The Ghost House, Nottinghamshire

Posted by admin as 6: Season Six

Name and location: “Ghost House” Nottinghamshire

Description: This stone hall is believed to have been built out of material stolen from Roche Abbey.

Era: The current hall was built in 1848 by C. Challoner, a wine and timber merchant from Liverpool, while the back portion of the house which is owned by the Riddell family dates back to the 16th Century.

History:
- According to legend there was a battle near the area that the hall now stands on and the grounds were used as a hospital and a place to keep the dead. A Roman road runs through the property and apparently a Roman villa was situated just metres from the house.

- There has been a building on the site since as early as 1100 AD when the Cressy family lived there until 1408. The Cressy’s had strong connections with the Knight’s Templar It is said that the hall was built on the foundations of a far greater property that was never finished. The person responsible for this earlier building is said to be Bess of Hardwick and potholers have found foundations of a different house under the floor.

- After the Civil War the area went into decline and from 1765 the Mellish family became connected with the area as they held 20,000 acres of local land.

- It is thought that in the early part of the 19th Century Edward Challoner killed someone in an illegal duel here and fled north where he married into the Riddell family. In order to further distance himself from the crime he allegedly had himself canonized as a Catholic Bishop.
Ghost ratings:
- Roman soldiers have been spotted marching along the driveway and in the cellars.

- woman with red hair and black Elizabethan clothes is seen in the grounds. Is she perhaps Bess of Hardwick?

The ghostly figures of a man and a boy have been seen in one of the 16th Century cottages, located within the grounds.

- A previous gardener, long since dead, likes to watch the current gardener as he works around here.

Victorian servants are often seen in the corridors and a man in a top hat likes to hand around in the toilet near the entrance.

- The back corridors and stairs play host to phantom children, a ghostly cat and the spirit of a toddler playing a piano.

- The ghost of a little girl dressed in Victorian clothing has been seen playing in the dining room.

- An officer in uniform has been seen in the Boudoir, as has the ghost of a white lady.

- The current owners believe that The Bishop’s Room is haunted by the ghost of a particularly unfriendly Bishop. Could this be the spirit of Edward Challoner?

- The menacing spirit of a woman haunts the attic.

- An old housekeeper has been seen walking from the office and down the stairs in the old servants’ quarters

First Broadcast: 10th May 2005

Lower Well Head Farm / Tynedale Farm

Posted by admin as 6: Season Six

Description: Both these working farms built in the Pendle Hill area

Era:

It is thought that Lower Well Head Farm was built in the 1500’s, while the building at Tynedale Farm was probably built in approximately 1750 although there was a house on the site dating far earlier.

History:

- These two farms, along with the surrounding area, were allegedly used as meeting places for the notorious Pendle Witches and their coven during the early seventeenth Century.

- The Pendle Coven was believed to have been responsible for the murder by witchcraft of seventeen people in and around the forest of Pendle.

- The Device family who were at the centre of the witchcraft charges lived at a place called Malkin Tower, thought to have been somewhere in the fields surrounding these two farms.

- On Good Friday 1612 an important meeting of the witches, thought to be a ‘Sabbat’, a major Wiccan festival, took place at Malkin and many of those who attended were later tried and hanged.
- It is widely considered that the coven collapsed because various witches incriminated each other and their families to the local magistrates. There was a particular feud between members of the Device family and their rivals, the Chattox’s.

- Elizabeth Sothernes, otherwise known as Old Demdike, confessed that the usual method of murder was to make an effigy of the intended victim, known as a ‘picture of clay’. It was then crumbled or burned over a period of time causing the victim to fall ill and die.

- Tynedale Farm is now owned by the Nutter family, descendents of Alice Nutter, one of the Pendle Witches executed in 1612.

- Little is known about the history of Lower Well head Farm, but it is believed to have previously been used as a morgue and the pathway adjacent to the farm is referred to as Corpse Way.

Ghost ratings:
- An apparition of a monk is frequently seen in the area surrounding Tynedale Farm

- A hooded figure has been seen kneeling by the road outside the farm

- A servant girl in a cloak has been witnessed flitting across the land between the two farms

Spooky experiences:

- A group of men out shooting reported to have spoken to a strange woman in a cloak and skullcap who later vanished.

