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Ghost of Mote Park. Kent

by Ghostly Admin on May 14, 2012 in Haunted Houses, Kent with 9 Comments
mote_park

Mote Park is a 180 hectare multi-use public park in Maidstone, Kent. Previously a country estate it was converted to landscaped park land at the end of the 18th century before becoming a municipal park. It includes the former stately home Mote House

Reports by members of the public state that on several occasions a a little girl in a white dress has been witnessed late at night running around and playing within the trees at the park.

With such interest in this story a Mr Elspass, who lives locally to the park took the time to write in and recount his own experience…

“One night, I had gone to visit a friend on the town centre side of the park, when I decided it was getting pretty late, and I should be getting home – it was about 1am. I was tired and decided to walk through the park in order to reach my house on the other side. The park used to be a private estate, owned by an Earl and his family for generations. In the very centre of the park, ontop of a hill, is the old Mote House, a great big Georgian manor house, which became an old peoples home after the park became public, but has long since been derelict and empty.

Walking along the path through the park, I climbed the hill to the house, and then began to descend the other side. As it starts to slope back down, there is a line of trees down one side of the path. As I was walking along this line of trees (which are spaced a fair distance apart), I looked over and – baring in mind it was pitch black – I could ever so slightly make out a pale area of light positioned in front of one of these trees.

Its hard to explain it, it wasn’t really a light in that it lit up the surrounding area, but I could just tell that there was something there that was light enough for it to stand out against the darkness of night.  I shrugged it off, thinking it was probably a plastic bag or something caught in the bushes at the base of the tree, and carried on. However, as it was a strange sight, I did not look away from it whilst walking past. I t was when I reached the other side of the tree, having now walked right past the tree, that I realised this light object couldn’t possibly be attached to the tree, as it had rotated around the trunk of the tree, so that no matter where I stood, this object was always positioned to the right of the tree trunk facing me.

Confused by this, I stopped walking and stood and just looked at it trying to figure out what it was. I don’t think it was my eyesight being bad before, but this object of plain “whiteness” changed as i stood there…whereas before all I saw was a light, paleness, I now could make out the outline of a little girl – no facial features or anything…just the outline of a girl, and something in my head said to me “there is no question, that is a girl standing there looking back at you”.

When I mentioned my experience to other people many I know agreed with me and said that they had seen a little girl in a white dress walking around the park before”

Have yo or anyone you know witnessed the same or something similar in Mote Park, if so we would love to read your story.

Chanctonbury Rings

by Ghostly Admin on May 2, 2012 in Haunted Houses, Sussex with No comments
chanctonbury-ring

Dominating the hilltop above the small village of Washington, which nestles gently in the South Downs National Park lies the ancient hill-fort of Chanctonbury Rings.

Commanding a strategic position from both a military and historical perspective, the hill-fort has had over the years many uses, including religious and sacrificial.

The Beech trees found at Chanctonbury were the life long dream of a 20 year old young man named Charles Goring. When he decided to plant the trees on top of the Chanctonbury hill-fort there was a public outcry, for it was believed the trees would spoil the landscape and the majestic view of the beautiful South Downs. Charles Goring died in 1829, reaching the grand age of 85 years old and, fortunately, he witnessed many of his trees reach maturity despite the public opposition.

As the Beech trees grew thought the years their roots disturbed a previously undiscovered ruins of a Romano-British temple buried on the site. An excavation was conducted in the early 1900′s, the results of which showed the site to be that of a temple with a court, which had sunken into the soil. Further excavations would reveal several finds of coins and other objects of worth dating back to Nero (54-68 AD) and Gratian (375-383 AD).  In addition to the Roman offering Anglo-Saxon coins have been also found, which suggests  the temple was of significant importance and of great spiritual value to both the early Romans and Saxons of Britain.

With this full and established history however comes many stories and tales of supernatural events that span the paranormal and supernatural realms. Chanctonbury Rings has become connected with ghosts, witchcraft, UFO’s, and paranormal forces. There have been several investigations in to the rings and one of the most informative came from the Ghost and Psychic Investigation Group.

In 1974 the Ghost and Psychic Investigation Group was formed in order further investigate the claims of supernatural and extraterrestrial phenomenon.

