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House of Horrors

Posted by Catherine Deshayes on Friday, January 02, 2009

According to paranormal experts, the UK has more ghosts and ghouls per square mile than any other country in the world. TheMoveChannel.com investigates whether having a resident ghost affects the value of a property...

Estate agents and sellers aren't obliged to tell you that a property is rumoured to be haunted, so if you want to be sure that you won't be sharing your new home with the ghosts of its former tenants, you need to ask the right questions.

Whenever there's uncertainty about a house, its contents and structure, it could detract from its saleability and might adversely affect the value.

If you own a house that's haunted and are concerned that supernatural goings on could put off buyers, you could always try to get rid of your ghostly problem.

Ralph Keeton of www.exorcisms.co.uk says he has seen a surge in the number of homeowners asking for their properties to be exorcised.

His ‘modern approach' sees him treating ghosts as individuals, and his technique involves sitting down with them for a chat. Some of his exorcisms are finished in 20 minutes.

Some brave souls are keen to experience ghostly goings on, and there are websites dedicated to haunted UK holiday locations.

Visit www.english-inns.co.uk/HauntedInns.htm to find a list of locations, such as the Elizabethan Talbot Hotel in Oundle, Northamptonshire which is said to be haunted by the ghost of Mary Queen of Scots.

The oak staircase and other parts of the building were brought from the ruins of Fotheringhay Castle and it was down these steps that Mary walked to her execution.

Knebworth House

Knebworth House in Hertfordshire is today best known for its rock concerts and social events, but in a previous life it was probably a Saxon settlement.

The Domesday spelling in 1085 is ‘Chenepeworde', meaning ‘village on the hill', but another more romantic interpretation is ‘Cnebba's camp' suggesting that Knebworth was formerly the home of Cnebba, the fifth-century Saxon prince.

In 1500, Sir Robert Lytton, who had purchased Knebworth for £800, began to build a new house and courtyard onto the fifteenth-century gatehouse.

The house was described by Sir Henry Chauncy in 1700 as "a large pile of brick with a fair quadrangle in the middle of it, seated upon a dry hill, in a fair large park, stocked with the best deer in the country, excellent timber and well wooded and from thence you may behold a most lovely prospect to the East."

In 1843, it was transformed by the famous novelist, Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, into the gothic fantasy you see today, with turrets, griffins and gargoyles. Successive generations of the family have moulded the house to their own requirements, and descendents of the Lytton family still live there today.

Knebworth has a number of legends and ghost stories. Sir Edward had an avid interest in the occult, and held regular séances in the house.

The house is said to be haunted by the noise of spinning, said to originate from a spirit called Spinning Jenny who was locked away in a room to keep her from a local lover. Sir Edward was so entranced by Jenny's story, that he wrote a book about it in 1857, called ‘The Haunted and the Haunters.'

Jenny was imprisoned in the tower bedroom in the house's east wing (which is no longer standing), with nothing to do except spin yarn for cloth.

It is believed that she was locked up by one of the villagers as she was pregnant with his child, or to safeguard her from an admirer. Locals will say that Jenny went mad and died in her room. Since her death, the sound of a spinning wheel can be heard in the halls at Knebworth, and legend has it the sound of the spinning means the death of one of the members of the Lytton family is near.

Some say that Sir Edward's ghostly presence has also been felt in the house since his death, mainly in the study area and in the drawing room, although he has never been seen. Today, Knebworth House hosts ghost tours each Halloween.

Hatfield House

Nearby Hatfield House is the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth 1st and it is here that she learnt that Mary was dead and that she was now queen. The house, set in a park near to St Etheldreda's church in the old part of Hatfield, and is said to be haunted by her ghost, and a phantom coach and horses that floats up the driveway, through the doors and up the stairs.

Highgate Cemetery

The cemetery on Swains Lane in Highgate is the final resting place of around 850 famous people, from Karl Marx to George Eliot. When burial conditions in London became intolerable in the early 19th Century, Parliament authorised the creation of seven private Cemeteries within the periphery of inner London. Highgate was opened in 1839 (the West Cemetery) and extended in 1854 (the East Cemetery).

In 1975 it had ceased to be financially viable and the owners closed down the West Cemetery, keeping the newer, East Cemetery, open. The main buildings had become dilapidated and the landscape choked with brambles and self sown sycamores.

The Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust was formed to help restore it, and in 1981 the freehold of both parts of the Cemetery was acquired. English Heritage help to fund the upkeep of the cemetery, and all major buildings and several memorials have been conserved or restored, and the Cemetery is listed by English Heritage as of ‘outstanding historical and architectural interest,' and it is also now listed as a Grade II Park.

It has been said that Highgate has the finest collection of Victorian funerary architecture in the country.

The gothic architecture on show at this Victorian necropolis is eerie enough but in the late 1960's, rumours circulated of a tall, dark figure with hypnotic red eyes terrorising visitors. Some declared the figure to be a vampire.

Today, The Friends of Highgate Cemetery run tours of both sides of the cemetery, although the eastern section can be explored unaccompanied. Admission to the more atmospheric western side is by guided tour only.

Picture by winkyintheuk

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