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Harlaxton The Many Hauntings of Harlaxton Manor


Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel "The Haunting of Hill House" has been adapted to film a few times, the 1999 Jan de Bont adaptation with Liam Neeson, Catherine Zita Jones and Owen Wilson used Harlaxton Manor near Grantham in Lincolnshire for the exterior shots. Harlaxton is a house which is itself believed to be haunted.

Built by Gregory Gregory (1786-1854) the current Harlaxton Manor replaces a 14th century manor house formerly used as a hunting lodge by John of Gaunt, later purchased by Gregory's ancestor Daniel De Ligne. 

Sadly Daniel's first child died in a tragic accident. The death of the baby had been foretold to Daniel and his wife Elizabeth who did everything they could to prevent this tragedy. They employed a nursemaid to stay with the child at all times. The nurse did her best to obey her employers instructions but fell asleep whilst holding the babe who slipped out of her arms and into the fire. (Source: Mrs Delves Broughton "Beautiful Homes: Harlaxton Manor, Lincolnshire, The Ladies Field", March 10th 1906). 

Despite the fact that the current house is built on a different site to the house where the baby died its screams can allegedly be heard in Harlaxton Manor.

Other paranormal activity, footsteps, the smell of cigar smoke, the feeling that someone is walking behind you, the sound of something hitting the wall, objects being moved, is often attributed to Violet Van Der Elst who renovated the Manor house in the 1930's.


The Van Der Elst room, pictured above, which was exorcised by Jesuits during their tenure of the property, was a favourite of Violet's, it's believed this is the room where she held seances and kept her collection of occult books.

Harlaxton Manor is currently owned by the University of Evansville and does have occasional open days. 

Images: 

Harlaxton at sunset: Anna R Matthews, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The Van Der Elst room: © Copyright Richard Croft and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

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