- Footsteps are heard regularly upstairs at Lower Well Head Farm; in particular they are said to echo through the building at 6pm on Saturdays

First Broadcast : 26th April 2005 /3rd May 2005

Golden Fleece, York

Posted by admin as 6: Season Six

This is one of the oldest coaching inns in york and is mentioned in 1503. Before 1557 it be;longed to the Merchant Adventurers whose ancient hall is behind the Inn and access can be found in both Piccadilly and Fossgate.

The adventurers were responsible for the woolen trade with York being the principle woolen centre outside the capital in medieval times.

The present sign appears on a half penny inscribed: “ye golden fleece 1668″ and bearing the name Richard Booth.

The rear entrance to the Inn is from Lady Peckett’s yard. John Peckett, whose wife Alice gave her name to the yard, owned the Inn and in 1702 became Lord Mayor of York.

Lady Peckett is said to haunt the Fleece.

The yard became a coaching station for travel between York – Manchester – Liverpool. many couriers also worked form the fleece including William Dawson (York to Pontefract), William Haggard (York to Pocklington) and W. Watson (York to Wetherby).

The Landlady Elizabeth Triffit, advertising in 1836 in the Yorkshire man stated:

The fleeces excellent beds and sitting rooms and excellent stables and coach houses, thanked the great preference given to her public house by witnesses, jurymen and others having business at the assizes (Law Courts).

In the 19th Century the inn was usually called the ‘Fleece’ but in an 1852 map it shows it as the “Golden Hart”. The present owners of the Inn claim it has no foundations and that this accounts for the uneven floors. The whole building is wooden framed and originally had three gables into the street, shown in an 1827 drawing by George Nicholson.

There once was a wide entrance to the front – the original arch now surrounds the front door and window. The old entrance is recorded in a 1910 photo with the sign saying “Golden Fleece Hotel”. Next door is the picturesque Sir Thomas Herbeists house which he bought from the Adventurers in 1557. On the otherside was a banqueting hall where Charles II was entertained by Lord Mayor Roger Jacques in 1639.

During WWI the fleece seemed to have been a popular drinking place for the army. In 1915 the landlord was taken to court for allowing soldiers to drink outside the hours permitted by military orders. (Landlord Frederick D Jackson).
Being an ancient building which is mentioned in the York Archives as far back as 1503, the Golden Fleece stands directly opposite York’s most historic and picturesque street, the shambles.

The rear yard is named after Lady Alice Peckett whose husband, John, owned the premises as well as being Lord Mayor of York around 1702.

Many guests have reported seeing the late Lady Peckett wandering the endless corridors and staircases in the wee, small hours and, including ghostly apparitions and moving furniture, hers is just one of the five resident spirits.

http://www.goldenfleeceyork.com

First Broadcast: 19th April 2005

Prideaux Place

Posted by admin as 6: Season Six

For over 400 years, Prideaux has been the home of the Prideaux-Burne family. The family’s origins date back to the 11th century; today’s Prideaux-Burnes are directly descended from William the Conqueror. Prideaux Place was completed in 1592 and has been enlarged and modified by successive generations. Today it combines the traditional E-shape of Elizabethan architecture with the 18th century exuberance of Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill Gothic. Of its 81 rooms, 44 are bedrooms — only 6 of which are habitable today. Many of the other bedrooms are just as Company B of the U.S. Army’s 121st Engineer Combat Battalion left them at the end of World War II, after occupying the House from Oct 12, 1942 until Apr 24, 1944. During the 1980s a hidden ceiling in the Great Chamber, now acknowledged to be a masterpiece of Elizabethan plasterwork, was uncovered.

http://www.prideauxplace.co.uk

First Broadcast: 12th April 2005

Somerleyton Hall

Posted by admin as 6: Season Six

One of the premier stately homes in East Anglia, Somerleyton is an early Victorian mansion built upon the foundations of a 13th century house. That first manor was built by Sir Peter Fitzosbert in about 1240, though it later passed through marriage to the Jernegan family, who owned the estate until the early 17th century.

In 1610 the Hall was rebuilt by John Wentworth in the Tudor red-brick style so often seen in East Anglian houses of this period. The house was sacked by Parliamentary troops during the English Civil War, and the estate eventually passed to the Anguish family, who owned it until the mid-Victorian period.

