The beautiful, warm sunny day today has drawn scores of visitors to Ashdown House and Park. The woods are at their best with rich autumn colours and although the house is open for a final time on Saturday October 31st, the park and estate will remain open all through the winter.
Saturday is, of course, Halloween, and if you are planning to visit I recommend the 4.15pm tour. By then the light will be starting to fade and as you walk through the woods at dusk and see the shadow of the house creeping across the lawns it will be all to easy to believe the stories of hauntings at Ashdown. The wind in the trees and the birds calling in the twilight can sound like the plaintive cries of the child who is said to haunt the woods. The long shadows of the stable hide the beams where a groom is said to have hanged himself in Victorian times.
I've had a number of paranormal experiences in my life but two of the nicest (in the sense that they weren't frightening!) happened to me at Ashdown. They were also two of the most convincing since they were witnessed by other people too, amongst them my ever-sceptical husband!
The first occasion was when we were taking the photograph that appears at the top of this blog, the partial eclipse of the moon one night over the roof of Ashdown House. We were standing on Alfred's Castle, in itself a compellingly atmospheric site. There was no one in the house and no lights were on. All the windows were shuttered. And yet as we stood there watching the full moon rise and the eclipse take a bite out of it, we both thought that we saw the figure of a woman standing in an upstairs window watching us.
The second time that the ghosts of Ashdown past sent a shiver down my spine, we were on a bat walk in the woods at night. About ten of us had gone out to look for bats and listen to their high-pitched calls as they hunted through the woods. We had seen the barn owls as well, hunting their prey along the rides, and as we walked back down the North Avenue the house was ahead of us. Again, there was no one there, no lights on and it was locked up for the night. Yet as we walked towards it we saw a soft golden light like candle or lamplight shining behind the windows of the first floor, and as we all watched, the light moved up the stairs to the next landing and we saw the shadow of a woman. As we drew near the house the light faded away and we were all taken aback to see that again the windows were all closed with the shutters, so how could it have been possible for us to see a light inside?
9 comments:
Oh, that's done it. You've got me all shivery now.
Sounds gorgeous, one day I will manage to visit...
Love your ghost stories, it's this type that are so much more convincing to me, I have had experiences a bit like this myself at the castle.
I'm glad you both liked them! Most of the ghostly experiences I've had have been relatively low-key things (apart from seeing the cavalier!) but they still send the shivers down my spine. I'm not surprised that you have had similar, Alison. Castle Fraser must be hoaching with ghosts!
On a related topic I see that Coombe Abbey, another Craven property, was in the papers on Saturday offering Halloween Ghost tours. I'll post up the details at some point but they referred to the "curse of the Cravens" whereby a "green-eyed stable hand called Martha" apparently cursed the lords of the manor when she was betrayed by one of them. The curse states that no heir will outlive his mother. As it says in the paper, some haven't. But - and I don't want to sound too sceptical here - surely a curse is all-encompassing or it's not a curse, just co-incidence??? or am I just a spoilsport?
Me and my grandad had many experiences at ashdown house.My grandad saw many spirits as his time of gamekeeper.i saw only one at keepers cottage (up the lane where I was born) this really interests me.
Thanks for your comment, Kelly. How fascinating that you and your grandfather have both seen ghosts at Ashdown. It feels like a very ancient place where you can sense the presence of the past.
I was a student at Ashdown Park in the 1970s and I saw ghosts. They were nuns, which makes sense since it was a convent at one time. It was in the rooms we used dorms. I believe they were the rooms the nuns used as bedrooms. I saw at least four nuns. I mainly saw their shoes and their skirts. They seemed friendly enough. I only saw them that one time.
How interesting, Jeanne. I've never heard of nuns there but as it was a religious site for a while that does make sense! I'm glad they were friendly...
I had a funny experience many years ago in late 80s. I was sent there to do some temporary secretarial work. As I sat in the office typing other staff were telling me lots of spooky stories - doors opening on their own, places where night watchman dogs don't like, guests fleeing in the night being strangled by ghostly nuns hands. They said nobody liked going down to the East Wing as there was a creepy feeling of being watched. I said boldly, almost to convince myself, "I'll go the East Wing - I'm not afraid of ghosts they are afraid of me"! At that very moment a loud shrill sound made us jump out of our skins. It was the fire alarm. We all traped out - fire brigade came. Eventually the fire officer said, "it's safe to go back in, there's no fire but the smoke detector was set off in the East Wing".
I have never forgotten that.
What a great story! I love it when things like that happen, as though to tell us not to be complacent about all the things we don't know or understand...
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