Most Haunted Live New Year 2003 :: Dick Turpin

Posted by admin as 2003

3 Days investigating the legend of Dick Turpin

Night One Hampstead Heath, Spaniards Inn

Night Two Epping Forest

Night Three Knavesmire

265 Years ago, a man destined for disaster made his way north to York on the run from a vengeful army, stopping along the way to confiscate the riches of those he deemed too privileged. Following his arrest in October 1738, Dick Turpin spent his final Christmas and New Year at York Castle prison before being put to death in April 1739. It was a tourist attraction then, and to this day visitors come to hail the legend of Dick. This New Year, Yvette Fielding, Derek Acorah and the Most Haunted team will start a three-day extravaganza of paranormal investigations that start in London and make their way to York. Will they solve the mystery that is Dick Turpin?

First Broadcast: 29th December 2003

Most Haunted Live Halloween 2003 :: Beaulieu Abbey

Posted by admin as 2003

Includes special Hallowe’en edition of “Loose Lips”, an entartainment show hosted by Melinda Messenger and Richard Arnold. Join them live from Beaulieu Abbey with the Most Haunted ghost hunting team.

History

Beaulieu Abbey was founded in 1204 by Cistercian monks on land given to them by King John. Although much was destroyed at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of Henry VIII, there is still much for visitors to see today.
The Domus, once the lay brothers’ refectory, houses an exhibition of monastic life prior to the Abbey’s purchase by Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton in 1538. Visitors can view a series of modern embroidered wall hangings depicting scenes from medieval monastic life and the history of the Abbey since 1204. The Abbey Cloister is a place of tranquillity, planted with fragrant herbs.

In medieval times, when the Abbey was an important Cistercian monastery, the monks would have provided hospitality to visitors. Indeed, by the 15th century when the monks’ numbers had dwindled, the Domus was adapted to accommodate important guests.
 
 
First Broadcast: 31st October 2003

Most Haunted Live Summer Solstice 2003 :: Woodchester Mansion

Posted by admin as 2003

 The day when the power of the sun is at its greatest and the power of the darkness is even more so … when Derek, Yvette and Phil with the Most Haunted team are sent out to unravel the secrets of Woodchester Mansion

History

The present, incomplete Mansion at Woodchester Park replaced a Georgian country house called Spring Park, which was first built at the beginning of the 17th Century and named for the many springs in the valley. The estate, which had much earlier origins, which included Nympsfield, parts of the parishes of Frocester, Kings Stanley, Avening and Horsley, as well as Woodchester village, and formed part of the land holdings of the second Earl of Ducie. It was put up for sale by them in 1844.

William Leigh, a devout convert to the Roman Catholic church, bought the estate in 1845 for £100,000, moving from his home at Little Aston Hall in Staffordshire. Leigh approached Augustus Welby Pugin, co-architect of the newly built Palace of Westminster, inviting him to design a new house in the fashionable Gothic style. After initial discussions Pugin dropped out of consideration, and Leigh looked elsewhere.

Leigh gave land in nearby South Woodchester to the Congregation of Passionists for the construction of a Roman Catholic church and a monastery for the Passionist brothers. His architect was now Charles Francis Hansom of Bristol, brother of the designer of the Hansom Cab.

By 1854 Leigh returned to the idea of creating a grand Gothic mansion in Woodchester Park, and a new set of designs was prepared by Hansom’s office. By 1859, however, most of the drawings were being produced by Hansom’s assistant Benjamin Bucknall, who was local to the Stroud area. Bucknall was very young for the responsibility of such a large scheme, being only 21 when he began. However his passion for the spiritual qualities of the purest forms of Gothic architecture led to Leigh entrusting him with the Mansion project. Bucknall was greatly influenced by the French architect and writer, Viollet-le-Duc, whose greatest treatise, the “Dictionnaire Raisonne de L’Architecture Francaise du Xième au XVIème Siecle”, provided a treasure chest of ideas for the young Englishman. Bucknall eventually translated the work into English.

Woodchester is undoubtedly Bucknall’s masterpiece and, even incomplete, illustrates his profound grasp of the medieval Gothic tradition. It is rich in architectural form and details and appears today as an astonishing blend of the domestic and the monastic, with brewery, bakery and laundry cheek-by-jowl with one of the most beautiful private chapels in England. The exact date for the start of building is uncertain, but by 1858 the clock tower had been completed, and by 1866 the main building had been roofed. In its heyday there were over 100 people of varying trades working on the site.

A 1904 Postcard of the Lake William Leigh died in 1873. His son, also William Leigh (known locally as Squire Leigh) did not have his father’s religious vocation and he asked a number of architects, including Bucknall, to give advice about his father’s house. Many schemes were advanced, including recommendations to demolish and rebuild – advice which uncannily echoed A.W. Pugin’s original advice on Spring Park. No scheme was taken up, perhaps because the estate was now considered too small to support the original Mansion and funds for total rebuilding were too scarce. The only work of any significance to be carried out after Leigh’s death was the completion of the Drawing Room for a visit by Cardinal Vaughan in 1894.