On the 24th August 1974 four members of the Ghost and Psychic Investigation Group, camped down for a night at Chanctonbury Rings, during the latter part of the evening a member of the group who walked through the centre of the Ring was lifted several feet off the ground by an unseen force. Witnessed by the other members, the gentleman in question was heard crying out ‘No More! No More!’  and was obviously in considerable pain. After several seconds he was dropped to the ground landing injuring his back.

Over the past 50 years and more there have been an large number of UFO sightings reported.  In most cases the sightings of UFO’s are nothing more than unidentified lights in the sky. But one particular reported case stands out from the rest.

On  31st October 1972. At around 10.45 pm,  Mr. Simpson of Worthing, West Sussex was out walking up to the Chanctonbury Rings with two friends. As they approached the rings they saw what they thought were flames from a bonfire flickering among the trees on hill top. As they drew closer however the light faded out and out of the blue a  loud noise was heard by the group above them and, looking up they saw a dull red glow emanating from a large object hanging in the evening sky over the tree tops.

Further information on the above event can be found  at Chanctonbury Rings – Mysterious Britain

Frendraught House. Aberdeen

by Ghostly Admin on December 25, 2011 in Aberdeenshire, Haunted Houses with No comments
Mysterious Fire at Frendraught House Aberdeen

The Ghost of Frendraught House – a fire that killed several members of one fraction.

Frendraught House lies about 6 miles (9 kilometres) to the east of Huntly in the centre  of the extensive Bognie estates. Its foundations date back to 1203, though additions were made to it as recently as the 1840′s. It’s main bulk – containing the inner walls is around 9 feet (2.7 metres) thick – was built between the 14th and 17th centuries when it was both a home and a fortress to the Crichton family.

During those three centuries the Crichtons, along with their cousins and neighbours the Gordons and Leslies, controlled the north-east of Scotland. They were often in embroiled in bloody feuds and disagreements.

In the spring of 1630 Frendraught was occupied by Sir James Crichton. He had made a good political marriage to Lady Elizabeth Gordon, eldest daughter of the Earl of Sutherland, and she took an active part in her husband’s continual disputes. As one Victorian commentator put it, she played a role somewhere between that of Medusa and Lady MacBeth.

The 1630 dispute over boundary lands was between Sir James Crichton and Gordon, Laird of Rothiemary. Sir James settled it in typical fashion by shooting Gorgdon dead. The Marquis of Huntly, the local High Sheriff who was himself a Gordon closely related to both sides, fined Sir James heavily. This ‘blood money’ was paid to the young John Gordon, the new Laird of Rothiemary, and honour seemed satisfied.

By midsummer, however, Sir James was fighting again, this time with Leslie of Pitcaple. Matters came to a head when Crichton shot Leslie through the arm with an arrow. Again the Marquis of Huntly heard the case and this time ruling in favour of Sir James. The wounded Leslie rode off in a fury, openly swearing revenge on the house of Crichtons. Sir James therefore took the precautions of assembling an armed party to escort him back to Frendraught. Surprisingly this armed party included young John Gordon of Rothiemary as well as the Marquis of Huntly’s son John Melgum Viscount Aboyne. The party arrived in the dusk of an October afternoon. Lady Crichton, perhaps relived to see her husband home safe and well, pressed  even the unloved Gordon kin to stay the night. The guests were put in the old tower.

Lor Melgum was given a room separated from the upper story by a wooden staircase. John Gordon of Rothiemary was on the second floor, and the other guests and servants were above him. Spalding a contemporary chronicler , tells what happened: ‘ About midnight that dolours tower took fire in so sudden and furious manner, and in one clap, that noble Viscount, the Laird of Rothiemary, English Will, Colonel Ivat and others, servants, were cruelly burned and tormented to death’

Death by Design

An event of this magnitude cast shadows far beyond north-east Scotland, and the Privy Council in Edinburgh became involved, setting up a commission of bishops and neutral peers to investigate. The commission sat at Frendraught House on the 13th April 1631. The Bishops merely declared that the ‘fire could not have happened accidentally but designedly.’ There the mystery of the fire remains unsolved to his very day. However, local opinion of the time laid the blame squarely on Lady  Frendraught. An anonymous ballad written a few months after the fire said of Rothiemary’s final moments.

When he stood at the wire window
Most doleful to be seen
He did espy the Lady Frendraught
Who stood upon the green.
And mercy, mercy Lady Frendraught
Will ye not sink with sin
For first your husband kilt my farther
And now ye burn his son.
Oh, then it spake Lady Frendraught
And loudly did she cry
It was great pity for Lord John
But none for Rothiemary
But the keys are sunk in deep
draw well, Ye cannot get away.