In 1842 Somerleyton was purchased by a successful businessman Sir Morton Peto. It is to Peto that we owe the house we can see today at Somerleyton.

Sir Morton Peto
The man responsible for rebuilding Somerleyton was a fascinating character, who rose from the position of apprentice builder to become head of an international construction empire responsible for building railways in Denmark, Canada, the Argentine, Russia, and his native Britain. At one time Peto’s company was the largest employer of labour in the entire world.

Among the projects which he helped build are the Houses of Parliament and Nelson’s Column in London, and, closer to home, Lowestoft harbour and esplanade. A tireless worker for bettering condition of his workers, Peto was also a great public benefactor, putting large sums of his own money into public projects.

Peto spared no expense in his lavish rebuilding of Somerleyton Hall. From 1844-1851 he had the house and grounds completely rebuilt in sumptuous style. The architect of Peto’s vision was John Thomas, who had previously worked for Sir Charles Barry on the Houses of Parliament. Thomas kept little from the older Jacobean mansion, replacing it with an ornate structure with touches of French, Italian, and Dutch styles.

In 1863 Somerleyton was sold to Sir Francis Crossley to pay off Peto’s rising debts, and the Crossley family holds the estate to this day. Crossley, who, like Peto, was a prominent philanthropist, made his fortune in the cloth industry by automating the process of making carpets.

Highlights of the Hall
The house is built around three sides of a courtyard, approached through the gardens built for Peto. The entrance is an imposing three-storied structure in Elizabethan style which overlooks the gardens. Within, the oaken staircase is lined with coats of arms from the 14 families who have owned Somerleyton from the 13th century.

The marvelous domed Entrance Hall is supported on a dozen oak pillars, and features some very attractive stained glass with patterns of birds. Less expected, and all the more striking for it, are two large stuffed polar bears, souvenirs of Lord Somerleyton’s 1897 excursion to the Arctic.

The Oak Room is worth noting; it is lined with paneling from the Jacobean house, and the wood for the paneling was milled from trees grown on the Somerleyton estate. A magnificent gilt mirror hangs between the windows of the Oak Room; this was originally built in the early 18th century for the Doge’s palace in Venice

http://www.somerleyton.co.uk/

First Broadcast: 5th April 2005

Dalston Hall

Posted by admin as 6: Season Six

History taken from their website

The Romans with their passion for organisation appear to have established a community at Carlisle around AD 120 (Luguvalliam). Some historians believed the area around Dalston Hall to have been used by the Romans. After the Romans left during the 5th Century came the Danish invasion of the North, and of course, as always during this time we had our most frequent visitors, the Warrior Scots. In 945 Carlisle was ransacked by the Scots and left in complete ruin for over a century.

It is believed that when Cumberland was ceded to Scotland, David King of the Scots gave the Manor of Little Dalston to his brother. We have it on the authority of a Dalston man himself that there is some evidence to support the theory that the Dalston family begins with a certain Robert de Vallibus, brother of Hubert de Vallibus first Baron of Gilsland by Robert de Meschines, Earl of Cumberland. Who was granted the Manor in 1301. For the next two hundred years the Dalstons appear to have been small landowners taking part in the usual pastimes of the period – fighting the marauding Scots in border raids or undertaking garrison duties at Carlisle Castle. Gradually they managed to increase the family fortunes.

After the death of Henry 1st, Stephen the Usurper gave Cumberland and Carlisle to Scotland as a peace offering. In 1157 the City was retaken and has remained ever since as part of England.

Records describing the building of Dalston Hall refer to the times when the first John Dalston dedicated the Pele Tower to his wife Elizabeth whom he married in 1507. Elizabeth’s father owned the Manors of Kirkbride and Dockerey. An inscription on an outside wall said “John Dalston Elizabeth mi wyf ys byldyng” this has been written in Gothic script, the letters are all in reverse and can be seen to date.

