is said to haunt Verdley Woods just south of Fernhurst. An Australian television crew went in search of the spectral animal but were unable to find it.

Just to the south of the estate, in ‘Fordly Coppice’, is the site of Verdley Castle, dating from the 13th century.

Carlisle Castle Cumbria

Posted by admin as 14: Season Fourteen

Carlisle Castle is located in Cumbria in Northwest England, not too far from the border with Scotland. As such, it has a long violent history and has changed hands between the English and the Scottish many times through the years.

The castle has also been used as a prison and barracks for the military, its most famous prisoner being Mary, Queen of Scots in 1568. The military still use the castle today as headquarters to a Royal Regiment. There also remains a Scottish resident from long ago in the keep.

As Richard Jones tells the story…

“In the 1830’s during the construction of a parade ground and barracks, demolition work uncovered the skeleton of a lady bricked into one of the keep’s second-story walls. Three rings upon the boney digits of her fingers and remnants of her silk, tartan dress were evident. There were no clues to her identity, although there was considerable speculation that she may have been walled up alive. The opening of her tomb, however, appears to have roused her revenant, for in 1842 a sentry on guard duty in the keep challenged the figure of a woman who approached him in the early hours of one morning. As she ignored him, he shouted to rouse his fellow guardsmen. Then, raising his bayonet, he charged at the figure. Just as he reached her, the woman simply melted into thin air, whereupon the soldier fainted clean away. Although his comrades did manage to revive him, such was the shock to his system that, having told them what had happened, he promptly fell back and died.”

This ghost story was taken from the book “Haunted Castles of Britain and Ireland” by Richard Jones.

Kiplin Hall Yorkshire

Posted by admin as 14: Season Fourteen

Kiplin Hall is a Jacobean historic house at Kiplin in North Yorkshire, England, that is now a Grade I listed building. It stands by the River Swale in the Vale of Mowbray. The nearest villages are Scorton, Great Langton and Bolton-on-Swale. Much of the local landscape has been extensively quarried for sand and gravel extraction.

The house was built in the 1620s for George Calvert, Secretary of state to James I, who later became first Lord Baltimore and founder of Maryland, USA.

Ghostly goings-on at the hall are reported to include footsteps and sobbing in a drawing room, a Victorian woman seen on a staircase and a 1940s airman spotted in a kitchen. Many visitors and volunteers have also smelled pipe smoke in an old kitchen and a hint of cologne has been detected in another drawing room. Orbs have appeared in photos.

A permanent exhibition charts the founding of Maryland by George Calvert and the lives of the families that have lived in Kiplin Hall through the centuries.

Berkeley Castle Gloucestershire

Posted by admin as 14: Season Fourteen

Berkeley Castle has been in the same family for almost eight centuries. From the late Anglo-Saxon times, there has been a manor at Berkeley but the present castle at Berkeley was originally constructed in the year 1153 AD as a shell keep.

In the year 1215 AD, the castle was the place where the West Country barons assembled en route to their clash with King John at Runnymede just before the signing of the Magna Carta.

Today Berkeley Castle is probably most famous for being the castle in which Edward II was confined in 1327 AD after he was deposed by his wife Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer. They were hoping that confinement in the dank dungeons with their terrible conditions and disease would be the death of the King but surprisingly although he became ill for a time, he did recover.

After this they decided to dispose of the King in a more definite manner and Edward II was to suffer probably the most horrific death of any British king in history. Firstly, he was pinned down on a table or flat surface and a funnel was thrust into his rectum and through it was pushed a red-hot poker up into his bowels. The room where this gruesome act was perpetrated can still be viewed by visitors to the castle today.

Poor Edward II died in such terrible agony that it has been said for many centuries that his screams can be heard in and around the castle on the anniversary of his death.

Most Haunted Starts 12th May 2010

Posted by admin as 14: Season Fourteen, Most Haunted News

The line up for the new series is

12th May 2010 Berkley Castle Berkley, Gloucestershire 
19th May 2010 Kiplin Hall Richmond, Yorkshire 
26th May 2010 Carlisle Castle Cumbria 
2nd June 2010 Brinkburn Priory Rothbury, Northumberland 
9th June 2010 The Verdley Woods Fernhurst, Chichester 
16th June 2010 Maesmawr Hall Caersws, Powys 
23rd June 2010 Belsay Hall Morpeth, Northumberland 
30th June 2010 Secunda Manor

Most Haunted Series 12 on DVD

Posted by admin as 13: Season Thirteen, Most Haunted DVD, Most Haunted News

Most Haunted is back with series 12, where Yvette and the Most Haunted team travel thousands of miles over to the USA to uncover more terrifying paranormal activity. From Colorado to New Jersey, watch as the team are pushed to their limits investigating some of the most unusual, scariest and spectacular locations ever seen on Most Haunted. Series 12 is sure to have you gripped to your seats as the team head to Sleepy Hollow cemetery in New York and West Virginia State Penitentiary where they are put into separate cells until one of them cracks from fear….. Can you handle more scary vigils, more unexplained noises, bangs and whispers and more disturbing events…. who will crack first?…..