To the Marquis of Huntly there was only one way to avenge the death of his son. Laying aside his High Sheriff’s impartiality, he recruited a small army of highlanders and raided Frendraught, carrying off 60 cattle and several dozen sheep.

Crichton appealed to Edinburgh, and the privy council came down in his favour. Huntly was fined and Sir James received damages.

Despite their vindication by the Privy Council, both Sir James and his Lady seemed changed by the terrible fire. Three years afterwards he gave a silver chalice, said to have been one of 11 brought north by Mary Queen of Scots, to nearby kirk at Forgue. Today the chalice, the oldest know piece of hallmarked silver in Scotland, lies in a bank vault at Huntly.

Lady Frendraught, took her three daughters and went to live as a recluse at Kinnairdy on the River Deveron. Born a Catholic she was excommunicated  when she signed the Solemn League and Covenant supporting the Presbyterian-ism. Turning back to her old faith, she was rebuffed ‘I refuse absolutely to see her’ wrote Father Blackhall, ‘because she was suspected to be guilty of the death of Lord Abboyne…’ When she died, it was without benefit of clergy, on an unrecorded date. She was buried with her husband in an unmarked grave.

Recent Times

‘According to local opinion and the direct testimony of tenants, guests Frendraught is haunted by Lady Elizabeth Crichton, who is bound there because of her guilt. The recorded sightings of a ‘dark woman in white dress’ at Frendraught go back at least to the 18th century when a Victorian clergyman-writer claimed that the ghost had been seen in the house and among the great beeches around it.

The first modern sightings on record occurred in 1938 when the house stood empty and locked The Late William Thomas, former manager of Glendronough Distillary on the boarders of the Bognie estate was in his early teens at the time. One autumn afternoon he was out shooting crows behind the house. Looking up, he saw a pale face surrounded by dark hair, watching him from a window overlooking the courtyard. He called a keeper who also saw the ‘intruder’. Armed with their shotguns, the two broke in through the kitchen window and made their way through the house, searching from top to bottom. There was nobody there, and no sign of forcible entry but their own.

Nearly 10 years later, Mrs Yvonne Morrision encountered the ghost. It was October 28th I remember the date because my husband was away with the Canadian reserve Army and left the day before. I was completely alone in the kitchens in the basement of the house, the oldest part. Suddenly in the silence I heard footsteps coming down the staircase from the top of the house. I was terrified, but something made me go to the bottom of the stairs where they eventually entered the kitchen. I peered up into the darkness and remember thinking very strongly ‘Well, come on then, if you exist show yourself’ I may have even spoken this aloud. The sound of the footsteps stopped at the top of the stairs kitchen stairs and i saw and heard nothing else.

The footsteps where to heavy and clear to be that of a mouse or rat, in fact Mrs Morrison claimed that rats had never been seen in the building. ‘I knew all the creeks and groans of the old place It was none of these.’

Twice the Morrisions had guest who cut short their visits because of mysterious disturbances. On both occasions the guests were level headed people. One was an old army colleague who had been in the thick of the fighting with Mr Morrision during the Italian campaign. In both cases the stories of the separate guests matched in every detail despite that both sets of guests had never met. Mrs Morrision explains.
‘It was quite funny at first. The guests were a bit embarrassed and it became clear as they thought that my husband and I had a furious fight during the night. When we pointed out that the walls between to the two bedrooms was at least 8 feet (2.4 metres) thick and totally soundproof, they became alarmed. They said that they heard the most dreadful cries for help, with the sound of crashing, like heavy furniture being moved thrown about, and screams. They had been too terrified to investigate.

Several guests and subsequent tenants at Frendraught had described seeing a dark lady in white dress edged and decorated in gold. She was usually standing or walking on the main staircase or the back of the stairs.

Dower House, Besford Nr. Pershore

by Ghostly Admin on November 28, 2011 in Haunted Houses, Worcestershire with No comments
Does the Ghost of Widow haunted Dower House?

Besford is a small rural village, located in the county of Worcestershire, England.

According to local legend one the properties, dower house, is haunted by the the ghostly widow of an previous estate holder. Several witnesses have reported seeing intensely bright phantom lights and ghostly orbs moving in and around the outside walls of the building. Whilst other witnesses have described black shadows crossing the walls and outbuildings.