The estate remained in the Leigh family until 1938. Vincent Leigh, Squire Leigh’s son, lived in part of the Mansion at the turn of the century whilst his sisters Blanche and Beatrice lived at Scar Hill, the lodge near the main gate. Blanche and Beatrice sold the estate to the Barnwood Trust, who intended to convert the Mansion into a mental home. But the house was somehow, once again, left undisturbed.

American/Canadian Tents in the ParkAfter 1938 the Park and its Mansion had a chequered history. American and Canadian troops used it as a base during the Second World War, constructing pontoon bridges over the lake in preparation for D-Day. In the 1950s the Mansion became a field study centre, but was not altered. After further changes of ownership Stroud District Council bought the Mansion, now classified as a Grade 1 Listed building, to save it from ruin. (English Heritage provided 75% of the £20,000 cost). Emergency repairs costing £30,000 were carried out, again aided by English Heritage. But heritage and conservation organisations considered the Mansion too expensive a project to undertake.

A shell exploding in the lakeIn 1988 the Woodchester Mansion Conservation Group was set up by local people, becoming a Charitable Trust in 1989. In 1992, as The Woodchester Mansion Trust, the new body signed a 99-year lease on the Mansion and 23 acres of pasture. The Trust is repairing the house, preserving it in its unfinished state with regular public access, and provides training in stonemasonry, conservation and architecture, with courses for students and the general public. It is the only on-site training opportunity nationally for students of stonemasonry.

The Heritage Trust has set about the task of raising more than £5 million for repairs to complete its programme of conservation for the Mansion. With the help of an initial Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £815,000, the Trust has been able to complete the first three phases of restoration, including the repair of the Grand Staircase, essential works to the rainwater system and in 2003 the restoration of the West Range and Clock Tower.

 
First Broadcast: 21st June 2003

Peril in St.Pancras 2003 :: Grand Midland Hotel

Posted by admin as 2003

The Most Haunted team take on the Midland Grand Hotel live on April Fools Day.

History

In May 1865, (while the station was still being constructed), the Midland Railway Company launched a competition for the design of a 150 bed hotel, with eleven architects asked to submit their entries.
One of the architects, Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878), got completely carried away and submitted a grand plan bigger and far more expensive that the original specification.
But his bare-faced audacity paid off and he was awarded the contract – although the Directors of the Midland Railway immediately demanded some hefty cost cutting measures which included knocking off two floors of office accommodation and one floor level from the hotel.
The usual financial problems beset construction, causing delays in building the hotel with the eastern wing of the building not opening until 5 May 1873, with the rest following in Spring 1876. Altogether, the hotel fabric had cost £304,335, decoration and fittings £49,000 furnishings £84,000, adding up to a not-inconsiderable £437,335.
The completed building had used 60 million bricks and 9,000 tons of ironwork including polished columns of fourteen different British granites and limestones.
The Midland Grand soon acquired an excellent reputation as an upmarket, 300-room hotel, charging 14 shillings (70p) a night in 1879 – only six pence (2.5p) more than the luxurious and famed Langham in Portland Place, W1.
Inside, the fixtures and fittings throughout the hotel were to a very high standard with Gillow (now Waring and Gillow) being closely involved in providing furniture and furnishings.
The building included many innovative features including hydraulic ‘ascending chambers’, concrete floors, revolving doors and a fireproof floor construction.
The Victorian decor was rich, lavish and expensive, with suites of rooms decorated with gold-leafed walls and a blazing fire in every room.
But the hotel was built before the time of en suite bathrooms, requiring an army of servants to scuttle around the 300 rooms, laden with tubs, bowls, spittoons and chamber pots.
The hotel managed to prosper until after the first world war, but even the Moroccan coffee house and in-house orchestra couldn’t protect the hotel from the country-wide decline in the hotel trade.

The Midland Grand was taken over by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1922, before closing in 1935 – its facilities were outdated and it had become too expensive to run and refurbish. Now renamed St Pancras Chambers, the premises settled down to a somewhat less glamourous existence as railway office.
The building survived the bombing raids of the Second World War but found itself threatened with complete demolition in the 1960s.
Thankfully, this incredible building was saved from being swept away, and was awarded Grade 1 listed status in recognition of its importance as an example of high Victorian Gothic architecture.
In the 1980s, the building failed its fire certificate and was closed down, remaining empty ever since.
In the mid nineties, the exterior of the building was restored to its original condition and made structurally sound and weatherproof, at a cost of around £10 million (paid for by British Rail and English Heritage).
Some restoration work continues to take part, while the entire site around St Pancras is being dug up as work on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link continues.
Although the interior of the building has suffered badly at the hands of corporate vandalism, much of the original decoration, including stencilling, mosaics and ornamental ceilings, survives.

 
First Broadcast: 1st April 2003