There are also four coats of arms. Two of Dalston (three daws’s heads within a border indented) and two of Kirkbride. At first the tower stood alone. The first floor consisted of the usual vaulted chamber (the Library), originally the cellar to store house, later became a chapel which had the Ten Commandments painted on the walls. The spiral staircase was entered through an Iron door (yatt – which is one of the very few still in existence in the country). The two upper levels were a living room and a camber respectively. Above this was a fighting deck with battlement. From the time of John Dalston onwards the family became of great position in the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland John’s son Thomas Born 1523, increased the land possessions by purchasing from the Crown (HenryVi 11), six Manors and various monastic lands after the dissolution of the monasteries.

As family fortunes increased Dalston Hall was enlarged first with buildings on the East of the Pele Tower and then on the West.

When Thomas died (1550) the family were of some importance in the County for the next 150 years. Thomas’s son SirJohn Dalston was born in 1523 and married Catherine Tolston of Bridekirk. In 1529 when John was six, arrangement for the children to be changed over and brought up in the other family until they were 15 years old and agreeing that if John died, Catherine should marry John’s younger brother, and vice versa, and setting out also the details of their upbringing.

SirJohn was Sheriff in 1568 and 1578 he was also Knight of the Shire in 1556. John’s son, another Sir John Dalston born 1556 to 1633, was knighted by James 1. In 1592 he was commandant of the Citadel of Carlisle, which was a position of great trust. Also in 1592 he appears to have been involved in the local sport of Hanging the Scots, in return for their raids, and he is named in a claim by the Provost and Bailiffs of Kirkcudbright involving £2,000 for 24 horses, etc.

The next Sir George Dalston was Knight of the Shire on several occasions and his court chose him as their representative in parliament for more than 40 years. The family fortunes reached a peak when Sir William Dalston, George’s son not only not only married Anne Boles a considerable heiress but inherited property from his mother. During the Cromwellian wars,

William who took the side of the Royalists was created a Baronet by Charles 1 in 1640/41.

In 1644/45 during the Civil War which began in 1642 events kept troubles away from Carlisle. However in 1644 the Royalist Commander, Sir Thomas Grenham occupied Carlisle with a small force. The Parliment General Leslie came chasing after him, came within sight of the City which was then occupied by Royalist forces and thought his represented an Army which he could perhaps have easily defeated, he drew his men off to Newcastle.

Scandal says that General Leslie knew that Carlisle could have been taken easily, since it was not provisioned for a siege. He and his men draw pay for a much longer period. Having granted them a breathing space, he brought his men up in October 1644 and settled down for the winter, using Dalston Hall as his headquarters. He blocked all the roads and prevented supplies from reaching the City and the siege was on.

William subscribed towards the upkeep of Carlisle Garrison and later in 1655 had to pay £3,000 (the largest amount levies on anyone in the Country) to compound for his estates. One of the estates came to William was Heath Hall in Yorkshire, and from this onward the Dalston family seem to have lived increasingly at Heath Hall rather than at Dalston.

Through many months the citizens of Carlisle were beleaguered, food became scarce and they were reduced to eating the proverbial cats and dogs. Finally, on 25th June 1645 the City was surrendered to General Leslie and it needs but little imagination to conjure up scenes which must have enacted within this hall. Messengers on horseback arriving with news of Royalist and Parliament battles in other parts. Encampments of men dispersed throughout the grounds, seeking shelter in the woods and of their conversation in assessing the line of the siege.

Sir Charles Dalston baptised in 1686, who died in 1723, resided chiefly in Yorkshire was Sheriff of Cumberland in 1741, this was the year of the Hanoverian succession. Sir Charles first married Susan, daughter and coheir of Sir Francis Drake of Whitney.

Sir Charles had one son and six daughters and thus Sir George Dalston baptised 1718 (died 1765) was the last male of his line. Perhaps lacking a male heir, he sold his estates at Dalston in 1761, according to Daniel Defoe, to a Mr Monkhouse Davidson, grocer of London for £5.060.

Dalston Hall had by this time been extended. The large hall for example had been added. Commencing in the latter part of the 15th Century we find extensions and alterations occurring right through to this later period. The more recent modifications are those which probably created much of the interior beauty which we so much admire today. But, older hands and minds created the original proportions and symmetry which acted as a base for making this balanced picture in red sandstone which is seen today.

In 1897 the Hall adjoining estates were purchased by the late Edmund Wright Stead whose more recent restoration of this historic home earned the appreciation of such an antiquarian expert as the late Canon Wilson who wrote “Not one stone of interest was interfered with” and yet the result was “a magnificent mansion surpassing perhaps even its ancient glories”.