Released 22nd March 2010

Most Haunted Edward Jenner Museum (The Chantry)

Posted by admin as 13: Season Thirteen

The Chantry, the house that Edward Jenner owned from 1785 until his death in 1823, was sold by his descendants in 1876. In 1885 it was sold again, to the Church of England. It then became the vicarage for Berkeley, to replace the old vicarage where Edward Jenner had been born in 1749. When the Diocese of Gloucester decided to sell The Chantry in the early 1980s it was realised that it would be the ideal home for a museum to honour Jenner.
An appeal was launched to raise the money necessary for its purchase. The encouragement and support of the British Society for Immunology and the World Health Organisation played a significant role in obtaining donations from companies in the pharmaceutical and other branches of industry. Success came largely because of a substantial donation from Mr Ryoichi Sasakawa of Japan.
The museum
The Edward Jenner Museum at The Chantry opened to the public in 1985. A separate building that had once been Jenner’s stables was converted to house a small conference centre.
In 1996 two rooms on the first floor of The Chantry, were converted into an exhibition of modern immunology. The museum had quietly but significantly changed its role. Originally it had been primarily retrospective, looking back at the achievements of Edward Jenner himself, and protecting the home in which he had worked. After 1996 the Jenner Museum became pro-active in promoting a public understanding of immunology, the science underlying Jenner’s work and developed from it.

First Broadcast: 27th December 2009

Most Haunted Castle Fraser

Posted by admin as 13: Season Thirteen

Castle Fraser is now a grand castle and stately home owned by the National Trust, developed and improved on from its beginnings as a fortified towerhouse by generations of the Fraser family. The castle was known as Muchall in Mar until 1695.

Thomas Fraser was a loyal supporter of James II and as reward for his fealty he was granted lands of Muchall and Stoneywood in exchange for his own lands near Stirling. The castle was originally a 3 storey rectangular Tower House. Reconstruction and additions to the tower were started around 1570 by the 5th Earl: Michael Fraser and completed in 1636 while under the control of Andrew Fraser who was also the first Lord Fraser.

The castle was reconstructed as a classic Z plan incorporating the existing 3 storey tower under master masons Thomas Leiper, and eventually John Bell (employed by Andrew Fraser). The second Lord Fraser (also named) Andrew Fraser, inherited the castle in the late 1630’s. Andrew was a Covenanter and active in the religious unrest of the 17th C, leading to the sacking of the castle by James Graham the Marquis of Montrose in 1644. However the Fraser’s were still allowed to stay at the castle although ownership passed to other people returning back to the Fraser family eventually over time.

The castle was modernised in the 1700’s: the 300 acre grounds were landscaped in accordance with contemporary fashion, and a large stable block was added. In 1820 Charles Fraser oversaw an interior overhaul of the castle, and a walled garden was also completed in the 19th Century. The Fraser family became the Mackenzie Fraser family through a nominated heirdom of the castle. This line was broken in 1897 when Fredrick Mackenzie Fraser died without an heir. In 1921 his widow sold the castle and lands to Weetman Pearson (Viscount Cowdray) who passed the castle to his son Clive Pearson, Clive’s daughter Lavinia gave the castle to the National Trust in 1976.

Traditions and Legends
The Green room of the castle was reputedly the scene of the violent murder of a young Princess who was dragged down the stairs leaving a trail of blood. This blood trail could not be removed no matter how hard it was scrubbed and cleaned and eventually wooden panelling was made to cover the stairs and hide the grim evidence of the bloody deed. Whether there is any truth in the story of the murdered Princess is unclear

First Broadcast: 15th December 2009

Most Haunted Cromer Pier

Posted by admin as 13: Season Thirteen

There has been a pier or jetty in Cromer since 1391. Letters granting the right to levy duties for repairs suggest that attempts at maintenance seem to have gone on until 1580. In 1582, Queen Elizabeth I granted the right to the inhabitants of Cromer to export wheat, barley and malt for the maintenance of their town and towards the rebuilding of the pier.

The last wooden jetty was built in 1846 and, described as a “plain wooden structure”, was just 70 yards long. By night, it was regulated by several bylaws: for instance, smoking was only allowed after the hour of nine o’clock when ladies would be expected to have retired for the evening. Gales later damaged the jetty again so much that it had to be dismantled and Cromer was left without a pier. This brief spell of emptiness spurred the ‘pier commissioners’ to consider a more fashionable structure, and it was in 1901 that the new pier opened.

At that time, Cromer was served by two railway companies: the ‘Great Eastern’ and the ‘Midland and Great Northern’. The great rivalry between the railway companies meant that any official occasion in the town gave them the excuse to bring dignitaries from near and far. And so it was with the official opening of the pier.

 The ‘Great Eastern’ brought dignitaries and members of the press from London while the ‘Midland and Great Northern’ ferried VIPs from as far afield as Birmingham and Bradford. The ‘Blue Viennese Band’ played in the bandstand and the brochure assured visitors that ‘here, while the season lasts, strains of charming music will be constantly heard.’ In 1905, the bandstand was covered to form an enclosed pavilion and the following season the first ‘concert parties’ performed. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the ‘Cromer Protection Commission’ was responsible for selecting the concert parties at the pavilion, and toured the south coast looking at potential shows.

 In 1936, one of the Pavilion’s most famous shows first appeared: Ronnie Brandon’s ‘Out The Blue’. At the outbreak of World War II, the Royal Engineers removed the middle section of the pier and shows ceased for the duration of hostilities. After the war, Cromer Council advertised in ‘The Stage’ for concert parties to provide shows to cover a fourteen-week season. In 1953, devastating gales demolished the pavilion and wrecked the pier. The government of the day granted compensation for the rebuilding of the pavilion and the new theatre was ready in time for the 1955 season.

First Broadcast: 8th December 2009