Reports by several occupants over the years have claimed an odd mist shape of a woman haunts several of the rooms in the building whilst a ghostly face has being seen looking through the window at those inside, perhaps this face belongs to the ghost of the dead dowager?

Bretherton Bank Hall, Lancashire

by Ghostly Admin on November 4, 2011 in Haunted Houses, Lancashire with 5 Comments
Bretherton Bank Hall Haunted?

Is Bretherton Bank Hall haunted by the ghostly figure of a woman walking her dog?

Bretherton Bank Hall stands by the River Douglas in the Lancashire village of Bretherton, 9 miles from Preston, 25 from Liverpool. Tarleton, Croston and Hoole are nearest villages and towns. From Tarleton the Bretherton Bank Hall  can be reached via Bank Bridge which carries the A59 over the Douglas and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.

Immediately you cross the busy bridge you will see the lodge and it’s gates nestling beneath the huge beech tree. Coming from Hoole, also on the A59, your imminent approach will take you past Carr House, a fine Elizabethan farmhouse, and the 18th century windmill. From Bretherton the route is altogether more tranquil, along a country lane dotted with only a handful of houses and along a Carriage Drive, a splendid tree lined avenue some 800 yards long. Whichever way we approach the hall we pass through the cloak of trees which hides it away from the outside world.

Not the most well known building in the country, it is, nevertheless one of the most beautiful and interesting. Yet one could pass by every day and be unaware of its existence, the lofty chimneys and the remnants of the clock tower only faintly glimpse over the tree tops. Indeed, only the lodge gives a clue to the fact that there, behind the pines and past the huge sixty metre barn lies a veritable jewel.

Bank Hall is now unoccupied. It has deteriorated to a very poor reflection of its former glory. Gone are the lime trees which flanked the drive to the front door. Gone are the stone lions that faithfully stood guard. The giant cedar with its huge spreading branches no longer casts its graceful shadow over the pleasure grounds. The tall chimneys have become overgrown with ivy, which has now claimed more than half of the building. The majestic clock tower has lost its northerly elevation which has fallen into the stairwell below, crashing through the seventeenth-century oak staircase. Dry rot has penetrated the fabric of the building with whole sections of the floor falling down and rain pouring through gaping holes in the roof.

Despite the devastation that time and neglect has brought to the great house, it still retains an air of distinction and the very nature of its ruinous state adds to the mystique that encompasses the entire site. In the solitude of early morning, shrouded in mist, the rocks call from their look out in the tower. What events have taken place in the centuries of Bank Halls’ existence? What changes has it witnessed in the conditions of English rural life?

Bank Hall belongs to a period very different to ours, a time of servants and gardeners, butlers and coachmen. Such vast houses had no place after The Great War and gradually became left to dereliction and decay, owner and local authority alike unable to halt the decline. Perhaps it is due to the concealed and veiled nature of Bank Hall that so little appears to be commonly known about the details of its history. Indeed, most people from Leyland or Chorley, for example, would be at a loss to answer the question “Where is Bank Hall?” even though it is little more than five miles from either.
Bank Hall is a two-and-a-half storey brick built house with roofs of Cumbrian slate standing in formerly ornamental parkland. It has a north-facing entrance front and south-facing garden front.

The earliest identifiable phase of the present building dates from the early 17th century and is characterised by brick work in English garden wall bond. The ground consists of a four-bay hall with a parlour to the west and wing containing two rooms to the east.

Probably in the second quarter of the 17th century a four-storey stair tower was added in the re-entrant angle of the hall and wing. This retains it original open well staircase. An addition east of the south end of the wing and incorporating a ground floor room, may be contemporary with the stair tower.

In1832-33 the house was extensively remodelled, probably by the Kendal-based architect, George Webster, in an early example of 19th-century Jacobean style. The main entrance porch on the north side, a drawing room wing at the west end, extensive service accommodation at the east and probably the north wing, were all added in this phase. At the same time the south, or garden front was considerably altered. The angle formed by the 17th century house and the west wing was infilled in the late-19th century.

There have been reports that a woman in a white dress has been spotted walking her dog in the distance from the gates of the Bretherton Bank Hall.
Its is said she and her pet vanish without a trace the moment you take your eyes off her.

Other reports from Bretherton Bank Hall  include the whispering of peoples names in visitors ears when no one else is close.

Bretherton Bank Hall Website

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