In later years Dalston Hall was used as a Youth Training Centre and then in 1971 was converted to a Hotel.

Dalston Hall is very old, built over 600 years ago. At night it the towers are floodlight and the stone an orangey red sandstone – more mellow than the deep red of Penrith sandstone. It is approached up a drive through trees. But look out for the ghost of the Victorian handyman as you drive up at night. He has been seen in the grounds.

The current entrance of Dalston Hall is actually the most modern – dating from 1899 – but this hides a more ancient heart. The door into the hotel leads from bright sunshine to a subdued dimness. All around dark wood panelling makes the place intimate and yet strange. Passing into the hotel from the reception, you go past the stairs and into the Banorial Hall. The hall dates from around 1500. An inscription reads: “Iohn Dalston Elisabet mi wyf mad ys byldyng” – the letters are in Gothic script, and curiously in reverse. Above the manorial hall is a gallery. It is here that the oldest ghost – known to the staff as Lady Jane, can be seen. She appears in Tudor dress and may well be one of the Dalston families who owned the Hall for such a long time.

Off the Banorial Hall, to the left, an old wooden doorway opens onto a staircase. Near the bottom of the stairs is a heavy iron gate, which is almost certainly from the date of the first building. The staircase spirals, up with worn stone steps, into the top of the left tower. As you ascend you can almost imagine footsteps behind you, though if you turn you know no one would be there. The stairs come out in what is now the honeymoon suite with its four-poster bed. The walls are the original stone and the windows cut through stone blocks three feet thick. This was one of the defensive Pele towers of Cumbria from the times of the border skirmishes with the Scots.

This room is not haunted but it is atmospheric enough despite that. It is possible to climb the spiral stairs still further and emerge onto the battlements and even higher to the top turret. From here you can survey the estate and look south to the Lake District fells. Going down again, on the ground floor there is a small library, which serves as a lounge for residents. There is also a cupboard for hanging coats, which when the back panel was removed, revealed a staircase going up to nowhere; it meets a blank wall. From this floor the staff can go down to the extensive cellars that wind like a rabbit warren underneath the hotel and go from century to century revealing modern bricks, Victorian building, medieval stone.

There are storm drains down here from when the rain is exceptionally heavy. More than one of the night porters has heard noises from the cellars when making their rounds in the depths of the night. It has been described as the sound of wooden barrels being rolled around. Wooden barrels have not been used for a long time at Dalston Hall. In 1997, one brave fellow called Richard actually went down to investigate and saw the figure of a man down there. He turned and came back up again, asking the receptionist whom the other fellow was. Of course the receptionist told him that he must be mistaken. There was no one else working down there.

Room 4 is said to be haunted by a poor maid who threw herself from the Pele tower above. It has an original fireplace with inglenooks to either side. One of the staff and her partner stayed there one night and both tossed and turned. She told me that she had a strong feeling of a presence in the right hand inglenook – as if someone were carefully watching her as she slept.

One guest came down in the morning and asked to be moved from Room 4. She said that she woke up to hear her dog growling at the door. He kept growling on and off all night though there was no one to be seen there. She said that she herself had felt a presence in the room.

Room 12 is perhaps the most interesting. It has half a bathroom. It is difficult to see this from inside, but if you go outside the Hall and look into the bathroom window, you will see that the room has been cut in half with a false wall. The other half of the bathroom, in faded decor is visible from outside, but there is no way to get to it without knocking a hole in the new wall. Room 12 has a lovely view of the gardens, perhaps the best view of any room in the hotel. It also has a four-poster bed. People who have slept in the room – not everyone but a significant number over the years have complained of being woken by girls voices whispering. It is said that they are completely benevolent – as if they are just having a giggly time. The trouble is – there is nobody actually there.

A Report into Psychic Investigations of Ghosts at Dalston Hall between 28 March and 1 April 2001

Mr Fingernails in the Cellar

There have been various stories of barrels moving in the cellar and sightings of workmen, even ghostly workmen handing tools to real workmen, but these can be put down to The Handyman below. Two psychics have independently described an entity that is non-human and appears to them as a black fog. It appears to have something protruding from its forehead, which has been described by one psychic as a hat, though the other disagreed. They did agree that it could move fast, move through floors, and had long fingers with long weird fingernails and liked to loom over people to scare them. In fact it turned out to be a big bully and though it got a kick out of scaring people, couldn’t really harm them.

