Seasonal Spooks

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Ever since the days of Dickens and M R James, the fictional ghost story has been associated with Christmas. JOHN STOKER discovers that many ghosts started this tradition themselves, choosing to haunt many locations in the UK at Yuletide and New Year.

On December 19, 1843, Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol, a book which was destined to become the world’s most famous ghost story. Dickens was no stranger to the paranormal, although he loathed spiritualism, and tales of ghosts had appeared in many of his works, such as The Pickwick Papers.

It really isn’t surprising that Ebenezer Scrooge should have been visited by ghosts on Christmas Eve as this particular night can boast more spectral apparitions than any other night of the year, even Hallowe’en.

Many Christmas haunts are the result of events which happened on this very night, such as events at the Shipwright’s Arms in Faversham in the 19th century. That particular night had been a stormy one and a vessel had run aground on the Kentish coast. The captain of the ship was washed up on the shore and managed to stagger to the inn, where he beat repeatedly on the door. But the landlord, thinking some of his customers had returned for another drink, refused to leave his bed.

On Christmas morning the door was opened to reveal the captain’s frozen body. The sailor may have failed in his attempt to enter the inn, but his ghost has no such problems. The phantom has been seen in the bar, usually preceded by the smell of tobacco and rum. One landlady woke up one night to see the captain glaring at her from the foot of her bed and another landlord found himself sleeping with the ghost.
Another tragedy which is said to have occurred on Christmas Eve was the destruction of a Shropshire village just south of Shrewsbury. Many of the villagers had rejected Christianity and had returned to worshipping the old gods. But following many days of rain, a flood swept away the entire village and consigned both homes and church to the bottom of what is now Bomere Pool. Anyone crossing the lake on Christmas Eve can listen out for the Sanctus Bell which sounds deep beneath its waters.

Bells sound for a more protective reason at Dewsbury Parish Church in Yorkshire. One of the bells is named after the murderer Sir Thomas de Soothill who wished to atone for his crimes by donating it to the church. It is now rung on Christmas Eve for the exact number of years since Christ’s birth in order to protect the parishioners from the Devil himself. All will be well as long as the bell-ringing ends before midnight.

Church and clergy

For the clergy Christmas Eve is the busiest night of the year and for some not even death can prevent them from continuing to shepherd their flocks. The Reverend Nathaniel Templeman, rector of St Peter’s Church in Dorchester, died in 1813 and his body was interned in the church itself. He was a strict cleric and kept an eye on the conduct of his congregation.

On Christmas Eve of the following year two wardens were decorating the church and when they were finished their thoughts turned to the ample supply of communion wine in the vestry. As they sat on the pews downing the drink they suddenly felt that they were not alone. They looked up to see the figure of the dead clergyman walking towards them with his hands raised and a terrible look on his face. He seemed to be yelling at them but no sound came from his mouth. One of the wardens collapsed and the other fell to his knees and prayed. The spectre then moved towards the altar and vanished.

The ghostly cleric still makes appearances to this day as does the spectre of a monk at Strata Florida in Ceredigion, Mid Wales, who is seen in the ruins of the abbey on Christmas Eve attempting to rebuild an altar.

Seasonal terror was also in store for three girls who sneaked into a churchyard in North Leigh in Oxfordshire after being told of a Christmas Eve ritual which would reveal the faces of their future husbands. The ritual required a handful of hempseed to be thrown over the shoulder while reciting the words:

“Hemp-seed I scatter, hemp-seed I sow;
He that is my true love, come after me
and mow.”

The first girl was unsuccessful, saw nothing and died a spinster. The second girl had a vision of a coffin and died a few months later. The third girl decided that predicting the future was not for her and ran from the churchyard warning others to leave the ritual well alone.

Another mystery surrounds two lines in the poem Grantchester by Rupert Brooke who wrote:

“And things are done you’d not believe
At Madingley on Christmas Eve.”

Brooke never explained the meaning of these lines but they refer to Madingley Hall in Cambridgeshire which Sir John Hynde began building in 1543. Following Sir John’s death in 1550 the house was completed by his son Francis who ransacked St Ethelreda’s Church in Histon and used the wood and stone as building materials for his new structure. He also sold the lead from the roof of the church as well as the bells.

His mother, Lady Ursula, was horrified by this action and on Christmas Eve her ghost can be seen walking from the Hall to a nearby church as she wrings her hands in fury. A ghostly party is sometimes glimpsed as well as a young man with a skull for a face.

Out and about

Christmas Eve would also seem to be a night favoured by ghosts for travelling. At Roos Hall in Beccles a spectral coach driven by a headless coachman and pulled by four headless horses has been seen. Nobody knows who the coach is supposed to collect, but the Devil’s footprint has been found in a brick in one of the bedrooms and a window refuses to stay locked.

