Ghosts of Grantham House
One of Grantham's oldest buildings is home to an amazing array of hauntings.
One of Grantham's oldest buildings is home to an amazing array of hauntings.
Grantham House, in Castlegate, has been remodelled and added to on numerous occasions since it was first built in 1380 – and the historic building is host to a number of mysterious phenomena.
%%Could not get body element policy for VersionedContentId(1.9800.UNDEFINED)The building is now owned by the National Trust, and tenant Alistair Kerr wants to find out more about the history of the apparitions thought to inhabit his home.
%%Could not get body element policy for VersionedContentId(1.9799.UNDEFINED)The Journal's resident Ghost Hunter Nik Stevens is keen to find out about Grantham's ghoulies and will be visiting haunted places as part of our ongoing paranormal investigation.
These are the ghouls that have been encountered at Grantham House.
Don't have nightmares...
The grey lady
Several grey ladies have been seen in various locations in Grantham – including Grantham House.
Alistair said: "She passes through a gothic doorway that leads from Grantham House gardens into Castlegate opposite St Wulfram's Church.
"Since she does so without opening the door, it is fairly clear that she is a ghost.
"She wears an ankle-length dress that stands out from her body. This could be almost any period from the Tudors to 1914.
"However people who see her find her frightening, partly because when she turns to
look at the beholder, she appears to have no
face.
"She has been seen by several serving and former staff members."
The General
General Sir Brian Wyldbore-Smith, a former tenant of Grantham House, had a favourite sitting-room, now called 'The General's Room'.
Alistair said: "No-one now living in the house smokes, but from time to time the room is suffused with delicious cigar
smoke or the fragrance of Balkan Sobranie pipe tobacco.
"Sometimes dogs in the house can be seen to follow an invisible person with their eyes, who descends the staircase and goes into the General's Room.
"Robert, the resident
terrier, has been seen to go to greet his invisible friend."
The haunted room
A roomM on the top storey of Grantham House is said to be haunted, but nothing is known of the origins of the phenomenon.
Alistair said: "This is a bedroom where some people, but not all, feel a chilly and frightening atmosphere. We are not sure why the room is haunted, but there is a tradition that a tragedy occurred when Grantham House was briefly used as a girls' school. The school closed after only a few years, following the tragic death of the headmistress. She fell to her death from an upper window and we believe that the haunted room is the most likely candidate."
The skeleton
In about 1890 a skeleton was found interred in the walls of the property.
Alistair said: "This
could account for an odd atmosphere in some of
the rooms and parts of the garden.
"Every attempt was made to hush it up, but the police did not treat it as a suspicious death. They thought that the bones
had been there for 200 years or more."
The lady who likes music
A mysterious ghostly lady who is believed to like the music of Percy Grainger last appeared in the Great Hall in 2006.
Alistair said: "This cultured ghost appears during recitals in the Great Hall. For some reason she only shows herself to other ladies. She stands smiling near the piano during the concert and disappears at the end."
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Sunday 01 August 2010
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