The Handyman

The Handyman lives in the cellar with Mr Fingernails, though whether they get on is unknown. He is described as having tweed or check trousers, being big and physical. He enjoyed his job with the barrels so much he never wanted to leave. It is a physical job but he’s proud of being the breadwinner and a real man. Or was he?. He has a significant armband on his right arm which is to do with his job – maybe a badge of rank. He also has a horse with long hair on its fetlocks so I guess he’s some kind of drayman.

Girl Being Dragged By Hair

This poor girl who is described as having a pale face, possibly powdered was seen being dragged by her hair, beaten up, raped and possibly thrown out of the window to her death, by a burly man dressed in leather. We have no idea of period for this but it could be 1500s. The psychics felt she was a courtesan or ‘floozie’. This scene happened in the corridor outside Rooms 4,5 and 6.

Sad Emily

This poor girl stands by the window in Room 4 gazing south. Three psychics have independently felt great sadness here and two of them reported the sensation that the girl had looked out of the window thousands of times. She is described as having a headdress, like a bonnet, but more in the style of a headband? With flowers and frills in white cotton. It holds her head back. Her waist is drawn in tightly as if by stays. She has a ring on her finger, which she fingers. It is felt that perhaps she is pining for a man who never returned. An older lady comes in to check if she is all right.

The Dogs and Party

There is a party going on in the Baronial Hall, there are fat dogs and people and high-pitched pipe music. Possibly medieval? A woman also haunts the grille at the bottom of the tower that leads into the hall, and there are strong feelings that there is a void under the hall floor (now bricked up) and Mr Fingernails comes up from this. The party may be the same one from which the girl dragged by her hair (above) was taken.

Three Women and a Young Girl

On the stairs, there are three young women and a small blonde girl. They watch people going up and down, but what they are really doing, and why is it a mystery?

http://www.dalston-hall-hotel.co.uk

 First Broadcast: 29th March 2005

Bodmin Moor Gaol

Posted by admin as 6: Season Six

Bodmin Gaol, the former County Prison, was built in 1777 and replaced the old Debtor’s Prison (now the Hole-In-The-Wall Public House). The Prison was rebuilt in the 1840s and again in the 1850s each time increasing in size as the population grew. A grand total of 55 hangings took place of which 51 were public hangings. The last public hanging took place in 1909 prior to the prison’s closure in 1922.

During the First World War, the Domesday Book, and it is said by some, the Crown Jewels, were amongst the treasures entrusted to Bodmin Gaol for safe keeping.

Bodmin Jail has been opened as a museum, with exhibits re-creating the awful conditions in which many of the prisoners spent their final days. All those who met their end in the jail were buried in its grounds. The crimes and fates of many prisoners are displayed in the exhibits.

The Ghosts of Bodmin Gaol are varied in the nature and manifestation. Eerie sound of footsteps and rattling keys are accompanied by inexplicable voices and misty figures often seen roaming on balconies and cells high above. Visitors are always struck by the feeling of misery and sadness that seemed to fill the air and be contained in the walls. Truly an atmosphere of death is encased in the structure. Many people lost their lives within the walls and conditions were diabolical.

Some of the people who apparently still haunt the Gaol to this day include:

Matthew Weekes who was hanged at the Gaol for the brutal murder of Charlotte Dymond. It’s believed that he haunts the gaol because he was innocent.

Selina Wadge was hanged by William Marwood on the 15th August 1878 at Bodmin for the murder of her illegitimate son. Its often reported that to this day she tries to grab young children or put her feelings of remorse on pregnant women.

William and James Lightfoot, who were hung for the murder of Nevell Norway. William admitted the brutal murder of Nevell in which he repeatedly hit Nevell with the butt of his gun until he died before dumping him in a nearby river.

Anne Jefferies, was ordered by Bodmin’s High Court to be starved until she confessed that she was a witch. Her survival without nourishment for three months was cause for wide speculation and furore, and it was suggested that she had supernatural powers. Does she haunt the Gaol?

 First Broadcast: 22nd March 2005