Another ghostly coach carries Abigail Marston through the Essex village of High Lever, comes to a halt at where her house once stood and then vanishes. Anne Boleyn also makes a seasonal journey at Hever in Kent as she crosses a bridge across the Eden.

George Napier is another phantom who travels with a purpose. He was a priest who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Crown and was executed and dismembered in 1610. Parts of his body were returned to his village of Sandford-on-Thames but no one could find his head. So on Christmas Eve George Napier sets out in his coach looking for his head. Anyone who sees him risks death. A farmer had a glimpse of the coach and died the following year as did two other men who braved the sight of the long dead priest.

A ghostly horseman, Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville, who was excommunicated for his sins by the Pope and denied a Christian burial, has been seen to gallop through Oak Hill Park in East Barnet. He then rides towards the local church and vanishes through the wall.

Ghoul-tide

Christmas Eve also marks the start of a seasonal haunt at Sandringham which would appear to be centred round the servants’ quarters. Poltergeist activity is rife with lights being switched on and off, the sound of ghostly footsteps and Christmas cards being moved around. Heavy breathing has been heard to come from an unused room which some of the staff have refused to enter. A strange shape has also been seen and the haunt continues through the holiday period.

Sandringham is not the only royal residence to be haunted. Major John Gwynne was Private Secretary to King Edward VII and involved in a divorce scandal. Realising that he had now been cast out of society, Major Gwynne went to his first-floor office at Buckingham Palace and put a bullet through his head. On Christmas Day the sound of the fatal gunshot can be heard in the Palace. Edward VII’s mistress, the actress Lillie Langtry, also appears on this day at the Cadogan Hotel where she has been seen in the dining room which used to be her private quarters.

At the ruins of Verdley Castle at Fernhurst in Sussex the ghost of the last wild bear to be seen in England appears on Christmas Day. An Australian television crew went in search of the spectral animal but were unable to find it, having made their visit in July! A ghostly game of Shinty is played near the church in Dalarossie near Inverness. A number of the villagers played a match when Christmas Day fell on the Sabbath and they were forever cursed to replay the match once a year.

The church of St John the Baptist in Boughton Green, Northamptonshire, has a unique Christmas ghost. It is either the spectre of a beautiful woman or a handsome man depending on the gender of the witness. The ghost asks for a kiss but whoever obliges the phantom is doomed to die within the month. William Parker kissed a red-headed girl in the churchyard at Christmas in 1875 and suffered such a fate.

A young French governess met her end in the same century not long after she had been engaged to teach the children of the Petre family at Dunkenhalgh Hall in Lancashire. She fell pregnant to a visiting army officer and after he abandoned her she flung herself from a bridge into a nearby river. At Christmas she returns in the shroud she was buried in.

The dying year

As the New Year approaches ghosts are on the move again. On December 29, the spectre of Thomas Becket passes through the Devonshire village of Lapford in search of the knights who murdered him. On the same date a knight in full armour visits Kemsing Church in Kent to pray at the altar. New Year’s Eve sees a phantom coach driven by a headless coachman visiting the Molesworth Arms at Wadebridge in Cornwall. Some have seen it while others only hear the sound of hooves and the clatter of the vehicle, and at Bradgate Park in Leicestershire a headless Lady Jane Grey arrives in a coach pulled by four headless black horses.

This is also the night on which the Devil claims souls. Ranworth Old Hall in Norfolk was the home of Colonel Thomas Sydney who was challenged to a horse race on New Year’s Eve, 1770. The Colonel, seeing that his competitor was winning, shot the man’s horse and its rider died from a broken neck. Later that night the Colonel held a seasonal celebration and to his horror was joined by the Devil himself who carried him off the Colonel on a black horse which galloped across Ranworth Broad, its hooves raising steam as they hit the water. Each year the ghostly image is replayed.

The Isle of Wight is one of the most haunted places in Britain and at Knighton Gorge many of the islanders gather on New Year’s Eve in the hope of seeing the spectral appearance of a mansion which was demolished many years ago. All that remains of the house are two gateposts but on the last night of the year the mansion is said to reappear together with its inhabitants. Not many people have seen the house but others say that they have witnessed strange lights, experienced poltergeist activity and even glimpsed a phantom coach and horses.

At midnight on New Year’s Eve the ghost of London’s most infamous serial killer, Jack the Ripper, has been seen throwing himself off Westminster Bridge into the icy waters of the Thames. Some Ripperologists have pointed out that one of the chief suspects for the killings, Montague Druitt, also drowned himself in the river and his body was recovered on December 31.

A short distance away is Westminster Abbey and the tomb of Charles Dickens. The great writer had always wanted to be buried in Rochester and this could be why his ghost has been seen on Christmas Eve strolling between the tombstones in the Kentish town he loved. Then just before midnight he checks his watch by the Corn Exchange clock as he welcomes in the season he always loved.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under Ghosts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.