03/01/2025
What places would you love to investigate!
For me it's pendle hill (obviously ) and Beaulie Abbey.
Growing up nearby it was a place we visited alot! I always said it was haunted..
I didn't like the ruins very much as a child!
When I visited with my own kids I asked questions the staff said some staff say it's haunted and shared their experiences (I've watched the most haunted episode) but I'm still curious!
There are various stories relating to Beaulieu Abbey and its surroundings being haunted.
1) Palace House is thought to be haunted by a Grey Lady, possibly Lady Isabella who dates from the 18th century.
2) Ghostly Gregorian chanting has been reported in the Abbey. One witness, Mrs Elizabeth Varley stated “I was sitting by the window of my room quite late at night when I heard it. It was very clear and quite loud enough for me to pick up the notes of the chant. I thought perhaps it was the gipsies living in the forest, but when I sang the tune the next day to someone staying in the house the recognised it as a Gregorian chant.”
3) Incense has been smelt in Palace House, within rooms that used to be chapels.
4) Brown clad apparitions of monks have been seen in the Domas which is now used for exhibitions.
5) In ‘Phantoms Legends, Customs and Superstitions Of The Sea’ (1972), Raymond Lamont Brown gives the following account of ghostly monks thought to be from Beaulieu Abbey. ‘One afternoon in July 1937, three local boys Colin Hillman, Roy Jenvey and Ben Ham were out fishing in a dinghy in the Solent. As the boys made for home the strong cross-currents carried them off course. By this time it had started to rain heavily and the boys decided to make for the nearest point on the shore in order to shelter. Eventually they beached the boat and found shelter in a disused boat-house. Close on midnight the weather had worsened. An hour later the boys had become restless and Roy Jenvey opened the boathouse door to see if there was any improvement in the weather. As he watched the rain slanting across the beach, he caught sight of a rowing boat making for the shore.
The three boys watched as five hooded men stepped out of the boat. The men, dressed in the white habit of monks, filed away up the beach in the direction of Beaulieu Abbey. At dawn when it had faired the boys examined the shore where they had seen the monks land; there was no trace of a boat, nor of any footprints in the sand. Later, as the story was retold to parents and friends, no-one could offer a logical explanation for what the boys had seen.
What places from your childhood would you investigate if you got the chance?
Tanya
